While Sophie has spent the past few years since her mother’s death learning how to “dazzle” people from her mama’s journals, Bram was being the best damn stick-in-the-mud he could be in order to regain respectability for his family name. And just when he thinks he’s finally gained some respect back for the title, Sophie shows up on his doorstep armed with a monkey, a parrot, a grouchy maid, and the ability to “dazzle.”

Sophie’s “dazzle” sometimes drove me nuts during this story and her obsession with wanting to make everyone around her happy equally frustrated. The thing that saved her character from reaching Disney princess standards was that she has a temper and isn’t naive. Despite the way she acts in public Sophie doesn’t wear rose tinted glasses about her life. She doesn’t believe in love, because she had to watch her mother weep after every one of her guys left. In turn Sophie doesn’t think too highly of men, but she isn’t a man hater. She likes them, she just doesn’t expect much from them. Sophie’s also probably one of the most sex savvy historical heroines I’ve seen in a while. She’s a virgin, yes, but she’s also read every single one of her mother’s journals which apparently go into detail about what she did with all her guys.

I almost felt bad for Bram in the story, because Sophie has a kind of whirl wind effect. Here he is just trying to be the dullest member of the peerage and she just sweeps into his house with a couple of exotic pets, a man hating maid, and all her “dazzle.” Then within five minutes of their meeting she warns him about her “dazzle” and tells him not to fall in love with her.

Anyway, this story would’ve been incredibly boring if it hadn’t been for how Constance and Bram’s father died, because that part of the plot was the launching pad for pretty much everything that happens. I loved that it was made into the foundation of the story, because Michaels could’ve just used it to throw the characters together then pushed it into the shadows in favor for something else….. You know, at the end of this I was almost wishing that Michaels had a prequel to this story, because I loved Constance and Bram’s father and the stories of some of the odd things they pulled were great. ( )