Venus retrogrades, and off I go on a historical romance kick. This was fine. I don't know, maybe I'm looking for something that either really leans into angst or really leans into humor, but this sort of mucked about in between, with a nosedive in quality at the halfway point. Some conversations were charming but others were pointlessly long and limp. There's a running gag throughout the book of the mmc terrorizing the fmc's brother and it's more delightful than anything our main couple does: Ian Eversea inadvertently intercepted the duke's gaze. The duke took his knife and slid it with slow precision across a plate, bisecting a slice of ham the way a brigand might slice a throat. Ian swallowed noisily. // "We're getting ready to set out for--" Ian Eversea came to an abrupt halt at the library entrance. The sight of the duke fairly guillotined his sentence. Moncrieffe straightened lazily to his full height, rather like a puma roused from a nap, and greeted Ian with a steady, inscrutable, very black stare. // "I wouldn't mind shooting a thing or two," the duke offered. Ian paused mid-chew.

My mental health can be charted almost exactly by the amount of historical romances I log on goodreads and April has, statistically, been a rough month. This was …okay I guess. Why did I read it in less than 24 hours? I’m going through something ok The chapter epigraphs were charming, although I can’t see how they relate overmuch to this silly plot. The best I can say is that this book didn’t overstay its welcome, and the bordello scenes (lmao) were haha well done. FMC is kind of a freak for chest hair/hairiness in general and I respect that. Never before have I seen a character lust for a man’s hairy SHINS but here we are.