With a 40 year old heroine and a 30 year old hero, this shaped up to be something unlike any I’ve ever read. I quite liked this novella.
Lady Cecilia Evangeline Stone is in Russia to stop her son from marrying an actress who she thinks is scamming him out of his fortune. She hires a companion and translator, a very English thing to do, but miscalculated one very important factor; she isn’t in England. Next thing she knows, she wakes up in a coach in the lap of a young and attractive Russian man.
Konstantin Alexie Levin is trying to go on the straight and narrow. His life has been spent in crime and he has a chance, a real legitimate chance, to change his way. And he means to take it. His first good deed will be to help the lovely Englishwoman who sleeps in his lap.
She’s been robbed of everything of value- her clothes, her trunks, her money, everything but what she wears. The young Russian man offers her his help, and will pay for everything. He’ll even help her find her son.
Neither one counts on the attraction between them.
The sexual tension is masterfully done and blooms strong and hard, not letting up even once they are together. I loved how Konstantin and Cecilia were so unreserved around each other, and I enjoyed having an older heroine with teenage children. The younger hero who isn’t a super duper wealthy alpha male was nice, although he was plenty alpha, he wasn’t cliché.
But what will happen once Cecilia goes back to England? Konstantin isn’t titled and he isn’t part of the ton. The fling between them doesn’t feel like a fling anymore, but can she step outside her comfort zone and grab something for herself?
Sometimes the hardest part isn’t falling in love, it’s fighting to keep what you want. Just how hard will Cecilia fight for what she wants?
