GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SERIES: Rogues to Lovers, book 2
MY RATING: 4 stars
SYNOPSIS: Miss Poppy Summers is determined to keep her family’s fishing business afloat. Her poor widowed father has fallen ill, and her foolhardy brother has moved to London, leaving her precious little time to read or pursue her own dreams. But she’ll do anything for her family, so she cheerfully spends mornings in her rowboat, casting her nets. The very last thing Poppy expects or wants to find tangled in them is a dangerously attractive man. Especially one with a head wound—who’s convinced he’s a duke.
Andrew Keane is the Duke of Hawking, but he’s having the devil of a time convincing his fiery-haired rescuer of that fact. The truth is he came to the seaside resort of Bellehaven Bay to escape his life in London. Unfortunately, someone in Bellehaven wants to kill him—and he intends to find out who. He implores Poppy to tend to his injuries and hide him on her beach, reasoning it will be easier to find his attacker if that man assumes Keane is already dead. She wants no part of the scheme but can’t refuse the generous sum he offers in exchange for food and shelter while he recovers. It’s a mutually beneficial business arrangement…nothing more.
Under Poppy’s care, Keane regains his strength—and a sense of purpose. As they work together to solve the puzzle of his would-be murderer, he’s dazzled by her rapier wit and adventurous spirit; she’s intrigued by his mysterious air and protective streak. Though Poppy’s past gives her every reason to mistrust someone like Keane, the seawalls around her heart crumble in the storm of their passion. But when clues hint at the prime suspect in Keane’s attempted murder, Poppy must decide where her loyalties lie. Torn between the world she’s always known and the one she’s always dreamed of, she’ll need true love for a shot at her fairytale ending.
I really like green-eyed Keane. I don't have much to say about him other than he's really into Poppy and isn't disrespectful to her in any way. There's no friction or miscommunication between them at any time, which is something I do like in my historicals.
Poppy's your average likable twenty-three-year-old heroine who's out there getting it done, helping to financially support her brother and father, who's ailing. I like that she doesn't come from money and knows how to take care of herself.
I have to say I was very excited to unravel the mystery of who's trying to kill Keane but dang, it was lackluster, to say the least. Keane was unbelievably forgiving in that matter to those involved.
I never thought the day would come that I'd complain about too many sex scenes in a book. I've been reading historical romances for 29 years this year, since I was a teen, and I can't really tolerate them anymore and generally skim them. This story has four of them, three of which I believe are descriptive, which is too many for a non-erotic novel of only 330 pages.
Complaints: Pet peeves of mine are when hero/heroin ages aren't given, or the year. If Keane's age was given, I missed it, and the year this story began isn't mentioned. A major pet peeve of mine is when authors put modern day ways of typing into historical stories. Here are two examples of that from this novel, "Let.Go." and "You.Are.Mine." There are two typos in the book too. The heroine has auburn hair yet it's said to be 'strawberry' colored too, which is nothing at all like auburn. Also Poppy has "blue-green" eyes that were once described as being sapphire! Overall this was a decent read.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
