3.5 stars 
 I am a bit conflicted on how I feel about Lisa Kleypas' first historical romance after a 5 year hiatus. 
 Story: Devon unexpectedly becomes an Earl after the passing of his cousin Theo. The title comes with an estate that is improvished and in the reds. He intends to sell it and enjoy the blunt. While visiting the estate he meets Theo's beautiful widow Kathleen and Theo's 3 sisters. 
 It wasn't a story I couldn't put down. In fact in the middle of reading this book I started and finished another story before coming back to it. The writing is on-point and has LK's sharp and witty remarks and one liners, but it lacked something for me. 
 The biggest issue was that I didn't like Kathleen, our heroine. She started off strong; she had a harsh childhood and she obviously felt when she spoke of how her husband had died. But as the story progress she became such a meddling over-critical shrew. 
 She complains when Devon has to sacrifice 4 tenants' land so the estate can be profitable thus saving the other 200 tenants. She harps on Devon when he tries to set up one of the sisters, Helen, with a merchant friend of Devon's - before even asking Helen's opinion on if she would welcome the suit and despite the fact that Helen has no dowry and therefore little prospect marrying a peer. She later meddles again in this courtship without asking Helen. From the above, Kathleen comes across as out of touch with reality, overbearing and someone you just cannot please. Her wish to adhere to all of society's rules on proper behaviour bugs me too. Her most charming interactions seem to be with Devon's brother West. After Devon catching her in the storm, their sizzle seems to only be physical and the other times they spend together they spend arguing. As Devon once hinted during an argument with her, I can't imagine anyone wishing to spend the rest of their lives with her. 
 Devon while not the nicest guy to start with he was at least fun to read about. And later he had his redeeming moment with taking on his responsibilities and his heroic behavior in the train incident, but I couldn't grasp what he loved about Kathleen. It all happened suddenly. And, after that (view spoiler)[ near death experience and what he said to himself as well as to her (hide spoiler)], you would think he realizes how he feels. But nope they continue on, and argue some more before breaking out their "I love yous". 
 I was more intrigued by the secondary romance than Devon and Kathleen's. Unfortunately Helen and Rhys Winterbourne's story seems to be left for her next book Marrying Winterbourne (to be published May 2016 -so I have to wait half a year). Cold-Hearted Rake includes an awesome excerpt from Marrying Winterbourne. I thoroughly look forward to reading more of Rhys and I am hoping this will be the book I waited 5 years for instead. I do think that it will be unfair to readers picking that book up without reading this book first since so much happens in Cold Hearted Rake. They would miss Helen nursing Rhys and the orchid gift piece of the puzzle. 
 So there you have it. LK writes well and there were many sharp witty lines that kept me reading, some really good scenes but this ended up kind of lukewarm for me.