I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked this! I read and really enjoyed the first book in this series, so I’m happy I enjoyed this one. I was a bit worried at the beginning that I wouldn’t like this. It starts a bit slow and I thought the reason Thomas and Jane first get together was a bit rushed. However, the latter part of this story really brought me around. I thought the author did an excellent job developing the relationship between Jane and Thomas. Except for the oddly rushed initial reason for them getting together, the pacing of the relationship was really well done. I felt like I could actually see why they were falling for each other. Essentially, Thomas has to marry for money, and Jane isn’t wealthy enough, which keeps them apart. That conflict is repeated frequently during this story, maybe a bit too frequently. However, I am always impressed with Frampton’s ability to keep me engaged with relatively simple plots that don’t have a ton of external conflict. I never find her stories dull, even though those types of stories tend to bore me.
The sex scenes are also very well written, in my opinion. I honestly don’t read romance for the sex scenes and I will sometimes skim them if I think there are too many in a book, but I really appreciated how well they were written in this book. Frampton does use some language that isn’t as sexy that can bring me out of it a bit, but otherwise, they’re well done. One scene in a sex club was so good; I’ll probably re-read that chapter in the future. It was that good (the end of chapter 17 through chapter 18, if you’re curious). There were a few things I didn’t like as much. As I said, the conflict around Thomas needing to marry for money is repeated a few too many times. The reader doesn’t need to be reminded of the central conflict that many times. There is also a bit of a side plot about a conflict between Jane and her parents that isn’t built up enough to be meaningful when it’s resolved. The epilogue also loses some of the voice of the characters and feels very telling-not-showing. The language and attitudes of some of the characters are probably a bit too modern for the times, especially at the end, but personally, that kind of stuff doesn’t bother me, but it may be helpful to know if it does bother you.
I definitely want to go back and read books two and three after reading this. Something about Frampton’s storytelling just works really well for me, and I really appreciate her work. I would definitely recommend people read this once it comes out at the end of this month!
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