A delightful read with a sweet touch.

Vane's romance deserves a perfect score of 10/10, but the overall story falls a bit short at 6/10.

Unlike other Cynster stories, the background narrative failed to capture my interest. I won't be revisiting this one. The elements involving the "spectrum" and the thief lacked appeal, but Vane's romantic journey is truly captivating. ( )

3.3 stars

I enjoyed Devil and Honoria’s book more than this one, but there were still moments that made me smile, and a few that made me laugh out loud. Patience’s misgivings were drawn out longer than I wanted to put up with, but I otherwise liked her character. Vane was a good egg—dashing, persistent, and very sweet to his godmother. I loved seeing Honoria and Devil again, and it was entertaining to see all the Cynsters checking out Vane’s future bride at Honoria’s ball.

I like these Cynster books, mainly because I love the family dynamic. It’s fun that there’s been a mystery to solve in each of the books so far too. I wonder if that will continue. I could do with about 15 fewer sex scenes in the next book, but I doubt that’s in the cards with this series. This isn’t one I feel compelled to drop everything and read straight through, but I like Lauren’s characters enough to eventually grab the next. ( )

A diferencia de los demás varones de su propia familia, Vane Cynster nunca quiso verse atado a ninguna mujer, por muy encantadora que fuera. Bellamy Hall, pues, le parecía el lugar perfecto para ocultarse durante un tiempo de las cazamaridos de Londres. Pero un día, Vane conoció a Patience Debbington y comprendió que había encontrado a su pareja ideal.

Other than the massively Scooby-Doo plot (which I must say I enjoyed anyway), this book is pretty good. Although it is rather cheesy, the plot is captivating and rather fun - this isn't a particularly serious story, but it's good enough to keep a reader entertained. Vane and Patience sizzle with the heat between them, and the sex scenes are quite hot as well. While this book isn't quite as good as Devil's Bride, I nonetheless enjoyed it a great deal. ( )

I hate giving a book just one star, but I'm really not sure I enjoyed any aspect of it. The heroine was a naive, judgemental, reckless, nitwit. Practically her only attribute was her love for her brother. And the hero was so incredibly full of himself, but almost worse, the author seemed to be full of him too. Apparently he's supposed to be just the end-all-be-all of men. I bet he was called some version of 'hunter', 'warrior', or 'conqueror' well over 50 times! Every little thing he did was described as being 'masterfully done' or some nonsense. It would have been funny perhaps if it were done tongue in cheek or something, but it just dripped with sincerity. I can't think of when I last rolled my eyes so much at a book. They're in opposition for a large part of the book, and he tries to school her into bending to his will or something, but he's experienced, rich, worldly, etc. and she's very young, sheltered, ignorant, and a literal orphan, just trying to look out for her brother! They could not possibly go-toe-to-toe because it's nowhere near a fare fight! And if it's not, then him not pulling any punches against her is really just bullying. They both have pretty paltry communication skills, pretty much all their major revelations about the other are just told to them by someone else. ugh. Also, I really think 75% or so of the story revolved around their sexual encounters. Perhaps I wouldn't have minded if they were engaging, or meaningful, or at least hot or something, but they were largely rubbish too. I think the author was trying to make them 'epic', but the scenes fell very short, so the lofty language just exaggerated that feebleness. Like a toddler shuffling around in their parent's shoes. Tons of vague, flowery language too, like 'then he fell off the edge of the world as her starburst exploded'... (that's not a direct quote, but both of those analogies really were used). It felt like the book went on forever. Also there was a sort of dismal attempt at a mystery, but somehow it ended up the least of my grievances. *sigh* I'll still try to move forward in the series, I believe the later ones will be better, and I like to read in order. ( )