Drake Mowbrah, the Duke of Annick and Charlotte Trethow have married only to find that not only do they not know each other, the other isn’t who they thought they were. She thought he was her knight in shining armor and he thought she was loving and sensual. Those sad discoveries began as soon as the wedding was over. None of it was anything that five minutes of honest communication wouldn’t have fixed – but then – there wouldn’t be a book.

One of the things I loved in this book was the music. The descriptions of the music, the composing and how passionate the performance and writing of it were.

Drake was raised without love in his life – not from his mother and not from his father. He once thought he was in love, with an older woman, but he learned that she didn’t love him. He’s had many debutantes express interest in him, but they were interested in his title and wealth. He’s young, devastatingly handsome, wealthy, and titled so surely, he could find someone who would love him for himself. Unfortunately, he had very little time to find her because his mother has given him an ultimatum – marry before the season ends or she’ll find a bride for him.

I didn’t care for Charlotte in the last book and I was looking forward to seeing how the author was going to redeem her. In my view, Charlotte was immature, naïve, stubborn, selfish, self-centered, and everything was ‘all about me’ and at the same time she had very low self-esteem and expected herself to be ‘perfect’ in every way. There was just so very, very much angst on Charlotte’s part – but -- I kept seeing glimmers and thought ‘A-ha, she’ll have an epiphany now’, but – no. Even when her husband was bleeding from a wound, it was about her. It was her fault (it wasn’t), etc. She just made me very, very tired.

Their young and floundering marriage is beset with miscommunications, misunderstandings, and a mother-in-law from hell. Drake has to learn to trust Charlotte with his secrets and Charlotte has to learn to give her heart and body to Drake. I think the biggest thing though is that Drake had to grow a spine, at least as far as his mother was concerned. He allowed her to rule everything – even running the estate. He didn’t stand up to her nor did he defend Charlotte.

I really came to like Drake in the end, especially once he had his grand epiphany and learned that those deep dark secrets weren’t as cataclysmic as he thought they were. Frankly, I couldn’t understand why Drake would/could love Charlotte, I just didn’t feel it.

This is the second book by this author and her writing is smooth and flows easily. The main characters were supporting characters in the first book – The Earl and the Enchantress. It would appear that I misjudged Drake in that first book because I thought he was a crass, uncaring, boor and he was not – well – not exactly. Also, it was lovely to find that Lizbeth, Sebastian, and Aunt Hazel from the first book make an appearance. The better part of this story was filled with angst – mostly on Charlotte’s part – and I’m not a fan of angst.

The first chapter of the next book in the series is at the end of this book and it sounds like a really good read. I’ll be excited to see that one release.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )