This follows Mrs Cherry Lambe and the Duke of Crossley. As always, this can be read as a standalone however having already met Cherry in a previous book I was very excited for her story. Cherry is bold and strong and makes her own path regardless of the rule of society. She is a widow with a young daughter and has sworn to never fall in love again after losing her husband and father of her child.

The Duke of Crossley is also widowed and has a 10 year of daughter. He hasn’t connected with anyone since his wife’s death except for his daughter and though he is possessed of excellent character he feels little. When he mistakenly meets Cherry he is immediately captivated and he acts very out of characters and makes his desire known - Cherry shoots this down immediately despite feeling a spark.

I knew Cherry would have a very unqiue story for she is a standout character and I loved every moment of it; from the fated few meetings full of desire, the mistaken article published slandering the duke, to her stay at the duke house to get to know him better – it was a delectable story. Both widowed and with daughters, Cherry and Cross both thought to have given up on love, but they find they bring out such a passion in each other that love Is inevitable. And even sweeter the blending of the families happens almost before they even decide anything, their two daughters get along wonderfully. And I loved Fiona and her machinations, she was hilarious and smart and bold.

I’m enjoying the overarching suspense plot and I like that it’s a continuation over the books in this series which is a style I haven’t read before. We got a lot further with this storyline and I enjoyed the Edith/ David plot, and I can’t wait to see this continue in the next book. And I have to say I really liked Edith’s character development and she definitely grew on me in this book!

Fenna never fails to deliver a beautiful emotional gripping story. I adore her characters, I’ve loved every single one of her books and this was no exception, she weaves stories full of heart, each one unique and compelling with the characters having different flaws and traumas.

And this one didn’t have too much miscommunication once they’d met properly! I enjoyed the openness and that they knew what they wanted pretty quickly. There was great banter and sparring but no anger despite unfounded accusations, they were flawed but so loving. It was perfect that Cross understood Cherry reacted because she felt helpless, and he handled things well once she’d enlightened him to what his peers were doing. I very much enjoyed their ever interaction and loved the themes Fenna brought into this one.

And it was very exciting confrontation at the end, and I like that we got lots of cameos of the other characters from other books Fenna has written. Overall I loved it and can’t wait for the next book in the series, Fenna is always an auto-read for me!