Venus and Galahad have never really gotten along, but when he buys the buildings next to the orphanage she works at intending to turn them into a gambling hall, their sparring begins to look a lot more like attraction and respect.
This is the third book in the Merriwell Sisters, which follows a trio of sisters who must make their own way in the world after being abandoned by their ne’er-do-well father. I haven’t read the first two books, but this worked well as a standalone.
Venus and Galahad are constantly wrong-footed around each other, saying and seeing the wrong things. It’s fun to see how they slowly recognize their misconceptions and begin to realize that they actually like the person they’re getting to know. There’s plenty of humor and tension over the course of this slow burn romance, and the dramatic climax on the ice had me on the edge of my seat.
I also loved how we really got a sense of how much Venus and Galahad care for their occupations and how hard they’ve worked for them, which only heightens the conflict over the buildings. Too often in Regency romances characters’ passions seem more like window dressing than an integral part of their lives, but that’s certainly not the case here!
However, I did think the pacing was a little awkward, as Venus and Galahad spend the majority of the book at odds in some respect or another. Considering how long it takes Venus to understand where Galahad’s coming from – and especially considering it feels like she was won over by Galahad’s hard luck story than anything else – it made for frustrating reading at times.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
