Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: third person from both hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? plot
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: It takes a bit – about 8% or chapter 4
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, one month later
Format: read an e-book version through kindle unlimited – the author also has sent me a paperback version of this book
Why I chose this book: I have enjoyed Pascarella’s historicals and recently read the prequel novella, Emily’s Unmasking, and wanted more in the series.
Mains: This is a M/F relationship between a cishet hero and heroine

Should I read in order?
I think it’s okay to start here, but you can also grab Emily’s Unmasking (right now through Pascarella’s website)

Basic plot:
A beleaguered bow street runner runs into an instant attraction at a mascarade.

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency – 1818
- Bow Street Runner hero
- mistaken identity
- masquerade
- heroine nurses hero to health
- animal loving heroine
- full figured heroine
- class difference – she’s the daughter of a marquess, he’s a bow street runner
- evil stepmother (some Snow White and Cinderella vibes mixed)
- instalust elements
- medium steam – 2 full scenes, a shorter scene, a partial and some kisses

Ages:
- heroine is 22, hero is 27

First line:
‘Twas as if a creeping spider inched its way over Hugh Feltcher’s skin as the hair on the back of his neck sprang to attention.

My thoughts:
I have really been loving Pascarella’s mix of steam, humor, and fun plotlines – she has gone a touch darker in this novel with an even more intense villainess figure.

I struggle with villains, and I want my characters together all the time (I know, but I want what I want) so I have liked other books by her a touch more. This is also because this particular villain shares a lot of characters with a real life villain I had. And it makes me angry 😂

But I found myself loving these mains so much. Their love was adorable and their desire to explore each other was palpable and I was just rooting so hard for them to be together and they just kept having so much drama keep them apart! It was nice seeing another side of Alex and Emily’s story (which is the prequel novella, Emily’s Unmasking) and I am very curious where this series will go. I really love being in Pascarella’s characters heads. They are funny. And the way they work through things is just so relatable. I love it.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 7
Average rating: 4.71 stars
Favorite book: Emily’s Unmasking

Endearments

Heroine calls her ‘little glowworm’, ‘sweetheart’ and ‘firefly’. 

Quotes

Lord Nash stepped into the light. With his mask now in place, he brushed leaves from his exquisite tailcoat that was much too small for him.
“Thank heaves you are unharmed.” Dare she admit she thought he’d disappeared as if they were in some gothic ghost story?
He sauntered to her. “I am well, my lady.”
Why had she never noticed Lord Nash’s toe-curling baritone? Or that his shoulders were extremely broad? In stark contrast, his hips tapered in, giving him the physique of a warrior. She’d always thought his chin was a bit pointy. However, when wearing a mask, his jawline was chiseled to perfection.
Wait a dashed minute. Who was this well-built man in a too-tight coat, and where had he stashed Lord Nash?
---
Wait a minute. If he was her stepmother’s enemy, perchance he was her friend? What a pleasant though. Remaining concealed behind the wall of muscle, she called out, “Yes. I saw him.”
Her lover stiffened as he peered over his shoulder at her. What lovely blue eyes he had. Unfortunately, they morphed into little slits that contained hellfire. “Do not,” he growled at her.
Heavens, even his growl was appealing.
---
Just give more seconds of kissing, and then she would leave.
Make that ten more seconds.
To Beelzebub with that. Twenty seconds. She could do it.
 

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- evil step mother that attacks the heroine with serious verbal and mental abuse, slaps the hero, kisses the hero without consent, threatens and blackmails him
- brief mention of violence and violence against women (mention of hero getting involved in a fight when a man punches a woman in the face)
- parental illness
- there is a plot point where the hero is asked to find the heroine’s father’s bastards so I’d say a minor warning for feelings of infidelity as he was married while having children with other women
- threat of death and gun violence

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex aspects, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

Safe sex: 

  hero pulls out in the first scene. I assume in the epilogue sex he doesn’t but it isn’t specifically mentioned 

How’s the consent? 

  first kiss is maybe dubious – at a masquerade the hero demands heroine kiss him to hide their presence. She says no, but he does so anyway – we are in the heroine’s POV and know that she is enjoying it and wants more. And the rest is definitely all consensual – she pursues. I’d also like to note there’s a nonconsensual kiss between the heroine’s stepmother and the hero 

Pregnancy/children in story? 

  No children or pregnancy in the story, but the ending implies future children with a nursery 

8% - kiss outside at the masquerade
33% - kiss
42% - 🔥 kisses, oral for her, handy for him, missionary
She tugged on his hair with such force that his head snapped back. So much for his being gentle. He tossed her into the center of the mattress and straddled her.
She squealed with delight.

67% - kisses, fingering for her that’s interrupted

“She fiddled with a button. “We should get you out of these wet clothes before you catch your death.”
“And so I can fuck you senseless.”

90% - 🔥 kisses, food play, oral for her, bj (complete)
“I have placed three dabs of honey on my body. You must find them using only your lips and tongue. Once you find all three, we shall trade places.”

99% - epilogue sex – her on top (though it’s a bit short)