This is the sequel to Lady Derring Takes a Lover and it is excellent. I reviewed the first one a while ago here and unli
ke most romance series where you can really pick up any book out of order, you’ll miss out on plot and meeting a lot of the characters that are central to this novel if you don’t read the first in the series before this one.
Plot: Now that the Palace on the Grand Thames is doing pretty okay, the Way Full of Himself mysterious absent tenant of the hotel shows up, in the middle of the night, looking for a room. Turns out he’s the bastard son of an aristocrat (who was raised as the heir before the marriage to his mom was retroactively invalidated). This has given him a titanic sized chip on his shoulder and he’s here, a decade after he was supposedly killed leaving a gaming hell, to embarrass the crap out of his dad and his Legit Wife. And also maybe hook up with an experienced widow. Shenanigans ensue.
This book is great. It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s considerate of both Lucian’s and Angelique’s history and their very specific needs to feel safe and cared for. It acknowledges and validates the way trauma shapes us as people but also suggests that just because a behaviour or mentality helped you survive that trauma doesn’t mean it can’t be holding you back now.
I didn’t find it to be quite as strong as the first in the series, but it is an excellent, excellent read.
