Series: The Bareknuckle Bastards, #2
Traits & Tropes: class difference; tortured hero; illegitimate hero
Publication Date: 07.30.19
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England, 1837
Heat Level: 5
Rating: 4/5
Lady Henrietta Sedley has decided this will be the year she claims what she wants, securing her inheritance of her father’s business and her ability to make her own fortune. She’s also decided she wants to experience the pleasures that have eluded her as an established spinster. Her plans are falling nicely into place until she finds a truly beautiful man bound in her carriage, a man who threatens to send everything crashing down.
Waking in a carriage to the sight of the beautiful Hattie, Whit, better known as Beast, a king of Covent Garden, knows he must learn more about her, especially when he finds out pleasure is her goal for the evening. She’s headed straight for the Garden and Whit is more than happy to offer Hattie everything she wants, but he has a few demands of his own.
Hattie and Whit soon wind up as business rivals but partners in pleasure. She’s determined in her plans and he must maintain his power to keep her safe. What neither immediately realizes is that they’re the perfect pair and will soon have no choice but to give up everything to each other.
I wound up enjoying this book, but it took me an age to finish it. For no explicable reason, it failed to grab and hold my attention, though it has what are now some of my favorite steamy scenes ever. I loved Whit as a hero. His motivations were so pure, if a little misguided, and his deep need to protect, even if it meant sacrificing his heart and his desires, was utterly charming. Hattie was a bit annoying to me at first but as she got to know Whit and what drove him, she adjusted her own outlook and behavior and grew on me. I loved her determination to have Whit, all of him, and to show him she was more than capable of standing by his side and being protective of him as he was of her. I also loved the loyalty Whit, Devil, and Grace had earned from the denizens of the Garden and how that loyalty also transferred to Hattie. I have read this series out of order, so I think I was more sympathetic to the villain than I was meant to be, but I loved Hattie’s backbone in standing up to him. I adored Whit’s dirty bedroom talk and the utter vulnerability and sweetness he displayed when he finally opened his heart to Hattie. I was utterly charmed by his close brotherly bond with Devil and the emotional rooftop conversation they had so I’ve got to go back and read his book now; leave it to me to read the whole series backwards.
I’m still not sure why this one didn’t grab or hold my attention more, but I did enjoy it and the true partnership that emerged between Hattie and Whit, especially in the latter half of the book, and I found it really beautiful.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2584800059
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3443774468
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