Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book! Although this book is the start of a new series by this author, it's also linked to a previous series. I didn't realize that going in, but this book works just fine without needing to read the previous series. This story ticked all my boxes for mid-life main characters, second chance romance, slow-burn romance, and historical romance. Added points for taking place in an alternate version of England where magical powers exist! I enjoyed the story but felt it dragged a bit from time to time. It also relied very heavily on the trope of misunderstanding (especially between Lady Avely (Judith) and the Duke of Sargen (Dacian), but I think maybe that was intentionally tongue-in-cheek given Lady Avely's "proficiency" for spotting the truth. This book also ended on a cliffhanger, to set the stage for the next book in the series. So this is not really a standalone but the current story was wrapped up well in this book. I have not read Rosalie Oaks before, but am looking forward both to the next installment in this series and to going back and reading about Judith's daughter in the Lady Diviner series. ( )

This is one of the very rare ARCs that I accepted in exchange for an honest review. (However, that does not in any way influence my review.) I'm really glad I did, though! This book was a ton of fun to read, and the humor really hit the spot at a moment when I needed a pick-me-up.

I really like the inclusion of the flashbacks in the early part of the book to give us some history of what happened between these characters. Since the flashbacks are all in their own chapters, it was easy for me to keep track of when in time we were for each section, and I never got confused between what was present and what was past.

My biggest complaint, I think, is that I didn't really get a good feel for a couple of the characters, most notably Lady Agatha or Lady Mary. Perhaps that is because I had mentally discounted them as not interesting (because compared to their brother / brother-in-law the duke they aren't as interesting) but for whatever reason they were background characters to me.

The rest of the cast of characters, however, were a lot of fun to get to know! I look forward to seeing whichever of them show up in the sequel, since we have already been assured that there is a sequel. (It has a title and release year laid out in the end material, never fear.) This book does end on a cliffhanger, but it is more of an indication of where the series is going than anything to do with this book specifically. The book's plot is nicely wrapped up in this volume, and the cliffhanger serves mostly as an indicator of where the series plot will be taking us.

This book was my introduction to Rosalie Oaks' writing, but it won't be the last book of hers that I read. Beyond the sequel to this book, I also plan to pick up the linked Lady Jewel Diviner series, which features the daughter of this book's titular Lady Avely as its main character. ( )