There are stories that we read that never truly leave us and I have no doubt that, this series will stay with me forever. I’m not sure I precisely have the words to explain how entirely amazing this series is or just how much it has captivated me. All I know is that I want to read it over and over again.

After loving Beth and Gwen’s story I was eager to return to 1858 for James and Bobby’s story, which did not disappoint. There is so much longing and angst throughout their story that I just couldn’t put it down. Just like the first book I don’t think I have ever wanted two people to find their way to one another as much as I did for these two couples.

It’s marked as an enemies to lovers but I would say they are never truly ‘enemies’ , there’s a clear dislike of one another which comes after a disastrous first encounter (James being unable to communicate after many years of crushing on Bobby and Booby conveying James’ actions as stand-offish.)

Just like the first book there’s meddling and mischief from Ben and Gwen and all our favourite characters return as well as Albie, who is just the sweetest, having a bigger part in James and Bobby’s story.

Emma, thank you for writing these beautiful stories and creating these characters to give a voice to so many. I have said it before and will say it again, please someone turn these books in a TV series.

✨ Queer Historical Romance
✨ Found Family
✨ Enemies to Lovers (kind of)

Favourite Quotes:

𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒐, 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓. 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆? 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔?

𝑩𝒐𝒃𝒃𝒚 𝒐𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕, 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔. 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔, 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝑯𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆-𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚'𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒆- 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒅.

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕, 𝒊𝒇 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝑩𝒐𝒃𝒃𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕- 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏, 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚- 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆, 𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒃𝒐𝒚.

𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓... 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎.

𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin General UK for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

I can sometimes struggle with multiple POVs; I either struggle to keep up with exactly who each character is and who’s POV I’m currently reading, or I just really don’t care for one or more of the characters. I was SO happy to find I didn’t have either of those problems this time. I loved getting to see things from both Bobby and James’s POVs, I found it really helped to understand why they said the things they said and how they really felt about each other.

Bobby and James were such lovable characters and SO well written, but I found that some of the side characters - particularly the ones we’re supposed to hate - weren’t as well rounded as they could have been. They read more black and white, than the realistic grey I prefer to see in characters.

This was such an easy read! I find historical fiction difficult to read sometimes because the language used can either be too modern which takes you right out of the scenes trying to be set, or it can be too historical and difficult to read. Alban found the perfect balance between modern and historical language, that I’ve only seen once before in Alexis Hall’s A Lady for a Duke.

I was already half way through when I became aware this was part 2 of a duology. I carried on regardless and found that despite not having read the first in the series, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. I will definitely be going back and reading part 1 though!!

Sadly, I couldn't get into this You're The Problem, It's You. I can't seem to get into Regency anymore. Did not finish.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this one with it's cuteness.

While I haven't read the first book in the duoligy the book was easy to follow along with. I do love a good enemies to lovers and this one was great. I do enjoy a bit of historical fiction and this one didn't disappoint with it's society.

Bobby and James are such a good match and I enjoyed reading as they inevitably fell for eachother.

While the plot was a little predictable it's still such a great read and I highly recommend reading.

I'm giving it a solid 3.5 just because I was a bit confused by certain things. I was also a little thrown off with the third person pov.

Adorable little society romance that will warm the heart.
We see two members of the London ton navigate the trials of society, the season and scandals.
Bobby is a second son who wants a purpose in life, this purpose comes in the shape of befriending James a Viscount new to his title.
The both fight against their attraction for each other and when they finally fall, a villian threatens to out them to the papers and have the thrown in jail!

All in all the story is charming and heartwarming if somewhat predictable ( I worked out the main plot twist by page 3). It was enjoyable and relaxed read and I would happily recommend this to anyone who enjoys a wee romance.

thank you netgalley for the arc this was a slay
i love a good annoyances to lovers and beth and gwen are happy so that's all i care about!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for approving my request to read an arc of this book

First off I’ll admit that I haven’t read the first book in this duoligy, but I still followed it easily and enjoyed the story immensely! Enemies to lovers is one of my favourite tropes, especially when they both already have feelings for each other. It was paced well and their relationship grew in a very natural way, without feeling rushed or forced.

While I’m not usually as into historical settings, I did really enjoy this one. And without going into any spoilers, I throughly enjoyed the ending and it was exactly what I’d hoped for!

I’d highly recommend this book and I’d give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this one! I actually liked it more than book one, but funnily enough I have a lot of the same points as book one?

First of all, I really loved both Bobby and James individually. Getting insights into both their thoughts and feelings meant I really connected to their emotions and motivations. I think that with enemies to lovers you can go with one of two options: Banter, or they genuinely don't like each other. This book goes with the second option. I think I could have done with a bit more banter. But at least having multiple povs meant we understood why they were saying the things they were saying, and it meant we knew they did fancy each other. But they were pretty brutal to each other at some points and the miscommunication got a bit annoying.

I think the switch from 'we hate each other' to 'we want to be with each other' is a little bit better handled than in book one (from Beth and Gwen being friends to lovers) because we already knew the boys liked each other. But it was still a bit quick in my opinion. But as I said, the fact I really liked the characters meant I just wanted them to realize they wanted each other back!

The ending got a bit confusing. I didn't really understand where they were going? Or why? But those chapters thankfully don't last long. It also got a bit confusing with who was related to who (I think once you use the sentence "His cousin's step-sister's cousin" It's maybe best to take a stock of who's who) and I also wish that Bobby's insecurities about his place in the family was explored a bit more and resolved between him and his brother verbally.

However, this was a cute romance, fun, queer. All good. I enjoyed the insight into the clubs for lgbt+ people and the discussions around marriage as survival. And I also just love reading about queer joy and queer communities.