User Profile

DNF at 26%. Consent is a thing. I get it wasn't in Victorian London, but that doesn't mean I want to read about MCs who ignore it. Repeatedly fondling/grabbing someone's ass and cock and kissing them after they have said no multiple times and physically tried to throw you off was, at best, uncomfortable to read. I don't care if their cock got hard, that's sexual assault and it's still bothering me hours later.

The writing up til that point had been fine to good. (solid 3.5-4 star) The plot seemed interesting. It took 60 pages to get the reader caught up to the situation so I wasn't really sure how much I liked the story or not. It was just getting going.
Even that had already had me questioning consent, though. The Lord had brought the molly boy/sex worker to his home just to talk. Only it became obvious to the reader the closer that came to happening that that was not all he wanted. If the Lord wanted to hire the sex worker fine, but to say he only wanted to talk and then switch...the sex worker would not only have the social status difference, but be in the Lord's house and away from assistance. That's not really consent, but okay, I was rolling with it. We knew the Lord meant well and it was a different time period. Who knew it was the sex worker who would end up assaulting the footman.

Obviously everyone gets together in the end, but honestly I don't want anything to do with these characters now. I was surprised as this book had been recommended to me a few times. So maybe I'm the one shoving my modern concept of consent onto this Victorian book. I just think potential readers should know in advance.

3.5 stars rounded up. The writing for this book was definitely four star. A wonderful cozy mystery. There were a few times that felt stretched to fit the plot, otherwise the writing would be a five star from me. Really, very well done.
I did have two frustrations that dropped my rating:
The Sherrif was a lovely person, but for all his talk about never letting anyone harm Vic and keeping him safe and caring about him- he never really did much of that. The bff was the one who protected Vic for days on end, took care of him, comforted him, and then saved his life. The Sheriff did none of that and didn't even figure out the mystery. Overall, other than being a nice guy he wasn't useful to have around.
Finally, this book had all the sexual buildup of most romances I read which surprised me as I expected this to be a slow burn and not really put much emphasis, if any, on sex. So I was pleasantly surprised.. until the sex scene was fade-to-black. I'm going to be honest, I was pretty bothered by that. I know that's a me issue, but there was so much sexual tension and inuendo through the whole book and then "Christ that man could really do it" was the culmination. This writing style is not for me.
If that doesn't bother you then I highly recommend this series. Well written with delightful characters in a cute town. All the cozy romance vibes.

DNF 20%
I know I know- you'd think I'd barely have a feel for the story and that may be fair, but neither MC had, at 74pp, imo much of a distinct personality. Which, okay, I'll learn more about them as we go. The next oddity was neither of them would stop talking about how much they required sex -extremely often. Plenty of men in mm romances want a lot of sex, but this was pushed to the point of awkwardness. I was wondering if part of the story would be one or both were sex addicts. (Still could be I suppose.) Then MC2 casually mentioned how he's cheated on at least five previous boyfriends. Not to worry though, this time it's different. This time he's going to put in a clause so if he does cheat he has to pay money-since apparently that's the only way he can stay faithful? I made it another 20 pages or so and decided I didn't care about either MC enough to wait for their HEA.
I'm positive these two fall in love and MC2 would never dream of cheating on the love of his life, but there was nothing in the characters that made me want to push through to see that. Not even this fantastic plot and I love this unique modern twist on a regency romance type trope! At some point the plot may even draw me back enough to give this another go. If it does, I'll update this post.

So I adore NHIE: Punched my Roommates V-card, but I skipped the second and third book in this series because they were tropes I don't enjoy. However, I decided to read this one even though it is my least fav of enemies to lovers, because I had fallen so in love with Eli in the first book. So what the heck happened between the first book and this one???
In the first book Eli is calm, cool, collected, unflappable, never awkward- this is not even the same character. I understand people are nuanced, and I love when someone emotional and needy hides behind a facade only the other MC can break through- that is not this case. Eli is all over the place, constantly. In how he talks, how he feels, how he's intimate. Serious kudos for the cam scene with the gifted dildo though. That was excellent. Thank goodness no matter Eli does West just thinks this aspect of Eli is "so sexy".
I tried to forget any preconceived ideas I had about Eli and get on with the book. Then I ran into the issue of suspension of disbelief. Could everything that happened in this book have gone down that way? Eh, Possibly... but also not probably. It felt forced.
I guess the whole book just felt chaotic and I was left unsettled and somewhat confused. Not with what happened, but just ..why it happened that way.