Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Wallflowers of West Lane #2
Publication Date: 9/29/20
Number of Pages: 240

This is an exciting, action-packed, fast-paced, well-written book that is populated with exceptional characters and some really vile villains. This author is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I always look forward to her next book. While this book is part of a series, it can be read as a standalone, but you won’t have as deep an understanding of the relationships between the characters if you miss that first book. But – why would you miss it, it was a great read.

We first met The Wallflowers of West Lane in The Earl Not Taken. They were four young ladies who had problems following society’s rules, so their parents sent them to Switzerland to attend Agatha Wormbattle’s School for Young Ladies. While the parents all viewed it as a punishment, the young ladies – Aurora, Faith, Poppy, and Mercy – viewed it as the best thing to ever happen to them. They formed a strong, unbreakable bond and they’ve allowed nothing to separate them since. However, they do all have one very real fear and that has been the driver in these first two books, and I suspect in the next books as well. Aurora was married off to a man she’d never met and he was exceedingly cruel – both physically and emotionally. When that man died, they all vowed they’d never let that happen to another one of them. In the first book, Rhys and Poppy get together because they are investigating the man to whom Faith has become betrothed. While Rhys and Poppy got their HEA, Faith’s betrothed wasn’t happy with being investigated and asked Faith to call off the betrothal. Thus – we now have our second book featuring Faith and her betrothed.

Nicholas Ellsworth, Duke of Breckenridge, spent years on the continent as a spy for the crown. He has many secrets and he’s not proud of any of them. However, to protect his country, he’d do all of it again. He is incensed when he learns that his betrothed and her friends are investigating him! He doesn’t question why they would be doing it, he just tells her that she needs to call off the betrothal. He doesn’t want to ruin her by calling it off himself. Yet she hasn’t called it off yet. He’s attracted to her, but he cannot share his secrets and will not be questioned.

Lady Faith Landon has convinced her uncaring parents to allow her to live with her widowed friend Aurora only because she is betrothed. If she weren’t betrothed, they would force her to move back into their home and they’d be shopping for a husband for her. Faith isn’t sure she wants to call off the betrothal, but she does want to get to know Nicholas better. He just won’t cooperate. He’ll hardly speak to her. So, she and her friends come up with a plan to force him to spend time with her.

All they need to do is trick him into coming to someplace remote and then stranding him and Faith together for a few days. Good plan until it all goes horribly wrong and Nick’s past comes back to haunt them. With their lives in peril, they’ll have to learn to trust each other. Can they learn to trust each other? Can they learn to love each other? Can they even make it through all of it alive?

OH! It is an exciting fast-paced, story that I’m sure you’ll love. I sure did. I, of course, wish there was an epilogue because I always LOVE epilogues. I also love Author’s Notes and I would have loved to see some author’s notes on Special Licenses and also Joseph Fouche who was a real-life villain of the French Revolution. Now, I can hardly wait for the next book, Capturing the Earl, which will feature Mercedes (Mercy) and Wesley Renshaw, Earl of Castlewick.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.