This series is quickly becoming my favorite by KJC. Each book is engaging in a political dialogue often avoided entirely in HR. Typically when we have a Tory MMC, like Dominic, the grand gesture *is* that person's political conversion, or the underlying assumption is that they aren't *actually* politically conservative, but bound by family expectation/the crown/etc. That is not what KJC is doing here. She's setting up an honest-to-goodness Tory (Dominic) with a democratic radical and seditionist (Silas), and she's making them actually talk politics with each other for a large portion of the book. It's fascinating, empathic, compelling, and, at times, deeply uncomfortable. She's also using intimacy, kink and intentional power imbalance as an aid to character development, and her execution of consensual non-consent (CNC) and D/s is so well done. I don't seek out CNC but it felt *right* for these characters and what they were navigating, and I appreciated how clearly they were role-playing at all times, how well Silas took care of Dominic and how attuned each was to the other's consent and pleasure. Their interactions always felt safe and sex positive, and the way their intimacy helps each build self confidence is honestly beautiful. 

My loudest cheers, though, were for Silas's absolutely spot-on social critiques and insights. His commentary on charity, in particular, made me whoop:

"The Tory wanted to help, Silas could tell. Dominic was poised on the edge of offering money. He'd probably hand over enough to keep half of Ludgate warm, but Silas couldn't and wouldn't because it shouldn't be fucking charity that kept children from starving and the old folk from freezing, as if the country belong to the right by right and everyone else lived at their sufferance and by their whim."

"Everybody's cold out there, Tory. Everybody. And if you think it's enough for me that you make one man warm, you've not listened to a fucking word I've said."

An absolutely underrated and underhyped historical romance by KJC. Silas forever.