LADY SOPHIE’S SOCIETY SPLASH
The youngest of the infamous Talbot sisters scandalized society at the Liverpool Summer Soiree, striking her sister’s notoriously philandering husband and landing him backside-first in a goldfish pond. And we thought Sophie was the quiet one…
When she finds herself the target of very public aristocratic scorn, Sophie Talbot does what she must to escape the city and its judgment—she flees on the back of a carriage, vowing never to return to London…or to society. But the carriage isn’t saving her from ruin. It’s filled with it.
ROYAL ROGUE’S REIGN OF RAVISHMENT!
The Marquess of Eversley was espied descending a rose trellis—escaping an irate Earl and his once-future countess. No lady is safe from Eversley’s Engagement Ending Escapades!
Kingscote, the Marquess of Eversley, has never met a woman he couldn’t charm, a quality that results in a reputation far worse than the truth, a furious summons home, and a long, boring trip to the Scottish border. When King discovers stowaway Sophie, however, the trip becomes anything but boring.
WAR? OR MORE?
He thinks she’s trying to trick him into marriage. She wouldn’t have him if he were the last man on earth. But carriages bring close quarters, dark secrets, and unbearable temptation, and suddenly opposites are altogether too attractive…
Sophie is the youngest sister of the Soiled S’s, daughters of a successful coal magnate recently anointed Earl. All the sisters, with the exception of Sophie, are scandalous and love it. Sophie is widely acknowledged as the boring one. And, apparently, also plain looking. She also loves books and wants to retreat to the country to open a bookshop. So its definitely book nerd squee heroine stuff.
After Sophie goes against the grain to defend her sister and, subsequently, denounces the aristocracy, she is looking to make a getaway. Her only option is to hitch a ride with the known ruiner of engagements, King. The Marquess is known as a bad boy who likes fast carriages and engaged women. He is unapologetically alpha with a lot of baggage.
What results is an unexpected journey filled with snark, tension, and eventually some steamy scenes.
I checked in with some of the reviews over at GoodReads and was surprised to see a lot of DNFs. I was not surprised to see a lot of readers hating on King, because for much of the book he is a Grade A asshole. I think MacLean lifts the veil quite a bit on what makes him tick, and it all made sense to me, but I know other readers will find the alpha schtick a little misogynistic if not borderline abusive. To be clear, this is definitely a enemies to lovers kind of book, so the H/H spend a good portion of the book hating on each other (or at least telling themselves they hate each other).
Another weakness in the plot is there is a lot of hand wringing about them getting together that is self-imposed. I guess the writing was so good that I really felt the character’s pain enough to be okay with something that can sometimes feel like a cop out. And I do think a lot of people IRL put these self-imposed barriers up to being vulnerable or falling in love because of past trauma. But other readers may find it tiresome.
There is also a brief misunderstanding towards the end where King flies off the handles with his assumptions and it borders on misogyny. But to be fair, his past experiences would likely elicit this type of reaction so I didn’t mind it.
I also like it when H/H have flaws. Dimensions. Act a bit like entitled aristocrats, when they are. It makes the romance so much more interesting to me. And this book had all that in spades.
I haven’t read much MacLean, but she is very talented. This was an entertaining, well researched, and seamless book from start to finish. I love roadtrip books with rompish elements, and this rung that bell. It wasn’t a super funny book, but amusing and often outlandish. The sex scenes were good, fairly vanilla and well written if not super erotic.
Sophie has a good character arc (and so does King), we get some interesting supporting characters and limited secondary romances. As the first in a series, there is also some introduction of other future characters, but steers clear of full chapters devoted to setting up the next books.
At the end of the day, I think this is a love it or hate it kind of book. I know I would re-read, but I also could see how others would not finish.
5 out of 6 Enemies to lovers with a rompish roadtrip
| Content Rating/Heat Index | |
|---|---|
| Mature Content |   |
| Lots of romping and other mature content | |
| Intimacy | |
| Sex scenes towards the middle to end, mostly vanilla | |
| Violence | |
| Some accidents and assault mentions | |
| Overall |  |
|---|---|
| Better for mature readers | |
