3.5/5. Releases 10/24/2023.

Vibes: boss/employee, hero and heroines with a past, Two Weeks Notice but make it historical, low angst

After finally claiming his rightful position as the Duke of Penning, Lucian is determined to get his shit together, find a proper wife, and arrange good matches for his sisters--all while ensuring the upper classes don't find out about his past. The problem is, he's quite attracted to his housekeeper, the acerbic Susanna. Lucian doesn't want to overstep--or start a scandal--but is forced to work more closely with Susanna when his valet is put out of commission. As the two plan an important even together, the growing tension between them--and Susanna's own secrets--threatens to ruin everything they're working for.

This was a pleasant, easy read with the light sense of humor you'll find in most Sophie Jordan books. I liked it. However, I feel that for a few different reasons, it didn't quite go as far as it could have. Which will definitely make it appealing to those who prefer a lighter historical romance, but gave me some troubles.

Quick Takes:

--First off, I do want to make it clear that the chemistry in this book isn't lacking. Lucian and Susanna spark from the start, and I absolutely loved their meet cute. He's desperately trying to fit into a role that he didn't expect and wasn't raised for (per the rest of The Duke Hunt series, multiple other people took the Duke of Penning role... without being the Duke of Penning) and sees as a major stroke of luck. She's practical, jaded, and highly skeptical of his suitability as duke. Lucian begins the book seeing Susanna as a problem on multiple levels, but comes to develop a sense of kinship with her--and a reliance on her--that I found really lovely.

And there's great sexual tension here. It's a slow burn of a book, and the buildup of "oops, we overstepped" moments is really fun. These are two people who are trying to stay professional and really failing throughout the novel, and I enjoy that quite a bit.

--The flipside of this is that because I liked Lucian and Susanna's dynamic so much, I was kind of frustrated by how much of this fast-paced, relatively short book didn't feature Lucian and Susanna interacting together. There's a whole chapter (admittedly a brief one) focused on the secondary romance. A cute secondary romance, yes, but there was really no other time devoted to those characters' points of view. So I wasn't sure why they needed to get a whole chapter, when we could've used Lucian and Susanna bonding together.

What this does create is a sense that like... I was happy that Lucian and Susanna got together. But I felt a bit cheated of the time they could have spent together. Even them becoming friendly with each other is kind of a slow burn. You spend a lot of time in their heads, when I would have just preferred to have more time with them talking, or hanging out, or kissing.

--One thing I do think Sophie may have struggled with was the issues surrounding boss/employee romances. Obviously, the majority of dukes in real life probably didn't care too much about the ethical problems with banging an employee. But this is romance, so I'm totally down for romance heroes being more sensitive about these concerns.

However, let's be real--boss/employee romance is very much a thing, a trope people flock to despite the problematic questions surrounding it. And I don't necessarily think that romance readers should be made to feel guilty about liking it, and I feel the same about writers. Sophie is very sensitive about the topic, and I appreciate that. I just feel like she wanted to write boss/employee, but was ultimately reined in by anxieties surrounding reader reactions.

Personally, I really liked how KJ Charles handles this in The Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. The boss recognizes the issue and feels guilty about it; he's nonetheless tempted; the employee enthusiastically wants to be with him; and they have a couple of discussions about it, making it clear that the boss in no way expects sexual favors from the employee, and the employee will not be punished if he decides to end their sexual relationship. I think something like that could've been done here, and would have enabled Sophie to move the relationship development up a bit in the story. As it is, a lot of stuff happens in the last 25% of the book, which isn't uncommon in a Sophie Jordan novel, but did feel quite rushed here.

--One thing I did really like here was Lucian's backstory. It's something I've seen in historical romance before, but not very often. Like I said before, Susanna has her own backstory, and I respect it, but it is something you're probably a bit familiar with in historical romance. Personally, I think that Lucian and Susanna could have bonded more over their shared anxieties surrounding their pasts. Additionally, I feel that more of the overarching tension of the story, the threat as it were, could have been centered around Lucian's past... which is honestly much more high stakes and scandalous than anything Susanna has to worry about.

The Sex:

Sophie Jordan writes a good, hot sex scene. That said, I have noticed less sex in her last couple of books. Like, maybe one or two scenes, inserted towards the very end of the book. Not sure how I feel about this. Again, the boss/employee aspect really held Lucian and Susanna back, and I think we really could've benefited from the physical aspect of their relationship beginning early in the story. Nonetheless, the inciting event that caused them to get physical is quite cute, and I liked it.

For a lot of readers, I think this low angst, fun historical will be a nice, quick read. For me, I just could've stood to see a bit more drama, and higher stakes. Still, I like Sophie Jordan's books, and there are definitely people I would recommend this to.

Thanks to Avon and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this but this was sloooooooow.

I feel like the drama with Billings, Mattie and Carter was kind of pointless and just made this unnecessarily long.

Definitely enjoyed the first three in the series more.