3.75 stars 
 Oh Apollo. He's so adorable. *sigh* 
 I enjoyed this one overall. Hoyt really has a deft hand at creating layered flawed characters who develop more overtime. 
 Highlights for me: 
 -Apollo: Loved him before this, love him now. He's as patient, kind, gentle, sweet and smexy as I was hoping he would be. Darling giant indeed. His devotion to his sister Artemis is so endearing and his desperation and yearning to obtain a "normal" life after his horrific ordeal in Bedlam was tangible. I loved his passion for landscape architecture. I can't wait to see the final results of the new Harte Pleasure Gardens in the upcoming books. And I have to say I enjoyed reading about a hero who is labeled as "not handsome" with a knobby nose and craggy face. gY~... It made this character more realistic and gave him more depth. 
 -Lily Stump: She surprised me. It was a slow start at first but I really warmed up to her. And I thought Indio was the cutest and such a scene stealer. I've become weary of single parent tropes because sometimes kid(s) can take away from the romance. But it didn't here. I also loved Lily's devotion and loyalty to Apollo. Her faith in him even when she barely knew anything about him was really sweet. 
 -Asa Makepeace: Omg. I had no idea how hysterical Asa could be. gY~... My gawd. Whoever ends up with him has her hands full. He cracked me up in this with his irreverent dry snarky personality and how he's such a frazzled messy pack rat. I don't know why but I found it oddly charming. He's such a hot mess but I just love his brash tongue. And strangely enough, Apollo and Asa worked well together. Another surprise for me. At first I found these two as close friends extremely random but they meshed well. Asa being crass and blurting out whatever he thinks and Apollo calming him down. Witty, easy, funny dynamic. 
 What I wasn't so thrilled with: 
 -Story Set Up: I don't know why but the idea of Lily, her housekeeper and her son living in a burned down theater was hard to swallow. Or more like hard to picture. I'm very much a visual person and sometimes some things are easier to picture, illustrate and map out mentally while others aren't. And Hoyt is great at world building but in this case I had a hard time visualizing these 3 living in a dilapidated random suite(?) of rooms in the ruins of a burned down theater. The layout of it made no sense and hard to picture considering 80% of the theater itself is completely gone and in shambles. And yet Lily and her little family are staying in a makeshift suite of some kind, with a bedroom and bathroom and the main "living room" has a door to the theater and another door that leads straight outside to the garden....Ehhhh. But I'll just sum this up to my ignorance to how theaters were built back in those days and how many backstage rooms they have. lol 
 -Indio's Parentage: Similar to the whole farfetched emerald drama in Artemis's book, here Hoyt pulled another contrived plot point that was really hard to swallow. (view spoiler)[Lily, a very well known actress, managed to keep the existence of her son a secret from his aristocratic father, Lord Ross. Both of whom have one blue eye and one green eye. A specific character trait that is very hard to miss. If the Duke of Montgomery managed to quickly make the connection by just seeing the little boy how the hell did no one else not notice this? Indio's eyes are pointed out by every adult who sees him and Lily never tried to hide him physically from others. Sooooo.....you're telling me for 7 years nobody noticed or spread word back to Lord Ross? 
 This is the English ton we are talking about. Considering the fact that Lily is a famous actress and admired by many and Indio is always running around everywhere I found this extremely hard to believe. And let's not ignore the fact that the Earl is a possessive abusive psycho who had to be told his child died at birth to get him to leave Lily alone. But she shows up in London with a kid years later with the same mismatched eyes and nobody notices and the gossipmongers don't say shit? Yeeeeah......ok. gY~... 
 (hide spoiler)] 
 -The Duke of Montgomery, Valentine Napier: *sigh* So this is where I confess my original reason behind giving this series a try. Because of Val. I've heard so much about the infamous naughty Duke, his reputation preceded him so I was anxious to meet him and get to his book. And I've finally met him. And I'm a little....underwhelmed? to say the least. Because let me tell you how I'm picturing him right now is such a let down and distracting AF: 
 gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~(c)gY~'gY~'gY~'gY~'gY~'gY~' 
 Please tell me there's more to this? gY~* 
 For comic relief, I get it. But the rest? I really don't. 
 Hoyt help me out here because this is NOT what I had in mind. And I cannot for the life of me picture this overstuffed dandy as an intimidating anti-hero. And I love anti-heroes. I've read books with vain heroes who are pompous and love fashion (see Duke of Villiers in A Duke of Her Own), so the vain part isn't my issue. It's his physicality and how he carries himself that's throwing me off. I don't find him intimidating, menacing or mysterious at all. He's coming off too gangly, foppish and effeminate for me. gY~- Besides the fact that he loves gossip and gathering secrets I don't find him very cunning. And that concerns me. I hope Hoyt proves me wrong. Please please