Plot:

A new year and a new Season means a new Lillian Clarke. She’s transformed herself from wallflower to incomparable. But she’s no Cinderella. She’s washed her hands of love and of Lord Devon, her own charming prince who barely knew she existed. She’d rather be the fairy godmother, helping invisible debutantes gain the attention they deserve on the marriage mart. But even though she’s booted Lord Devon from her heart, he’s not done with her. His sudden appearance at her home and inexplicable teasing threaten to distract her from her debutante dreams.

Lord Devon, the second son of duke, has put self-pity and scandal behind him and found a new purpose. He’ll invent a machine that improves coffee, buy a coffeehouse, and be a self-made man. He’s determined to be more than the heir’s spare, privileged but kept in case of emergency. Unfortunately, he needs the assistance of Miss Clarke’s brilliant father. And he hates Lillian Clarke for speaking the truth about him. The delectable woman thinks she’s better than him. He’ll teach her she’s not. If he can ignore the way her courage makes him smile.

When sparks in the workshop fly, Lillian and Devon invent a passion that’s more than they bargained for and complicate their paths to happily ever after.

Review:

I’ve not read the previous books in this series so my point of view comes treats this novel as a fresh stand-alone type of reader.

We are first introduced to Lord Devon, straight away you can see his sassy personality, some would call him other unpleasant adjectives. For a novel that is based upon the 1800’s I could follow this more easily with what you can tell as modern ease of writing and speaking – not sure what it was exactly like back then but anyway. Miss Lillian Clarke can be quite shy, a wallflower as such however for situations involving other females she does know how to clarify situations with others which I appreciate as her growing as a person.

Situations begin to unfold and I will just use this quote as I enjoyed it a lot: “ When Lillian needs books, she gets books “.

Both main characters can be surprising and Lord Devon’s bad reputation is not all what he seems to be as it’s shown that he is a hard worker who wants to make his own money as he does not see his families money as his own which you got to respect and appreciate a man in that day having that kind of attitude.

I really enjoyed the banter between the two just as the title of the novel comes to show how it got its name. Lillian begins to open up a bit more as the situation between the two changes and Devon grows as a person compared to the title he’s most known by previously.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel and going along with Lillian on her adventure. I enjoyed the fairy tale elements and Lillian’s attitude to help wallflowers become more noticed and to help them grow. It was a heart-warming and enjoyable read. Definitely recommend.

Side note: Thank you to the publisher as I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

4/5 Stars