4.5 stars

This will always be the HE BROKE DOWN THE DAMN DOOR TO GET TO HER book to me.

An older former courtesan/mistress and the up and coming scholar that refuses to go away, fall in love despite the challenges.

Beginning has a vague vibe of screwball comedy, the middle has hot chemistry/building friendship, later second half has a villain trying to mess things up for them, and then the ending returns to some screwball comedy vibes to deliver the HEA.

I buddy read this so for my thoughts and comments on it Sleeping Beauty buddy read
This author always gets me talking, she's so good at depicting love in all it's highs and lows and never fails at the emotion.

The pacing did feel off in the later second half but this is a rich story if you like the plot working to enrich the romance, which did make some moments feel a little slow.

Read this solely for their first sex scene but stick around for all those little emotional moments that can hit you right in the heart. Then go to the buddy read and talk about it with me because I'll never tire of discussing this! ( )

November 2023 read: I feel the same way about this book as I did the first time I read it.
sidenote: I didn't pick this up the first time I read the book bc I hadn't yet read Patricia Gaffney's Wyckerly trilogy . . . a vicar of Wyckerly and his wife make an appearance and I am CURIOUS! Did Judy write that as a wink to her friend Patty??

April 2023 read: This story made me very emotional. I just love Judith Ivory's characters, especially her heroines. They make me swoon with love and adoration. I swear, every book I read by Ivory has my new favorite heroine and Coco is no exception. She is smart, kind, a secret-keeper and beautiful. A kind of beauty that shines as it stuns. She has lived a life and much of it - but not all - is slowly revealed within the story.

Although I did love this book, there is some indefensible colonialist bullshit and racism. James Stoker, the MMC, is a geologist back from Africa after an expedition gone awry. He and several other people were meant to survey the land for Queen and country and bring back samples (namely gold LOTS and LOTS of gold). Things turn badly and James is the only person left alive from the original crew. He spends time living with an African tribe (one made up by the author) and eventually returns home to England. Now that he is home, he is tasked with going thru all the documentation and samples collected so crown and country may return to the area James found all the gold. But James is reluctant to provide exact details of his location so he may protect the tribe he spent time with.

. . . I can kind of get what Ivory was trying to do here, however it fell short of the mark by miles. I feel there could have been better choices the author should have made to illustrate how British colonialism is a blight on all things it touches. It's unfortunate because this book really did move me.

Delightful historical. I loved the smart and unconventional leads and the anti imperialist tone. Ivory at her best. ( )

This is a lush, romantic story of a (retired) courtesan who falls in love with a younger man. And the man just happens to be England's current hero, having returned from three years in Africa bearing valuable scholarly research as well as a fortune in gold.

James has a brilliant academic career, and perhaps an earldom, ahead of him, but none of that will happen if he publicly takes up with Coco. As for Coco herself, she's become wealthy and entirely independent and has no desire to subject herself to a man's dominion.

The lead characters are engaging, although I must say that the villain was cartoonish and crumpled without putting up a fight. But the love story is deep and complex and ultimately very satisfying. ( )

While this book doesn't supplant UNTIE MY HEART or THE PROPOSITION as my favorite Judith Ivory novels, it was memorable enough to revisit in the future.

Coco was an original heroine, and I enjoyed both her independence, her maturity, and her unrepentant past. Ivory was particularly clever with how she signaled Coco and James's happily ever after (normally a heroine sleeping with the hero is the sure sign of their devotion and HEA-ness, but for a former courtesan, that won't work).

As much as I enjoyed Coco, I enjoyed James even more. Seen through Coco's eyes, he is a singular hero. I loved the build up of their attraction, and their first love scene scorched off the pages. While many heros are proported to be guiless and forceful, the details Ivory choses for James truly made me see him that way. I'll certainly remember his charisma and sexual chemistry, in addition to those human scenes that allowed him to blossom as a character ( The bat at the opera comes to mind: "James screamed. No other word for it.").

Both Coco and James were in situations that seemed destined forheart break(in terms of society, politics, and realities of colonialism), but Ivory softened reality just enough to promise happiness without completely losing plausibility. A thoroughly entertaining and charming story. ( )