4.5ish stars

I was made to have hurt feelings until literally the last few pages of the book and I was woozy! Delicious and Not Quite a Husband made me cry actual tears so Private Arrangements is a step below those books as far as hurt feelings go . . .

Something that sticks out to me as kind of a brave choice for a romance, both MCs have people they could have married and enjoyed a lovely life with and these other people were not made to be "bad" for the reader to have a clean preference for Tremaine. When Gigi finally breaks things off with Frederick, I was so sad in my heart, there was a glimpse of how it could be between them. Likewise, when Tremaine was with Miss von Schweppenburg, sailing on the waters, with her children and he kisses her hair, that hurt! Because they could have been together all along and they would have been a very happy family. And gosh, seeing the dregs of what those relationships could have been affected me. Love was found, lost (not really lost, they never stopped loving one another), and found again between our MCs. But love was also found with other people.

More lovely tidbits: Gigi and her mother were hilarious. And this makes me think of how families function in a Sherry Thomas book (of which I've read 3 so I am not an expert!). In Delicious and Not Quite a Husband, people who come into the family, remain part of the family. One of the most touching sections in NQaH is when Leo arrives back in England and presents himself as Bryony's spouse when she attends her father's funeral and, even now, it brings tears to my eyes. The couple had such a messy go at it but were still a family. (crying rn thanks Sherry Thomas).

AND Thomas’s use of flashbacks and time jumps work well for me probably because they are used with devastating precision. I'm also thinking over Tremaine's explosive reaction after finding out about the forged letter from Miss von Schweppenburg. His turn as a super villain that could't really villain as effectively as he wanted was interesting! And lead to so much pain! (but this also makes me think of a passage from early in the book: “I couldn't stand the thought of bedding you before now.” “Really?” She laughed, thought she'd have preferred to smash an inkwell against his temple. “You liked it well enough last time.” “The performance of a lifetime,” he said easily. “And I was a good thespian to begin with.”)

Some misses: The secondary love story: it was fine - it did not deserve ALL the time it was afforded. I am alone in thinking this, but I also felt the secondary romance in Delicious wasted time I’d rather have spent with the MCs. I feel like so much of these side stories could do well as novellas on their own. It’s not that they aren’t interesting, but there is already a romance I’d rather focus on. But that’s just me!

Him pulling the birth control device out of her was a bummer. I was so nervous how he was going to react when he found out she’d been using the Dutch hat - but when she told him he didn’t freak out terribly. I would rather have a scene where she chooses not to use birth control instead of him removing it.

Gigi’s charity - look. Eat the rich! So much abundance of wealth here! And that felt intentional - like Thomas was not being vague or cutesy with how fucking rich these people are. And I appreciate that Gigi is the kind of woman to help other women but this did not move the story forward for me in a meaningful way. I do not care about rich people charities, they should be taxed into oblivion. ( )

TBH these people are more forgiving than me. ( )

Oh man, this book. It's a second chance romance, so the entire first half bounces back and forth, inching toward their reunion, and also toward the event that separated them originally. So it's like watching a very slow moving car wreck. Both characters make *terrible* decisions throughout the book. And often in books that's enough to sap all my enjoyment, but as frustrating as it was here, it was still surprisingly compelling. Rather than wash my hands of them and their foolishness, I cringed but didn't want to turn away, lol. I hate that they missed out on a whole decade of happiness together over things they should have just worked to find a way through. It feels like such a waste. But somehow I didn't end up hating them, or this book.

Minor grievances, strawberry laurels were mentioned like four times too many, and Greek mythology, (though I'm a fan!) was also somehow shoe-horned in, every couple pages. Probably at least two dozen individual characters were named, not even as a part of the plot or anything, plus other odds and ends, all just sprinkled about. It felt very excessive. There were a lot of art references too, but often in reference to actual paintings in the story, so they didn't feel as blatant.

My feelings about their major mistakes She definitely shouldn't have had a letter forged. That's obvious. But ultimately, he shouldn't have stubbornly continued to give blind loyalty to someone who didn't deserve it, (and if he hadn't then she never would have sent a forgery in the first place). And ultimately, her letter freed him to do what he most wanted to do anyway, and besides pre-empting the other woman's actual abandonment of him by a couple weeks, it changed nothing! And his not-even-betrothed that he was willing to sacrifice his happiness for didn't even bother to notify him that she was casting him aside! Not worth clinging to. And he knew from the first moments of meeting the heroine that she was sort of ruthless and he even liked that about her, so it was preposterous of him to doom both their futures in retribution for just that one thing. His response was agregiously outsized to the offence. (He married her for spite, he spurned her, he made her feel horrible about herself, he made her think he'd taken a lover, he mentioned the desire to repeatedly throw her against the wall?! wtf? Even years later when he still hadn't given up on the idea of a reunion with her, he still was being a huge ass, saying that bedding her would sicken him and that he pitied any man she "loved". Stop getting in the way of your own happiness dude!!! She genuinely put in some serious effort trying to make up for her mistake, sacrificing pride and humbling herself and stuff, and he could have decided to get over it ANY TIME in like the first 8 years, and she would have leapt at the chance. So honestly, I put 90% of the blame for both of them being heartbroken and miserable, (for an entire decade(!)), at his feet! ( )

It wasn't a bad read. Thought that the author might go in another direction, but was pleasantly pleased with the storyline. I would try another novel by this author. ( )

En la esplendorosa y refinada Inglaterra de finales del siglo xix, lord y lady Tremaine encarnan un matrimonio perfecto, basado en el respeto y la libertad, sobre todo porque cada uno vive a un lado del Atlántico. Sin embargo, cuando ella le pida el divorcio a fin de poder volver a casarse, él le pondrá una condición: que permanezcan juntos un año más para que le dé un heredero. Y, sin duda, un año dedicado a tales menesteres puede dar mucho de sí.