Shupe is a very, very uneven author for me. I took a gander at my list of her books and it’s about evenly split between “good”, “eh”, and DNFs. This falls into the “I didn’t like it, but I didn’t dislike it enough to DNF it” category.
Plot: Florence, sister of Mamie from book 1, is determined to make her own way in the world. That means that rather than marrying well, which isn’t hard when you’re an heiress under 25 who isn’t monstrously hideous, she’s going to go into business. For herself. Running an illegal gambling hall. But it won’t be like the other illegal gambling halls, this one will be for women. One tiny problem – she has no idea how to run a gambling hall, but hey, there’s a very dangerous criminal who runs a very successful one that she’s sure will be willing to help her out. And turns out that indeed he is, despite being very upfront about loathing her father and having imminent plans of destroying him. But she can probably change his mind, right? Shenanigans ensue.
So yes, the plot contrivances you need to swallow just off the bat are pretty substantial and they don’t get any less substantial as the story progresses. The characters are built on existing archetypes with virtually no modification and the situations they find themselves in mostly move from one trope to another in highly predictable ways. This book, and indeed this series, is in effect a soap opera, so if you like soaps, this is going to be very much up your alley. I’ll say this too, this book is much better than the first in the series on things like consent, so I could at least actually finish it.