This story might well be my favourite in The De Petras Saga series. A captivating friends to lovers romance that kept me turning the pages. A fake 'convenient' engagement for Sapphire and James that gives so much more and a wonderful happily ever after.

Thank you Dragonblade Publishing and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I’m not really a fan of best friends to lovers trope, but GOD THIS BOOK— I LOVE IT!

Because let me tell you, there ain’t a better man than Maltravers. He was absolutely besotted with his best friend, the boisterous, bold and amazing Sapphire de Petras!

It was such an emotional rollercoaster reading about their relationship progress. How Sapphy came to realise her feelings. Although, I wanted to smack Mal on the head a few times for suffering in silence and not braving the waters early on. Seriously, these two.

Loved all the characters, the setting and everything! One of my best read this month. Sapphire was everything I adored, so was Mal!

The Convenient Engagement comes out on 13 October 2022.

5 STARSSSSS

Historical romance, Book 5 of the de Petras saga. We finally have the romance that has been building up in the past three books. The youngest de Petras sibling has always been treated as the baby of the family, even now when she’s out in society and a young lady. She decides that to be taken seriously by her family, she needs to be engaged. She solicits a family friend to be her fake fiancee thinking him to be trustworthy and believable. Poor guy has been in love with her for years and cannot deny her anything. This books made me feel so terribly sad for our hero because of all the pining and longing and crestfallen looks on his face whenever he has a glimmer of hope that is crushed. If you like a sad pathetic pining hero, this one is for you.

My favorite book of the series! I feel like the Sapphire and Maltravers saga had been teased so much in the other books, I was finally glad to read about it.

This book is definitely a friends to lovers type romance. I was very interested in how it would go since Sapphire is so outspoken and does things her way. Poor Mal didn't know what he was in for agreeing to her sham engagement plan.

I definitely felt Maltravers apprehension in him trying to figure out how to convey his feelings since Sapphire can be so stubborn and pushy.

This book was perfect to wrap up the final sibling finding a match that was meant to be!

Thank you to Dragonblade and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

I have been really enjoying Emily EK Murdoch's dePetras family saga and was looking forward to Sapphire's story. While I still liked this book, I do think it was the weakest of the series so far. There are a few continuity issues which bothered me throughout. The most glaring was the ages of Emerald's two children. In the prior book, when Catherine announced her pregnancy, Emerald was merely suspected of being pregnant. Yet in this book, Catherine is only in the late stages of her pregnancy, yet Emerald has 2 babies who are both able to walk and talk. In addition, Sapphire refers to James only as Maltravers (0r Mal), saying that she hasn't called him James in years. Perhaps I am misremembering, but I am pretty sure that does not line up with all of their interactions in previous books.

Regardless of the flaws, it was lovely to see Sapphire and Mal work towards their own HEA. As readers of the previous books know, Mal has been in love with Sapphire for years. but cannot find the courage to tell her. Sapphire seems oblivious, even as she treats Mal in a way that makes it clear she finds him indispensable. The engagement ruse seems a little off, even for Sapphire. While she admittedly disregards many of the notions of the ton (she hugs Mal when she sees him, for example), it seems remarkably naive that she would not give some thought to what would happen when either she or Mal eventually cry off. It is also incredibly selfish that she gives no regard to how her family might feel, given that they have known and loved Mal since he was a babe. I as a reader wanted to shake Mal as he again and again bypassed opportunities to tell Sapphire of his feelings. I loved the truths revealed before the open door sex scene. I didn't love the dust-up over the letter. Sapphire seems too intelligent to have the reaction that she did.

The epilogue was a nice way to round out the series, though I do hope we will eventually see Amethyst's story. I wondered throughout if the invisible duke was a foreshadowing to her tale. Overall, 3 stars.