I love Sarah MacLean’s universe, and I am having fun slowly working through her entire backlist. It has been helpful for my recollection to only read one author at a time in order to really delve into the universe, but I do enjoy listening to Fated Mates with Sarah and Jen’s reflections on the genre overall. 

I am especially looking forward to this darker series, which has more complicated characters who are actually criminals in Covent Gardens, smuggling ice. The three main characters of the series are two brothers and a sister running this smuggling ring. They have a common enemy—their fourth sibling—who stole the title out from under the sister (who is not related to them by blood and actually seems to have her own love story with that third brother). 

Felicity Faircloth had quite the downfall from the previous series, when she stood out with humor in the competition to win the Duke of Haven’s heart. I was disappointed to see that she had become a wallflower, rather than continuing to feature her feistiness and sarcasm. Nonetheless, she totally embraces the darker side of Devil and eagerly enters into a deal with him that will hopefully win her the duke. Of course, the chemistry with Devil overpowers both of them, and despite his intention to use her to screw over his brother, proving that he will never be able to marry and sire an heir, breaking the vow they made to each other as children. 

I really enjoyed the dialogue in this book, and it was fun to see Felicity’s lockpicking, and it was definitely sexy, but I didn’t totally buy the love story and obsession. Things were moving quickly and slowly at the same time, which didn’t totally work for me.