TW for descriptions of emotional and physical abuse.

You ever have the sense when you’re reading a book in a series and think, “Oh, boy am I missing something here?” It’s even more disconcerting when you know you’ve read the other books in the series (or related series, as the case may be) but can’t remember much other than, “Uh…this seems familiar?”

That’s what reading this book was like. The primary story – the perfect debutante and the con man – was really interesting, and I was really into that! But there’s these surrounding characters, and they are all clearly in the middle of their own story.

Ash is a con man that’s been working his way across Britain getting people to invest in a steamworks project before skipping town and moving on – charming a lady, getting invitations, getting money, and vanishing into the night. He’s a man who never unpacks. His father was ruined by a member of the gentry, and he’s looking for revenge and also money for his family. But mostly revenge.

Evangeline is a debutante who stands like her mother taught her, rehearses conversations as her mother taught her, and limits her smiles to gentleman based on the formula her mother taught her. She wears what her mother says, goes only where her mother arranges, and speaks only to whom her mother has deemed appropriate. Everyone thinks she’s a perfect daughter, but you can tell from my description that things aren’t great for her.

These two met a year before, until he vanished and reappeared using another name, and as it turns out, the man Ash is looking to revenge himself upon is (naturally) Evangeline’s father. They start hanging out, and he gets permission to court her, and it’s all starts as a revenge plot, but revenge plots in Romancelandia that involve “get close to the daughter of my foe” always end in banging and complications. Always.

The thing that impressed me the most was the depiction of abuse that Evangeline suffers from her mother. Her mother is emotionally abusive, and somewhat physically abusive as well – denying Evangeline food, pinching, forcing her to wear gloves that are too small (“My hands are an unladylike size”). And she has convinced Evangeline that she absolutely deserves this treatment for actions that happened when E was 12. It’s heartbreaking, and Michels says in her author’s note that she didn’t realize how much this relationship reflected her life until it was there on the page. This could be upsetting for people to read, if I’m honest, but I think it was done well, with a rawness and a, “Fuck you and everyone else who enabled this” ending that was emotionally satisfying.

I do love a good public “FUCK EVERYTHING” scene.

Ash is also interesting. He’s been by himself (with a servant, so, you know, gentry-level “by himself”) for years, and he stumbles into the Spare Heirs club in London, a club for the second and third (and so on) sons who don’t expect to inherit anything but still need something to keep them occupied. The character detail of how he never unpacks is a brilliant one. He’s the only one who really sees who Evangeline is (I mean, obviously – he’d be a shit hero if he didn’t) AND he helps her see who she is as well.

This is the second book in the Spare Heirs series, and I know I’ve read the first one, and I remember liking it, but I remember nothing about the book itself. I have also read at least one, maybe two of Michael’s related series, Trick of the Ton, and there were a bunch of background events and references that made me think that someone else’s book was happening off to the side.  If that’s the case, that is interesting, but it was also distracting (especially as I was going “um, did I read a version of this event happening from another point of view?”). There were also references to other couples who had already had their book, and I know I read them, but forgot about them as soon as the book was over. So there’s that.  I found it kind of distracting. Other readers may not.

That said, I love a good revenge plot, and I love it when people stand up to their bullies, and I love dudes who enable that just by helping the heroine realize how awesome she is on her own.