thank you netgalley for the arc this was a slay
i love a good annoyances to lovers and beth and gwen are happy so that's all i care about!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for approving my request to read an arc of this book

First off I’ll admit that I haven’t read the first book in this duoligy, but I still followed it easily and enjoyed the story immensely! Enemies to lovers is one of my favourite tropes, especially when they both already have feelings for each other. It was paced well and their relationship grew in a very natural way, without feeling rushed or forced.

While I’m not usually as into historical settings, I did really enjoy this one. And without going into any spoilers, I throughly enjoyed the ending and it was exactly what I’d hoped for!

I’d highly recommend this book and I’d give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this one! I actually liked it more than book one, but funnily enough I have a lot of the same points as book one?

First of all, I really loved both Bobby and James individually. Getting insights into both their thoughts and feelings meant I really connected to their emotions and motivations. I think that with enemies to lovers you can go with one of two options: Banter, or they genuinely don't like each other. This book goes with the second option. I think I could have done with a bit more banter. But at least having multiple povs meant we understood why they were saying the things they were saying, and it meant we knew they did fancy each other. But they were pretty brutal to each other at some points and the miscommunication got a bit annoying.

I think the switch from 'we hate each other' to 'we want to be with each other' is a little bit better handled than in book one (from Beth and Gwen being friends to lovers) because we already knew the boys liked each other. But it was still a bit quick in my opinion. But as I said, the fact I really liked the characters meant I just wanted them to realize they wanted each other back!

The ending got a bit confusing. I didn't really understand where they were going? Or why? But those chapters thankfully don't last long. It also got a bit confusing with who was related to who (I think once you use the sentence "His cousin's step-sister's cousin" It's maybe best to take a stock of who's who) and I also wish that Bobby's insecurities about his place in the family was explored a bit more and resolved between him and his brother verbally.

However, this was a cute romance, fun, queer. All good. I enjoyed the insight into the clubs for lgbt+ people and the discussions around marriage as survival. And I also just love reading about queer joy and queer communities.