4 stars 
 This started off brilliantly. Their letters back and forth, the way the hero misunderstood the heroine as a marriage scheming miss, the sparks when they met that first time on the dance floor of a ballroom. The flowers going back to him with that note. So good. 
 Somewhere halfway when they start to get along it loses some of its magic and steam. Dalton's mysterious alter ego was hard to believe. But I have never been into the whole (view spoiler)[secret second identity (hide spoiler)] trope. 
 And when Thea started belting out arias to stop a bunch of thugs from fighting, that just seemed implausible and out of place to me. I felt like we were seeing a scene from a musical, say that scene from Disney's Tangle (side note: I loved Tangle). I also found it hard to believe this was the same girl who was so nervous in her first two season that she could not speak to suitors and erupted in nervous laughter. Her character went for a complete 360. The author did explain that she finally felt free from expectations now that she no longer wants marriage. But I still feel her core personality would not be that different. 
 And by the way the hunt for those who wronged his brother, I called that right from the start (major (view spoiler)[I knew he was alive as soon as they said only his hat washed up (hide spoiler)]). I wish they made the confrontation (view spoiler)[between the 2 brothers (hide spoiler)] more emotionally moving. It felt a little flat to me. I understood how Dalton might have felt. But I didn't feel as much as I should have through the words on the page. This could have been a far more powerful passage. 
 Despite some weaknesses I enjoyed this story. I love the beginning so much, if it kept that magic this actually might have ousted my 2016 favourite (Lord of A Thosuand Nights. Not published in 2016. Just discovered and read this year). As far as I recall this is my first Lenora Bell novel but I will be looking for more of her work. 
 At A Glance 
 Love triangle (view spoiler)[No (hide spoiler)] 
 Descriptive sex with Om/Ow (view spoiler)[No (hide spoiler)] 
 HEA (view spoiler)[Yes (hide spoiler)] 
 Other safety considerations (view spoiler)[the Duke is a rake and his laisions before he meets Thea is alluded to. She also sees him flirting with a woman but this is all before they meet. (hide spoiler)]