This book contains:
- Frequent mentions and descriptions of dead parental figures
- Financial hardship.
Chase is the younger brother to Lord Sinclair and tarnished with the same (undeserved) Sinclair reputation that’s trickled down through the generations. As a lone wolf who travels to carry out his uncles’ interests (and the interests of the Crown), he’s never in one place for long and likes his life just the way it is.
Ellie is a neighbour to the new Lord Huxley’s childhood home and in a financial pickle with the bank telling her she has a mere 3 months to repay all her debts, or they’ll be taking her family home. She’ll do just about anything she can to save the family home, except ask for help.
Ellie and Chase meet when Chase comes to Huxley Manor in response to a letter from the late Lord Huxley. Ellie is there to help keep the new Lord Huxley from being forced into marrying one of his aunt’s nieces.
When Chase discovers the deception and the state of Ellie’s debts, he comes up with a clever plan to keep her near him for longer while offering her a way out of debt.
Having read this series out of order, a lot of the mystery that this book is trying to solve I already knew. It kinda dampened the whole reveal at the end of the day for me to be honest.
The entire premise of how Chase and Ellie got to meet and then get to know each other was that the late Lord Huxley had all the information at hand to solve some mystery and he just had to share it with Chase. Except he died before Chase got his message or to him to find out what all the fuss was about. As Chase needs to comb through all his belongings, Ellie is enlisted to help with the final answer being given to them once they get to Egypt.
So while I can’t really speak to the feeling of mystery, I can speak to the romance, which was a slow build where the two can’t read each other and are stuck in their own heads.
It was frustratingly slow at times, then incredibly fast only to back pedal before moving forwards again. Which, to be fair, is probably pretty accurate of many relationships when they’re just starting out!
In the end it was a really sweet little romance that gave me a great break from fantasy and contemporary stuff.
