Carole´s Monday: Crown of hearts

Author: Judith Lynne

Title: Crown of Hearts

Series: Lords and Undefeated Ladies #4

Genre: Historical Romance

Format: ebook

Pages: 539

Published: April 30, 2021

Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon)

Summary: 

Does Anthony's lonely past doom him to a lonely future?

He's never breathed a word of who he was before he ran away from home. Now someone knows who he is.

Worse, brazen David Castle knows what he likes.

Anthony's survived by being what others want him to be. He's given up on finding the grand passion of his dreams. The little girl he took under his wing so long ago has asked for just one more thing: to know the fate of her mother.

David Castle is a terrible rake behind that English rose complexion. He thinks taking his lumps is a fair exchange for having every indulgence Anthony doesn't: family, neighbors, and pleasure wherever he can. He's never left London before, but he's always game for anything; how hard could it be?

When circumstances force Anthony to take David along, they'll both have to decide what would be worse: if they killed each other along the way, or if they fell in love.

Review:

Grabbed this and didn't realize it was part of a series until a few chapters in and I checked Goodreads. LOL Whoopsies. Lucky for me it worked perfectly well as a standalone. I'm sure we got to meet some of the past characters but it didn't impact the story. 

Here we follow David and Anthony. Anthony had a lonely past and is carrying a mighty secret of who he was before he ran away. Now....someone knows who is he and what he likes. David is a terrible rake and he is up for anything. When circumstances force Anthony to bring David along, they'll have to decide what would be worse....if they kill each other along the way or if they fall in love.

Like I said earlier...this did well as a standalone. I had zero idea about past event. If it was important we were told. I can assume who some of the other couples might have been in the past three books, but it was fine. I did have a couple of questions, but it didn't slow me down.

Anthony's true identity was great! What a fun twist. 

David was annoying but I grew to like him. They seemed perfect for each other.....after a while. At first I was not sure these two would make a good couple but after a certain scene it clicked for me. 

This was a lot of fun but there were scenes that dragged ON AND ON AND ON. Like okay, I get it. Let's skip ahead a bit. 

The epilogue was very sweet. I loved seeing these men worry about their friend. It was cute. 

All-in-all, this was a nice love story. I am curious about the other three books ahead of this one. It'll be fun to see them all be curious about the mysterious Anthony. Some scenes dragged on a bit and I didn't buy the couple at first. However, everything worked by the end and I enjoyed myself. I'll stamp this with 3 stars. 

ONE WORD SUMMARY: Delightful

Challenge(s):

- Romance Reading Challenge #20 (LGBT)