Series: The Phoenix Club, #7
Traits & Tropes: virgin hero; second son; affair; hidden identity; titled hero; class difference; cinnamon roll hero
Publication Date: 10.25.22
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; Oxfordshire/London, England, December 1835
Heat Level: 6
Rating: 4/5
Evangeline Renshaw is happy with the life she’s built since abandoning her role as a courtesan and reinventing herself with a new identity as a respectable widow. She has an important role as a patroness of the Phoenix Club and is content with her life, not desirous or a husband or love, until she meets the irresistibly charming Lord Gregory Blakemore. He wants to court her in earnest, but she’s only willing to allow him an affair with a predetermined end date.
Since the recent passing of his father and his brother’s marriage, Lord Gregory is finally able to turn his focus to the path he wants for himself, an appointment in the government. But when he meets Evie, he finds himself desiring something deeper with a woman for the first time ever, and she becomes a priority for him though she insists their affair must be temporary.
Gregory finds he can’t let Evie go so easily and as he reveals more and more of himself to her, she wonders if she could ever feel safe enough to reveal her true self to him. Unfortunately, the choice may be taken from her as others seek to ruin the life she’s built for herself and she may have to flee and reinvent herself all over again.
I must say I do have a few mixed feelings about this book. Though I loved the ending, I did spend quite a bit of the story feeling rather cross with Evie for the way she treated Gregory. The writing at the beginning of the book did feel rather stilted and explicit mentions of characters’ race rather than more nuanced character descriptions were a bit of a distraction from the flow and detracted from the story a bit since they were added with little finesse and felt random. Once the flow got back on track, I was able to get back into the story, but it did undermine the escapism of reading slightly. I was also a bit disappointed by Evie. Having loved her so much as a secondary character throughout the series, it was off-putting to find her to be so unlikable, at least at first, as a main character and she was very much in the way of her own happiness.
Evie and Gregory had an adorable meet cute with the puppy and I thought that was a nice touch. It’s also a good thing Gregory had the puppy or Evie wouldn’t have given him the time of day. I loved that we got a virgin hero who may have needed some instruction in the bedroom at first, but in the end, he was the one teaching experienced Evie how to love and have a real partnership. Gregory was just this sweet, precious baby of a character and it was immediately obvious that Evie was going to hurt him badly, so I spent much of my reading dreading that for him. On the flip side, I have to give Gregory kudos for bravely giving so much of himself to a relationship that he only hoped would go somewhere, despite every indication that it wouldn’t. So, hence my mixed feelings because I loved his bravery and optimism juxtaposed with her fear, but it was also incredibly frustrating to see him continuously giving so much that she just did not reciprocate. The relationship just felt so one-sided that I had a hard time getting over it. For instance, after a month of separation when Evie sees Gregory again, she doesn’t even greet him, fawning over the dog instead. That said, it was interesting to have the heroine in the position of learning how to love because we usually get heroes who need to learn this. Still, it made me cringe that Evie seemed so embarrassed by Gregory and that she never considered his feelings about anything to do with their relationship, instead focusing her concerns inwardly and on what others might say. Yet the colder she is to him, the sweeter Gregory was to her. This sort of thing is why I sometimes started think I may not be satisfied here and that she didn’t deserve him when she took him for granted so much. Fortunately, in the end I loved seeing Evie open up to Gregory and create a true marriage of equal partners with him, but their relationship up to that point definitely felt very one-sided. She did eventually recognize that she was standing in the way of her own happiness and missing out on so much because of her fears and I was glad to see her finally able to set those aside and be more of the kind, helpful Evie I liked so much in the previous books. I wanted the villainous element here to get their comeuppance, but I remain hopeful that will be forthcoming in the next book. I still find Evie’s close friendship with Lucien to be a bit odd given their previous sexual relationship, but I can’t wait for his story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/843171025
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5046967054
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