"...the heat between them rivaled the rays of the sun on the warmest day."

What has come over the duke of Argyll?
Upon his return from war, he finds he has developed feelings he never expected... for his best friend's little sister. The two of them are more than happy to explore newfound feelings, were it not for the supposed best friend--and imminent financial ruin--standing in their way.

This book is part of a series but can be read standalone without issue.

Tropes:
Brother's best friend
forbidden romance
reformed rake MMC
Virginal FMC

Steam:
mild--a few explicit pages. The steam is slow burn, though their relationship is not.

Content warnings:
on-page attempted SA

What I liked:
We get a taste of the first book in this series (which I have not read), and I love the concept for that book. The hint of the romance between Nicholas and Gwen is very sweet and their story sounds very compelling.
I liked the sheep, and how genuine the care for them from our MCs was.

What I disliked:
This book needs editing. For example, there are instances of speech not getting closing quotation marks. On page 13 of the ebook, the phrase "blossomed into a beautiful young woman" appears twice. Dialogue tags are heavy throughout. Etc.

I had a very hard time with the accents being written out phonetically.
Ex:
"I have told ye repeatedly, no' only tonight, but past nights as well, I am no' looking for just any husband."
"But ye need one."
She nearly stomped her foot as insistence. "I verra well dinna."

These accents are written out more intensely than any other book I've read set in Scotland. It did make it very difficult to read. If you don't mind that, great! But it was very hard for me to get through.
The narration is sometimes written out that way also, but it is inconsistent. Sometimes the narration uses plain English.

I do not understand why these characters fell in love. The way it is described is basically Alexander returning from war, seeing Clarissa, and both of them thinking, "Is it just me, or did you get hot in our time apart?" (paraphrased). We miss the fun of seeing them fall in love and jump into the book with them already dead set on marrying each other for reasons unclear to the reader (if I were Nicholas, I would also not have approved).

This is not among the worst books I've ever read, but I feel it still needs quite a bit of work. Realistically I would not have finished this book left to my own devices, but I received an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review (thank you to netgalley!).
Actual rating: 1.5 stars rounded up.

First rule of thumb….do NOT mess with a Scot…male or female! Clarissa is upset with her Duke of a brother. He loves his best friend, Alexander, but not enough for her to marry. Alexander, being a rake understands the Duke’s stance , but Clarissa is in his blood. I loved the plot of this story, rather original, with a weasily American, a ne’er do well brother and five friends who deem themselves, brothers! The characters are so easy to envision, especially Alexander when he is in a temper. It is so easy to get lost in this book, so much so , that I finished in one sitting! You can feel the camaraderie between the men and between Gwen and Clarissa. Gwen is the glue holding the family together and I enjoyed revisiting her and Nicholas from the first in the series. Sit back, grab some tea and read, read, read!

I received this story for free and these are my own opinions