I wrote an entire review and it was deleted. That’s so annoying.

OK, a quick summary of the book: Poppy, which I think is the most common name for a romance heroine these days, works at a flower shop. The Duke of Autenberry comes in each week to buy flowers for various paramours, and Poppy fancies herself in love with him. When the Duke nearly gets run over by carriage after a fight with a strange man, Poppu saves his life by pushing him out of the way and sending him to the ground. Fortunately, the strange man happens to be Struan, the Duke’s estranged half-brother, and he saves Poppy. The three characters wind up back at the Dukes home where his stepmother and two sisters are immediately drawn to Poppy’s positivity and kindness. This instant connection complicates Poppy’s impulsive lie to Struan, claiming to be engaged to the Duke, and their budding attraction further exacerbates those complications. When the Duke finally wakes up—totally fine despite his weeklong coma because romance reasons—Struan and Poppy have a desperate last encounter, making love in the stables. Poppy realizes that she is actually in love with Struan, but she is sure that he will never be able to forgive her lie. On the other hand, Struan has determined that Poppy cannot truly be in love with the Duke, but accepts that she will return to him and their engagement now that he has awoken. Poppy is surprised by the Duke’s proposal that they actually do marry after all and initially accepts him. After a few days of wedding planning, though, she realizes that she cannot go through with it, and she leaves the house with her sister Briony, searching for Struan until she eventually finds him, admits the truth, and falls into his welcoming embrace. 

I haven’t been as engaged in my audiobook listening lately, and it has been a bit challenging for me to follow the plot. I’m not sure if it’s related to the fact that the world is nuts or more of an internal struggle to focus and engage with anything, so I can’t say I loved this or loved the characters. However, I did thoroughly enjoy the world that Sophie Jordan created and look forward to reading the next book in the series at least. Indeed, I initially picked this up because Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop recommended the second book in the series in an episode of Fated Mates, and I’m a completionist who wasn’t about to start with the second book in a series. I had fun with this, and I’m glad to add Sophie Jordan to my list of preferred authors, especially because she writes historical as well as contemporary.