Series: The Rogue Files, #7
Traits & Tropes: age-gap; former soldier hero; enemies to lovers; slow burn; starched hero; bluestocking heroine
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; England; 1866
Publication Date: 10.27.20
Heat Level: 3/5
Rating: 4/5
Nora Langley prefers science and experiments to love and marriage despite seeing her two elder sisters happily wed. A skilled herbalist and healer in her own right, Nora has also been using her late father’s name as a physician when dispensing medical advice in letters. She has a robust correspondence, extending as far as an old army colonel stationed in India. She expects no harm to come from her writing and that no one will ever know, until the colonel himself appears in her drawing room and turns out to be the young heir to a dukedom, threatening to expose and ruin her.
Constantine Sinclair arrives at Nora’s door seeking medical help for the Duchess of Birchwood, to whom he owes a great deal. He’s furious to have been deceived and leaves as quickly as possible, declaring his intention to reveal the ruse to all Nora’s correspondents. Desperate to prove she’s just as qualified as her father was, Nora follows Con to London, vowing to help the Duchess if he’ll keep her secret. Con finds himself agreeing despite his better judgment, but Nora’s unconventional attitudes cause a stir in the ducal household and soon Con finds his rigid control slipping as he questions the strict sense of duty he feels and the pressure he’s put on himself to live up to the Duke’s expectations.
Poor Constantine was just awful at expressing himself and communicating his feelings, but when he learned to be his own person and stand up for what he thought was right he became so endearing. His decision to stop placing such import on his duty to the duke and his snobbery was excellent, even if it did almost come too late. It took me a long while to warm up to Nora and she’s still not really a favorite of mine, but I did appreciate her holding out for the respect she deserved and I definitely related to her bluestocking tendencies. She simply annoyed me with her castigation of Con for being angry with her when in fact her behavior was very presumptuous and her long-standing lie throughout their friendly correspondence was pretty wrong. This behavior in her earlier in the book also made her willingness to run from the duke’s ill treatment seem a bit out of character. Nonetheless, this ultimately gave Con the chance to shine as a hero and, though I would’ve liked to see more communication between Con and Nora, I did enjoy their story quite a bit and it was one of the best and most delightfully dramatic endings I’ve read lately.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3206515156
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1666680585
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