Arc courtesy of author and publisher. 
 3.5 stars 
 Not my favourite work of this author, I couldn't really find our two MCs appealing for these reasons: 
 1. Heroine 
 At the start of the story, I liked our heroine Alex, she had spirit and pluck. When her childhood crush Owen Monroe asks her for a turn about the room and she realized he only asked her out of mistaken identity, she smiles and acts gracefully. But further into the story, Alex tells our hero (Owen) that she would help him woo and court her sister Lavinia, while feeding him false information that she knew would have the opposite effect. She tells him some truths, but not too many, and more false information than truths. 
 This part was uncomfortable to read, and my feelings towards the heroine began to change. Granted, Alex's sister is a horrible person, and granted it wasn't as if our hero had any real attachments or feelings towards the sister - he was merely courting Lavinia at the request of his father, who had threaten to take away his allowance if he didn't marry the girl. But all the same, I felt this was really dishonest and manipulative. I was shocked when our hero professes his love and say she doesn't play any games. This was after he knew about her ploy. She also attempted to make him jealous as well. 
 2. Hero 
 At the same time, as we get to know Owen I had to hard time with this character too. He was suppose to be this worldly rake and scoundrel, and 12 years older than our heroine. Yet he doesn't question Alex's motives when she tells him that her sister doesn't want flowers but likes rocks? He doesn't even asks why. He comes across as too gullible for his age of 31 years. 
 The story spends sometime following his POV (not in first person), and right at the start, it spends a paragraph or two describing his fashionable attire and the care he goes to achieve it. There is a lot of introspection that didn't seem entirely believable as a male's perspective. Overall he wasn't a character that was attractive to me. I wish that he was more mature than how he came across. In many of his meetings with Alex I felt that she was the leader of the two. 
 The story was at times entertaining, but I wish that I could have related to our MCs more. 
 At A Glance 
 Cheating (view spoiler)[No, but H does almost carry out a liaison with a widow after he had already kissed h. He stops before entering her room but they do kiss. The reasoning for him being with the widow in the first place is that he thinks Alex deserves better. But still... (hide spoiler)] 
 Descriptive sex with OW/OM (view spoiler)[No (hide spoiler)] 
 HEA (view spoiler)[Yes (hide spoiler)]