I'm so glad that the second book in the series is about Kitt, Viscount Willoughby, who is the friend of Merry and Jack from the first book Waiting for You. He's also been in a hopeless unrequited love situation for Merry. He decides he needs to be married before the other couple return from a sojourn in America, not wanting their pity, and starts to view the young debutantes. Edwardine, an empty-headed young lady catches his eye first, but Kipp is soon more interested in Abbie Backworth-Maldon, the girl's chaperone. The Backworth-Maldon tribe is beset by poverty and eccentricity, but it doesn't stop Kipp; he only wants a marriage of convenience anyway. But Abby is exactly what Kipp needs.
I do love Ms. Michaels' stories and this was another fun romance. There's clever banter and fun absurdities that entertained me greatly. While I'll always love her Romney Marsh series the best, I'm enjoying the London Friends series a lot. ( )

oh my days! i knew i would like this one the moment i found it in the 50¢ bin at bull moose; but i didn't think that it would be a five star book. ohhohohohoho was i WRONG about that one. let's get into it, shall we:

**minor spoilers herein**

THE GOOD
- i'm going to start off with the characters because HOLY SHIT are they well done. i don't talk a lot about myself here (i kinda like having a little slice of social media where i'm only known by my first name and a picture of lister judging my life choices--i say like i don't share this with everyone i come across, lol), but i write. it's not a money thing, but i do enjoy it and what i really enjoy is writing characters. so it's a breath of fresh air to find a book where the characters are, well, real. kinda, anyways. we meet a lot of people in this book and, even if you only get a glimpse of who they are, you really get the feeling that they live real lives when they're not gallivanting around on the page.

- abby is amazing. there are little, weird inconsistencies here and there, but overall i like her. going back to my previous point: she's very real. abby has... well, she's been through it. her husband died climbing out some other chick's window and literally everyone knows about it. she's resigned herself to that. there's nothing she can do about it. but she's just... getting on with her life. or, at least trying to. the only inconsistencies that i saw had to do with regina bliss (who has a severe case of stripper name, but we'll deal with that later). despite being a fairly sharp, intelligent, and worldly woman, abby has decided that she's going to think the best of regina and won't heart anything otherwise. it struck me as a tad out of character for a woman who spends most of the book trying to keep her niece out of trouble and is very good at it.

- kipp is really what most of us want out of a man. he's tall, blond, and hot as all hell. he also knows how to use his big boy brain and isn't as horrible or rapey as the last romance novel "hero" i encountered. basically the man needs a wife (no string attached because he's a Man and he's trying to get over his One True Love and also feelings are Icky) and BOOM there's abby. he spends the rest of the book bantering (i love a good banter) with her and trying to hide the fact that he's caught the feels.

- the backworth-maldon family (don't forget the hyphen, peasant) are, uh, eccentric. and that's putting in mildly. abby is the only sane one and that's only because she's related by marriage. harry, who was abby's husband, died with his pants around his ankles and gambled the family's money away. his older brothers, twin "uncles" dagwood (like the comic??) and baily, are full of schemes for getting the family money back that all involve stealing a race horse from some lord or other. hermione, harry and the twins' sister, drinks to hide her pain and loves her poodle, who is somewhat ironically named "cuddles," more than her children. edwardine and ignatius are recovering from being loved less than a poodle and also being extremely unfortunately named. edwardine is, well, she's dumb as a post, bless her and iggy is a conniving little bastard who really only wants money and also to get his dick sucked. needless to say, they've got The Issues.

- kipp's best friend is brady, who is the earl of something and also the love of my life. except he's the romantic lead of the next book so he's really about to be the love of regina's life but whatever i guess. anyways, he's also tall and what the girls call "hot", but what really gets me is his gentle teasing of his friends and how much he clearly cares about kipp and abby. anyways, marry me brady, i don't have a stripper name.

anyways, now that i've cried about the characters for long enough, i can get onto what else i like about the book:

- the writing. kasey michaels knows how to write funny, but realistic, prose and i am here for that. keep on going, girl, i will be reading more of your books.

- the plot. i live for the marriage of convenience trope. i feel like whenever i write romance, it's always some marriage of convenience or marriage by mistake and i like to read the same things i like to write.

basically, kipp promised his mother on her death bed that he would get married and produce a few kids before he hit thirty. he's thirty. he's single. and he's not happy about that. so he enlists brady to help him get a wife. as you do. i know that when i'm ready to get married i'm going to text my bestie like "hey, bitch, wanna find me a mans?" and, i mean, she'd also say yes, but this is just a tad wild if you get my meaning.

brady sees edwardine who, as discussing, is Not smart, and then sees abby is all like *eyes emoji* she's the one for my bestie. and that's where the plot sets off. they're married and in bed less than a week later.

- the romance. i feel like i read somewhere that the reason marshal dillon and miss kitty never had one on screen kiss in nineteen years of gunsmoke is that the writers were scared that it would ruin their chemistry and UST. now, remington steele another childhood favorite of mine, said "fuck that" and had remington and laura kissing from almost day one. fortunately for us, kasey michaels goes to the remington steele school of romance and not the gunsmoke school of pissing off their fans.

abby and kipp are in bed with each other by their wedding night. mostly because kipp wants to "father an heir" but like, sure, jan. there is definite chemistry there and, eventually, also love. i ate it up. michaels is of the "don't describe everything in detail" romance authors and that makes it even better. i don't need to read every time something happens. i can elaborate from context, thanks.

THE BAD

- abby's mother and her "aunt" hermione told her that she "shouldn't" enjoy her wedding night. now, i know this is placed in like the mid-1800s but of all the eye-rolling bullshit to include in your book... no.

- i had to read the phrase "pert breasts." nty.

- abby has a severe case of "i'm beautiful and i don't know it uwu~" disorder and hhhhh no. you don't have to be traditionally beautiful to find someone to love (see what i did there?) and i'm just a teensy little sick to seeing it in books. your looks don't define your ability to find love.

THE UGLY
- okay now we're going to talk bout regina george bliss. her existence isn't problematic or bad, but the way she's introduced made me go WHAT. so, when we meet gina she's being used by a horrible old woman to sell little dolls. abby has a soft heart and she immediately thinks that she needs to free the child.

so she offers to buy her.

you heard that, she offers to buy a child.

i..... cannot even begin to express the noise my brain made when i read that. uh, hello? please don't buy children? "oh well i'm just doing it to free--" fuck off, don't buy children.

after they get gina home and bathe her, they find out that she's: a) not cockney; b) not a child; c) a seamstress. now, they're setting her up to be the heroine in the next book but also like slkjdhflkf why? WHY?? why is this how you set up your character for the next book!!??

TL;DR

this, overall, was a really good one. i honestly loved it. even despite... some things... outlined above. one star for being well written and plotted, one star for the characters, one star for NOT making me read any euphemisms for penis, and one star for a good old fashioned marriage of convenience style romance. so, onto the next! ( )