A steamy romance set amidst a family feud.

I bought this a couple years back when I found out Alisha Rai was coming to the Tucson Festival of Books and was going to be on several panels I was attending as a volunteer. Since a lot of people I knew had been reading this series and loving it, I figured I’d give it a shot. She actually canceled her appearances at the festival, I never found out why, and I didn’t end up reading the book. Fast forward to 2020, and I’m trying to read books I’ve owned forever since library access and funds for new books are down, and here we are.

I don’t think I was in any hurry to read this for a couple reasons. It seems like the kind of romance that I don’t normally seek out, but enjoy when reading. And I was right! This wasn’t something I would have read on my own without recommendations. It was on the lustier side of the genre, and I’m not just talking about the amount of sex scenes, and their content. The main pairing had a connection that seemed to be at first entirely based on attraction. Nicholas in particular cannot seem to control himself when thinking about Livvy. It wasn’t until the second half of the book that the emotional stuff started coming out, so I was glad I pushed through, but I generally like it to be the other way around: the emotional stuff coming first, and the sexy stuff growing out of that.

I actually liked the plot here better than the main pairing. The set-up of the family feud makes for good secondary characters, and a fraught setting for other romantic conflicts in the series. I also liked the sense of history you got from the two families, and the way their complicated history affected all the characters differently. I liked these aspects so much I went ahead and placed a hold on the second book from the library. I’m hoping that one will be a little more up my alley in terms of the main romance, but if it’s not, I really do want to see what happens with the two families, and all the secrets from way back when, etc.

[3.5 stars]