Heat Factor: It’s a closed door, mild heat. Sweet, but not overtly sexy.
Character Chemistry: It’s friendship to devotion, with some light tension.
Plot: Narilla is desperate to establish her legitimacy with the upper echelons of society after a lifetime of watching her mother’s rejection for marrying a merchant. Jovian is a good-hearted and talented masonry artisan who is also, as it turns out, a thief who steals Narilla’s birthright.
Overall: This was a really well-written and sweet love story and a strong follow up to the other two in this series.
Heat Factor: Animalistic. But like, in a sexy way.
Character Chemistry: Confusing for everyone involved. Until it’s not.
Plot: Lady Georgina decides that she wants to sex her steward. Also someone is killing sheep.
Overall: This was Hoyt’s second book, and the pieces of what make her later books so great are there, but they’re not quite fully developed yet. Still bonkers and fun.
Character Chemistry: It started before the book, so there’s not a ton of buildup.
Plot: She’s in an extralegal girl gang, he’s got dark secrets, being together isn’t going to work, but everything swirling around them connects them. As does sex.
Overall: There’s a lot in this book that should be more prevalent in historical romance.