For when you're vibing with: romances centered around family, beta heroes, light romance, sisterly bonding, and light heat.

Dara and her sisters Gwendolyn and Elise are in a tight spot. After the disappearance of their gambler father, the girls are left destitute and in the clutches of their awful cousin. Dara's plan? Gambling what little money they have in order to fund a London season--and advantageous marriages. At first, all appears to be working... Until Dara meets budding politician Michael Brogan, who questions her and tempts her, despite the fact that he's not the duke she intends to marry...

So. I wish that I'd like this one more, I really do--and I do think that a lot of this was a case of me not being the right match for this book. But...

Quick Takes:
--Here's the thing. We begin with the sisters. I love sisterly relationships in romance, whether they're between biological sisters or best friends. I mean, The Wallflowers is one of my all-time favorite series. And the sisterly relationships in the book are really good! But after that first chapter, we then jump into a chapter or two centered on Gwendolyn taking action and meeting a man that I assume will be her hero in the next book, or the one after that. However, this is not their book; this is Dara and Michael's. While I'm all about teasing a future pairing--I love it--I found it really confusing that so much of the early aspects of the book focused on a pairing that wasn't going to be the focus of this one. I want to read Gwendolyn's book. That seems great. Dara's honestly felt much tamer than the story Maxwell is setting up for Gwendolyn, and... it set me up for disappointment.

--Almost a quarter of the book passed before Michael and Dara actually interacted. I'm sorry, but this was too long. I kept thinking "okay, this is it", and nope! Much of that is because of the Gwendolyn setup. Which was good! But I knew from the summary that this wasn't her story, and I kept thinking "where is the hero?" Michael and Dara needed more time to develop their story.

--Once Dara and Michael did have time together (and there was still a lot of focus on the other sisters) I just... wasn't sold. And again, maybe with more page time together, less comparison to Gwendolyn's setup, they would've been better. They just came off as a bit bland. I wish I could say that I was about it, but I found myself thinking about how much easier this story would've been to get into if Maxwell had jumped into Gwendolyn's story.

The Sex Stuff:
There is on-page sex in this book, but it is very mild. Dara is a virgin, Michael is gentle with her. There is very mildly depicted cunnilingus. I found the foreplay pretty underwhelming, especially considering the fact that Dara was a virgin. Like, you have the wherewithal to warn her that it's going to hurt, but not the wherewithal to give her an orgasm before penetration to relax her? Seemed kind of dated for a book released in 2023.

I know this sounds very negative, but I think that traditionalist historical readers (who aren't into alpha males) will probably enjoy this--it's a lot of the marriage mart, a softer hero, and a straightforward love story. I've only read one other Cathy Maxwell (which I preferred) so I'm not sure how similar this is to her other books. Here's the thing--I admire the emphasis on the sisters, and I see what she was going for there. For me, it just didn't give enough to the romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.