Goodness Gracious Me!  We met Constantine Westbrook, heir to the Duke of Evesham, in the prequel (Invitation), and the first book of the series (Improper).  I don’t know about you, but I sure didn’t like him very well.  He was cold, unyielding, passionless, uptight, and, as his brother Lucien says, has a ‘stick up his xxx’.  How could a curmudgeon like that become the male romantic lead in a romance novel?  I knew this author would turn things around and make us love him – and she surely did.  You won’t be far into the book before you realize people aren’t always the face they present to the world – and – you’ll quickly come to love Con.

Sabrina Westbrook has been married to the cold and aloof Constantine Westbrook for almost two years now – and she’s had enough.  He is cold and passionless, but part of the fault for their distant civility is her own.  They were definitely NOT a love match and Sabrina wanted to call it off, but her parents wouldn’t allow her to do so and the duke wouldn’t hear of it either.  It wasn’t that she had anything against Con, she just didn’t want to marry anyone.  Sabrina has a debilitating anxiety disorder and couldn’t function in crowds or with strangers.  How in the world was she going to manage a wedding night and marriage with a perfect stranger?  Well, the bottom line is that she didn’t – things went downhill fast.  Her anxiety caused Con to have anxiety and well … things just didn’t go well.  So now, he visits twice a year and their joining is perfunctory and hurried.

Having had enough of the state of their marriage, Sabrina fights down her anxieties and makes the trip to London to demand her marital rights.  She’ll demand he come to her bed every night until she is with child.  She doesn’t care how horrid the act is, she’ll endure because she very much wants a child.  She has no idea a woman can also enjoy ‘the act’ until a friend shares that information and gives her a book with instructions on how to enjoy it on her own.  WOW!  What a revelation.  She has to wonder if maybe Con hasn’t shared the pleasure with her because he doesn’t really want her and is strictly performing a duty.

Con very much wants to improve the state of his marriage.  He desires his wife and thinks she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, but he has no idea how to cope with her fears.  When she cringes away from him, it wounds him.  Since he has no idea how to make things better, he just tends to avoid her.

Con and Sabrina start, very tentatively, to see if they cannot heal their marriage.  Neither understands the issues for the other – and they never talk about it.  Well – they manage – in spite of the meddling of friends and family – and the end result is a delightful romance with a truly remarkable couple.  It was a wonderful experience to see both of them grow, learn to trust, and learn to love. 

I loved Con and Sabrina’s story and I cannot wait for the next book because it features Cassandra (Con and Lucien’s sister) and Lucien’s best friend, Ruark.  I just know it is going to be a wonderful read because while Ruark is Lucien’s best friend, Lucien doesn’t think he is husband material for his sister.  Uh Oh!  The events in this book overlapped events in the first book – and events in the next book – Intolerable – will overlap with events in this book. 

As always, the book is well-written, well-plotted, and excellently delivered.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.  BTW – the very short prequel I mentioned above – is FREE on Amazon – so why not read it to see how the Phoenix Club came to be formed, the reasons behind it, and the group of friends who are involved.

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

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Phoenix Club #1
Publication Date: 5/25/21
Period: Regency – 1815
Number of Pages: 326

Burke very nicely set up the premise for this series in the prequel (Invitation). There, we met the principal players as well as the reason behind the club, how it works, and why it is so very exclusive. In this lovely, well-plotted, witty and well-delivered book, we reacquaint ourselves with Tobias Powell who is now the Earl of Overton since his father died almost three months ago, and we meet his new ward Miss Fiona Wingate. There are some interesting and very likable secondary characters that I very much enjoyed and I’m sure we’ll meet several of them in future books. One I particularly liked was Lady Cassandra because she was always Fiona’s partner in crime – actually, she was the instigator more often than not. I also loved Prudence Lancaster and can’t wait to learn more about her. I thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Tucket – she was definitely an anomaly, but she was entertaining. Actually, the whole book was filled with little moments of humor that I enjoyed very much.

When Tobias’s very unloving and unkind father died, he left Tobias in a very untenable position. Tobias must marry within ninety days of the old earl’s death or forfeit the one thing that is nearest and dearest to his heart. It was really the only hurt that the old man could give after his death because it was the only unentailed item in the earldom. For the last couple of years, Tobias’s reputation has been much less than stellar, and now he needs to repair it as best he can and manage to find a lady who is willing to marry within just a few weeks. If you add having to prepare for a new ward and seeing to the requirements for her season, Tobias is taxed to the limit. He fully hopes to marry his ward off right away and be done with her so he can concentrate with his own needs – after all, she has a very sizable dowry.

Fiona was raised in a small cottage on her cousin’s property in a very small Shropshire village. She had no friends – hardly any acquaintances either. Her father was a cool and aloof academic her ignored her and her mother has been gone for a long time. The only constant person in her life is Mrs. Tucket, their maid-of-all-work. Fiona knows how lucky she is to be the ward of an earl and to be having a season in London. She’s puzzled about how that came to be, but she’s very grateful. Fiona is one of the most naïve, Pollyannaish people you will ever meet on the page. She has absolutely no clue about anything in society and is thrown in headfirst when she arrives. She is so filled with excitement and enthusiasm that it is hard to contain it – and – well – she doesn’t usually manage to do so. She doesn’t mean to cause trouble for Tobias – she likes him – very much – but he keeps trying to contain her and that is very much like herding cats.

If you are looking for a fun, witty, well-presented story, this might be the one for you. I enjoyed watching Tobias and Fiona come to terms with each other and finding their HEA. I loved both characters and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. Then, there is Mrs. Tucket – a maid-of-all-work for all of her life. But now, she is a suitable companion for Fiona, she is given a lovely guest room in an earl’s home and is treated as an equal with everyone in the home. She is fully capable of speaking and acting like a lady and is totally comfortable in speaking with a countess or any other titled person. I am quite sure none of that would have happened in reality. I actually loved Mrs. Tucket, but she was just totally period incorrect.

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