Series: Greycourt, #2
Traits & Tropes: enemies to lovers; class difference; arranged marriage; beauty and the beast
Genre/Setting: Historical; Georgian; London, England, 1760
Publication Rate: 12.01.20
Heat Level: 3/5
Rating: 3.5/5
Born and raised in St. Giles, Gideon Hawthorne has spent his life climbing out of the streets and into a better life. He’s ruthless and resourceful and has used his skills in the employment of the Duke of Windemere for the last ten years, taking care of risky problems without hesitation. But the duke is depraved, and Gideon is weary of the tasks he’s forced to complete. He’s eager to leave the duke’s employ and work on his own business ventures, but the duke wants Gideon to do one last thing for him, an undisclosed task. When the duke offers the reward, marriage to his niece, Messalina Greycourt, Gideon cannot refuse the chance to be with the lady he has always desired.
Messalina Greycourt has had many suitors, but none that appealed enough to pursue. She’s furious when her uncle drags her to his London home to force her immediate marriage to his lackey, but she’s pleasantly surprised to find that she can treat with Gideon. He’ll leave her alone until she welcomes his attentions, as well as give her a portion of her dowry money, if she agrees to act the complacent wife and help him establish connections with investors amongst the aristocracy. Messalina is sure she’d never welcome Gideon, so she’s happy to agree. After all, she plans to leave him as soon as she has her money anyway so she and her sister can flee the country and finally escape the duke. But as she comes to know Gideon, Messalina finds herself contemplating a real future with him and struggling to maintain her distance.
This book left me with so many conflicting feelings. Gideon is quite possibly the best antihero I’ve ever read, although I must say Messalina’s frequent and persistent descriptions of him as demonic and evil did throw off the romance a bit. Messalina frustrated me with her tendency toward snap judgments and her refusal to listen to Gideon, especially when he was finally willing to open up to her. At that point, I felt he was giving literally everything he had, and she wouldn’t even meet him halfway. At times Messalina’s behavior was very overly dramatic and that was a bit annoying. I really enjoyed the overall storyline with the bad boy, wrong side of the tracks hero and the arranged marriage/forced proximity. Gideon showed tremendous growth and character development and opened Messalina’s eyes to her own sheltered naivete. That growth dynamic in their relationship ultimately made these two work for me as a couple, though I did find the pace to be a little slow in places. I adored the depths Gideon had and his revelations of his pain to Messalina were heart wrenching. I only wish she’d been there to meet him when he was ready to finally open up and learn to love, but thankfully it didn’t take her long to figure things out and get herself straight. I was very intrigued by Julian and Quintus as characters, especially when they finally started working with Gideon instead of against him. I think those two have great potential as heroes of their own books. The sister, Lucretia was mostly a very annoying and distracting character for me, and her meddling and selfish attitude was irritating. She mostly just popped up in scenes to eat all the food and cause problems but at least she did help Messalina come to the right decision in the end, even if this did seem a bit out of character for Lucretia. I enjoyed the action and the plot twist at the end, but it did feel rather too abrupt and I would’ve liked a slightly longer reconciliation between Messalina and Gideon with more apology and emotion from Messalina, as it still left me feeling like Gideon wound up giving much more of himself than she did. I also wanted more info on the dispensation of the villain, but maybe that’s forthcoming in another book along with the duke’s comeuppance. There were some intriguing side characters presented here and I look forward to continuing the series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2540955931
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2711623183
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