This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviewed at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at _@‌thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.

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Rake meets secret activist in Lady Petra and the Wolf, a steam-heavy romance about two acquaintances who become much more than that. I found this a delight to read – though I groaned at the hero’s ridiculously bad, mad-at-dad choices. That’s what sucked this down toward a B for me, even though both hero and heroine are charming in their own ways.

Lady Petra Newkirk’s entire life is changed when she catches her governess, Miss Winston, fleeing in the night. Miss Winston presses a pile of books into Petra’s hands, hoping they will help her arm herself against her abusive father. Years later Petra is betrothed to the kind and respectable Lord John Longley, in a passionless union that will at least get her far away from her terrible, manipulative dad. John keeps delaying setting a date, and Petra becomes frustrated.

Julian, Viscount Wolfridge – otherwise known as Wolf – has been burning for Petra since he first met her, though he insists he’s only against Petra’s marriage to his best friend John because they make a bad match. When Petra learns John’s heart lies with another woman — her close friend, Jillian –Wolf suggests to Petra that they engage in a fake courtship to push John into agreeing to set a date for once and for all. Desperate to get married, Petra agrees to Wolf’s idea, but their fake courtship brews up real feelings between them.

When Wolf is caught in a compromising position with Petra, her father tries to force a wedding and Petra – thinking the worst of Wolf – runs off. Wolf soon learns that his prospective bride has untold layers hiding beneath her bustle. But can he convince Petra he really didn’t intend to trap her into matrimonial bliss?

Lady Petra and the Wolf suffers from several weak points, most of them being the big mis in which our hero can’t quite stop himself from putting his entire foot in his mouth. . He has a hard time keeping his mouth shut generally, causing himself nothing but trouble and making Petra’s life worse, to boot. And all of this, of course, is because he had a bad dad in his own childhood, who put him through hell and made him feel that family and romance were things he ought not to reach for. Fortunately he has a supportive elderly aunt who’s willing to lend him a shoulder and cluebat him into reality; I really did love her.

Petra has suffered greatly in her life, but she’s no victim. I admired her determination to do what’s right for her, and her refusal to live in misery to please her father.

Wolf is a complicated soul who is sexy, devoted, intelligent – and rendered annoying by his hates-daddy wound. I do like that once he realized he was falling in love and ready to be married, he became single-mindedly devoted to Petra and to getting the two of them hitched, but his fear of abandonment mostly made me groan. He had plenty of healthy partnerships around him, but chose instead to focus on his fear of letting go. This really hampered the romance, since by the time Petra gives up on being with John, Wolf has begun to trip over his own words on the way to finally accepting Petra’s position in his life.

But if readers persevere, a reward awaits:

The supporting characters were wonderful. Jillian and John from the first book in the series definitely make a delightful appearance here; this is a midquel of a book that gives a fond look back on their own romantic journey. Fans of the series will enjoy them, and newbies won’t get lost since this book takes place concurrently with their story.

There are a couple of caveats that keep this one from perfection, but all in all Lady Petra and the Wolf is a charming enough diversion, though not especially memorable when compared to other, greater Regencies out there.