Distinctly "meh." I loved the beautiful, wonderful beta hero Conall, but was not a fan of our heroine Sofia, who tended towards TSTL moments. Her sadist Italian ex-husband gave her plenty of reasons to fear and mistrust, but that should've gone away long before it did after she threw in her lot with Conall. I didn't like the epilogue, either.

Still, this author can write, and I already have book #2 of this series, so I'm going to give her another go. Hopefully I'll find the next heroine easier to like than this one. ( )

There were several moments where this descended into a bit of farce. There's an evil abusive ex-husband and a poor Viscount who wants to turn the fortunes of an estate around and the ex-wife who wants to secure her future without the husband. When romance starts to blossom between Viscount Taunton and Sofia start to feel something for each other and then when the only way to protect Sofia from her ex-husband is to marry her, he embraces the chance. Her moustache-twirling Italian ex-husband is not going to release her easily. He comes across as a regency version of Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham,

Light and fun read with some mild peril for the characters. ( )