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lenanico's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
- While his sister on the other hand is queen of overstepping boundaries...
And Poppy admittedly is embarrassingly relatable to me.
For something that isn't really my usual taste I enjoyed this A LOT. Maybe partly also for the aesthetic. The vibe feels the way the covers of the "Emily Wilde" books look like.
"The Duke and I" got nothing on this one!
Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Grief
Minor: Blood, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, and Cursing
unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, and Alcohol
Moderate: Sexism and Misogyny
vagrantheather's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
There is smut here, yes. Too little of it to some reviewers, but well balanced in my eyes. But what really captivated me was the way it toyed with my emotions. The ways they misunderstand each other and it breaks their hearts. The ways they misread cues and self-abuse. In my 30s I'm still an emotional wreck and this book landed so many blows.
> "I am not the kind of man with whom there is a future for you." Her blood ran cold. Suddenly she could see herself the way he saw her . . . Not a goddess. Just a spinster who forgot herself.
> She could still feel that child's fear, that primal urge to burrow into the darkest, smallest nooks. . . Only Bernadette had understood. . . She'd sensed innately what Poppy had really wanted when she had hidden herself away. To be found. For to be found was the only way of knowing you were wanted.
> And today he had been so polite and bloody sweet in letting her down gently that her foolishness was compounded, because he must have seen how she had hoped. It was mortifying, the amount of care he took. She would rather he had simply said 'thats not what I bought you for, cavendish,' and slapped her.
I was not expecting this book to be emotionally devastating. I need a dozen more like it.
PS this is still definitely sappy and definitely vivid in a mature audiences only kind of way.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Sexual content
Moderate: Grief, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Death
Minor: Classism, Alcohol, and Death of parent
buttermellow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Child death
Minor: Pregnancy and Classism
beccaand's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Sexual content and Grief
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Child abuse
nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
That being said, I did enjoy my time reading this book and I love that Archer is truly a romantic once he gets out of his own way. A lot of things Poppy did really infuriated me but she does eventually learn and grow
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Moderate: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Death
Death of a spousealways_sorry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Grief
sydapel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent
friends2lovers's review against another edition
2.0
______________
Endnotes
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Quotes
They could not go on like this.
Because the darkness of that scene was hateful. Its pleasures, such as they were, a slinging of anger back and forth.
The words he’d said to her were cruel.
The things she’d done to him were insulting.
They would not have felt so vital were they not a symptom of a bitter war that she was losing.
The fact that she’d enjoyed it left her lonely and afraid. She longed to knock on his door and apologize. To curl up beside him in the dark and say that she was sorry and confused and sad and ask him what that coupling had meant and why this marriage hurt so much.
She could not imagine what he’d say.
They’d done altogether too much talking. Whatever this ragged thing between them was, conversing served only to make it worse.
Too much talking?! Conversing would make it worse?! Ugh.
Keep him safe, she whispered to herself as they clattered over the dark roads. Don’t let him do something foolish—trying to save lives, or things, or—and then she remembered.
She’d forgotten to take her papers home with her. Her ledgers, files, correspondence, all her annotated plans—she’d overlooked them in the tumult, shaken from the scene with Tom. They would burn.
Years of careful research and months of breakneck work. The future for which she’d traded in her past.
All locked in the bloody cabinets behind her bloody desk.
Prayers could be changed midutterance.
Let me get there in time, she whispered. Oh God, please don’t let them burn.
This is when Poppy completely lost my sympathy.
“Enough, Poppy,” he yelled, beating his head back against the wooden headboard. The pain of it centered him. He did it again.
“Stop that! You will injure yourself.”
He opened his mouth and laughed, a nasty, mirthless snarl. “Will I? Rich words from the likes of a woman who ran into a burning building.”
“It was not yet burning,” she said with a petulant toss of her head. For once, her determined jaw and tumbling hair did not move him. He wanted to shake her.
Ah, yes, petulant is a good word to describe Poppy. I wanted to shake her, too.
Graphic: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Moderate: Death, Child death, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, and Stalking
Minor: Violence and Rape
Details about the infidelity CW:jessreads137's review against another edition
5.0
This book is FULL of miscommunication, lack of communication, and that results in an interaction that ends in one of the characters cheating on the other. As the reader this seems like something that could have been prevented with simple communication but there is a lot of complicated character development and deep pain that culminates in this event. That being said, this didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the story while I understand that for some readers this will impact their enjoyment of the book. If you enjoy angst in your romance and the intense dynamics that can arise when reading about the societal pressures that exist in historical romances I believe this will be a book you enjoy.
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Infidelity