Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Steam: 🔥🔥🔥

Publication release: February 23, 2021

A romance about a mature widow trying to find her identity after a aristocratic cold marriage. We start the story with her on her way to an orgy for the weekend and she is being accompanied by younger Duncan to protect her on her journey, a former General (in his 30’s).

They have chemistry and after some one bed situations find themselves in some steamy situations.I liked that this was a woman in her late 40’s that was in those days well past her prime. But it seems the orgy really did want her there and there were bets on who would get her so Duncan did have competition, though not serious relationship competition, just sex.I also liked that Duncan was a tough man that was in touch with his emotions and what he wanted in life and kind of a Dom. Lol

<Possible spoiler>I did read some reviews that there were parts of the book that seemed like it was in an alternate history than ours since there was a happy gay couple. I only saw two men telling their friend that they were together. It didn’t seem like they told all of society that they were sleeping together. There were gay people then, how did they live I wonder? I want to see more gay couples in historical books cause it’s not new. I’m sure they didn’t tell anyone but those they trusted.Also, that they didn’t get married and lived together. She was a widow and though it’s frowned on its not inconceivable that with them being friends with a Duke that it wouldn’t have happened. Widows have more leeway than debutantes especially since she was titled, idk. <Spoiler end>

There are some parallels to some 80’s movies like Ferris Buellers Day Off and Footloose. I wouldn’t have noticed if someone else hadn’t added it to their review. To be honest it’s against the rules to dance in restaurants in Napa unless the place has a dance permit so I grew up in Footloose as well, lol. 

Thank you Net Galley and Avon Books for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Synopsis:

For a merry widow and a stoic major, it’s a bumpy road to love…

Adjusting to life in peacetime isn’t easy for Major Duncan McCameron. Escorting a lady on her journey north seems like the perfect chance to give him some much-needed purpose. That is, until he learns the woman in question is the beautiful, bold, reckless Lady Farris. She makes his head spin and being alone together will surely end in disaster.

Beatrice, the Dowager Countess of Farris, is finally free of a stifling marriage and she has no plans to shackle herself to any other man. Ready to live life to the fullest, she’s headed to a week-long bacchanal and the journey should be half the fun. Except she’s confined to a carriage with a young, rule-abiding, irritatingly handsome Scottish soldier who wouldn’t know a good time if it landed in his lap. But maybe a madcap escapade will loosen him up…

Between carriage crashes, secret barn dances, robbers, and an inn with only one bed, their initial tension dissolves into a passion that neither expected. But is there a future for an adventure-loving lady and a duty-bound soldier, or will their differences tear them apart?