This book has an interesting setup. David Blackwood made his fortune from investments so he picks up a side hustle helping married women get divorced by pretending to have affairs with them.
Daisy is an undercover private investigator tasked with finding out what goes on behind David’s closed doors. She goes undercover as a maid and there is an instant attraction between the two. The tension between the characters is palpable as they reluctantly pair up to solve a crime.
I lurk on the r/HistoricalRomance Reddit and there is a divide between people who want “realistic” historical romance and those who want historical romance through a 2020’s modern feminist lens. This book is FOR SURE the latter.
The hero is very much aware of his place of power and privilege in society. He hesitates to pursue Daisy until he is certain she isn’t really a maid. He looks down on men who abuse their power and one of the reasons he fakes affairs is because he is conscious of how unfair society and marriage laws are for women.
I do wish the book pushed the limits a little bit with David’s side hustle. The book goes out of its way to make it very clear that he is faking affairs and physical relations with these women. I kind of wish he was actually doing it for real. I think it would up the stakes and intrigue.
Heath’s books sort of confound me. Her books always seem to have two arcs. They start with the hero and heroine meeting under unusual circumstances and then the second half of the book is them meeting again and getting pulled into a new plot. It’s not my favorite structure but I think it worked better here than in her other books.
