Peter Kent may have just become a Duke, but that doesn’t mean he is guaranteed to get custody of his younger half siblings, especially when the judge making that decision dislikes him for his radical abolitionist position. He decides to ask the smartest person he knows for help, but since she is the unmarried sister of an earl, he gets the earl and his wife involved as well. It becomes a whole family project. Selina Ravenscroft, the smartest person Peter Kent knows, decides he must marry before the hearing date. Initially, Peter is very excited, because he thinks Selina means that he should marry her. He likes that idea a lot. But no, she has three other women in mind for him to court. It becomes quickly apparent that Peter isn’t going to be proposing to any of the three women she selects for him. They don’t want to marry him, and he really is in love with her.
Selina has her reasons for feeling like marriage is not an option. She is the owner of a lending library, and publisher of a series of books that through memoir and fiction, teach women about sex. She is sure that someday she will be discovered and doesn’t want to deal with a husband’s embarrassment. As readers, we know that Peter, a being of sweetness and chaos, is never going to be embarrassed by some sex education, especially not if Selina is the one doing the education.
There is a lot going on, plot-wise and character-wise. I really enjoyed Peter, Selina, their friends and families. I also wished the middle had been tightened up a bit, but my quibbles there are pretty minor. I have but still haven’t read the Halifax Hellions books, and now I really want to find time to get to them.
I received this as an advance reader copy from St. Martin’s and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.