Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥 (might feel hotter to you – there were 2 scenes that were close together and I combined for a flame and another scene that was short and I didn’t count as a full flame)
Humor: Yes
Perspective: third person from both the hero and heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? medium
When mains are first on page together: pretty soon in (prologue, about 4%)
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: No
Format: voluntarily read an advanced reader copy in e-book form through NetGalley
Why I chose this book: Vivienne Lorret is one of my favorite authors! I adore so many of her books and want to read them all.

Should I read in order?
It’s not completely necessary – most of this focus is really on these mains, but there are a few scenes that are from the first book (It Had to Be a Duke) that take place here (it’s like some of the latter half of book 1 are happening during this story) so you might get more enjoyment of that with reading in order.

Basic plot:
Oscar arrives in the guise of Honoria’s missing fiance – using the ruse to lay low from his demons chasing himg

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (my assumption)
- meet cute in Paris, but rest of the story in England
- English countryside setting
- bit of an antihero – he’s a swindling scoundrel that blackmails the heroine
- kind of a twist of fake relationship
- beautiful heroine
- hidden identity
- hero loves biscuits
- enemies to lovers but it turns quite playful
- heroine disguised as a lad
- medium steam – I settled as a 2 flame book but might feel hotter to you – there’s 2 scenes that are close together and I combined, and another that was short and I decided not to count

Ages:
- hero is 28, heroine is 23

First line:
Oscar Flint raked the razor down the hollow of his cheek, dispensing with the beard that had been part of his identity for the past six cities.

My thoughts:
Oh, how much adore Lorret’s writing. She really delivers so many things I just adore in romance. I really loved this novel!

We can say Honoria and Oscar are enemies to lovers but the playful, fun way Lorret presents it is my favorite form. More of a frenemies...they torment each other in the best ways while slowly circling towards each other in an inevitable collision. The tension building in this one was so lovely. The humor was so sweet and delicious. The gentleness and tenderness of Oscar while also having possessive and protective urges – there was no help for me in falling utterly in love with him.

But there was also emotional elements in this one that really got me. Both Oscar and Honoria’s character depth was lovely and I just fell in love with both of them. The setting of this series is wonderful in a way that small town, English countryside can provide. And the side characters and family just round everything out into this bright and lovely story that I adored falling into. I am left wanting more Vivienne Lorret immediately. LOVE.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 9
Average rating: 4.44 stars
Favorite book: Ten Kisses to Scandal

Endearments

Hero calls the heroine ‘Signore’. 

Quotes Any typos or mistakes are purely my own

“Done and dusted,” she muttered when she finished. Oh, and she was so finished with him!
Standing, she snatched up her pail and went to the door.
But just as she reached it, a hand fell on the wooden frame above her. Then a steely arm snaked around her waist and turned the key in the lock.
“You aren’t fooling anyone, Miss Hartley.”
“Dunno any Miss ‘artley. Just goin’ about me work. That’s all.”
His responding chuckle was low and deep in her ear and sent a shiver trampling through her as his warm body pressed against her. She drew in a breath, his scent invading her nostrils in a dizzying rush.
---
“Ha! I wouldn’t kiss you if you were the last man on earth. You are like an apple that rots from the core out. It may look perfectly tempting on the outside, but once you take a bite, you’re sure to come back with half a worm in your teeth.”
The desire – no, the bloody need – to slide his hand to her her nape and draw her mouth to his was almost unbearable. But he’d be damned if he would reveal any more of his cards to her.
---
Spurring the horses up a rise, his urgency mounted, burning in his veins. This was his doing. His fault. If anything happened to her, he’d -
Relief washed over him in a flood the moment he crested the hill. Honoria was just up ahead with her maid.
But they were not alone.
His relief quickly transformed into something nameless and darker when he saw she was brandishing a stick, trying to fend off the advances of two men, while a third watched from the perch of a phaeton.
---
So as his jaw clenched, he was almost ready to bare his teeth in a grin and allow her to continue this new game of hers. Alone. As he rode on without her.
But Vandemere? Well, Oscar was fairly certain that the viscount wouldn’t take too kindly to his fiancee traipsing along the countryside, where anything might have happened, only to find her coyly flirting with other men.
No, Vandemere wouldn’t like it. At all.
There must have been some shred of that emotion on his countenance, because Honoria’s smile faltered as he approached.
Her throat constricted on a swallow. “Need I remind you that you are a gentleman? And gentlemen do not make primitive displays.”
He’d been about to offer a semblance of a greeting to the men, then politely escort her and her maid back to the carriage. Yet, after Honoria’s muttered warning and the way she brandished that stick of hers, he decided to show her just how primitive he could be.
“Don’t you d-aaaare!” she shrieked, wide-eyed as he tugged her off balance by seizing control of her sword, then scooped her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
---
Tucking those thoughts away, she focused on removing her gloves...only to discover that two of her pearl buttons were already unfastened.
The scoundrel!
Her accusatory gaze flew to Oscar. He arched a brow in response. Then his gaze slid down the front of her ice-blue dress with indecent deliberateness. The wicked way his lips curved in a slow grin caused a rush of heat to creep to her cheeks, her skin tingling where he’d touched her as he’d handed her down from the carriage.
---
When she tried to scramble away, he held her close. “Shhh...Whatever it is, you know you can tell me. I am the keeper of your secrets, after all. And you are the keeper of mine.”
---
“Try again, Signore. You love me. Say it.”
“Stop. Stop it.”
“Say the words,” he commanded, shaking his head when she tried to cover his mouth with her hands. “Tell me you love me as much as I love you.”
 

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

- parental death and abandonment
- remembrance of parental sickness and death
- remembrance of abuse in prison for hero
- sibling death and grief
- groping and threatening of heroine by villain

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

Safe sex: 

  hero pulls out for the first few times but doesn’t when the heroine asks him to stay within her 

Hows the consent? 

  It’s good – there’s a few scenes that the heroine is pushing back on the hero due to the frenemy relationship but we see from her POV how she is feeling in regards to the act 

Pregnancy/children in story? (Please note this is the best to my memory/note taking. If you see something I missed please feel free to message!) 

  A few minor children side characters, a scene of worry over pregnancy from heroine when hero blows it in her... 

6% - kiss
34% - kiss
47% - kiss
62% - kiss, fingering for heroine
81% - kisses, oral for her, missionary
”Are you wet for me, Honoria?” he asked against her lips as his fingers skated in leisurely patterns along her inner thigh. “Have you thought about me touching you when you’re alone in your bath?”
85% - bj (incomplete), missionary
”As your prisoner, I would beg you to wrap your hand around the base...yes, like that...and a long, smooth stroke...aye, that’s the way,” he gritted, eyes screwing shut from exquisite pleasure.
94% - her on top but it’s pretty short