Author: Eva Leigh
Series: Last Chance Scoundrels #2
Publication: September 27, 2022 by Avon
Genre: Historical Romance
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Rating: 5/5★
USA TODAY bestselling author Eva Leigh continues her Last Chance Scoundrels series with a steamy romance between two opposites–a rogue with a taste for wagers and a bookish wallflower–who marry for convenience… but neither bet on falling in love.
Finn Ransome is an expert on Lady Luck, which is why he refuses to take a chance on love. Experience has taught him that he’s happier at a gaming table than around people he will, inevitably, disappoint. However, the clock is ticking on his father’s matrimonial demands. But the only woman to catch his eye is a bluestocking who would never consider a rogue like him.
After a disastrous first Season, Tabitha Seaton decided to focus on books instead of ballrooms. She hopes to join the Sterling Society, a collective of the most brilliant, influential minds in London. Except, they will never admit an unmarried lady. Now Tabitha needs a husband, and a notorious, handsome gambler may be her best bet.
Finn and Tabitha are opposites who have no intention of wagering on a love match, and a calculated marriage of convenience solves all their problems–with no risk to their hearts. Once married, however, their potent attraction boils over into a deep passion that neither expected. When a painful mistake drives the new lovers apart, Finn will risk it all to prove a scoundrel and a wallflower are a winning pair…
This story featured Finn Ransome and Tabitha Seaton as main characters. They are both in search of a spouse for different reasons. Finn because otherwise his father will cut him and his younger brother Kieran off. Tabitha meanwhile needs to get married to be able to join The Sterling Society because they will of course not let an unmarried woman in. Finn’s best friend Dom also needs to get married so Finn decides to set Dom up first and thinks Tabitha is the perfect woman for his friend. When it becomes clear that Dom is nowhere near interested in her, Finn and Tabitha decide to get married to each other but to keep it as a marriage of convenience.
I absolutely love a bookish character and Tabitha was so amazing. She’s now one of my favorite characters ever! Even though not being able to go to university as a woman, she has become quite the scholar through her own studies and wants to change The Sterling Society from within so that the people there will be more open minded towards ideas from non-Western and non-white males. And that’s why she marries Finn. But she has been hurt in the past and decides to not get emotionally attached to him but as these stories often go, feelings slowly arrise.
Finn also stole my heart, and then some! He’s definitely my favorite out of the two Ransome brothers and my heart just broke for him in this book. He’s always had trouble with reading and because of that he’s often been called stupid by his parents. Even though he became a skilled gambler, he never saw himself as worthwhile. At least not until Tabitha came along and saw the worth in him. Both Finn and Tabitha believed in one another and lifted each other up so much. It touched me so much! Also, Finn had such a dirty mouth on him during the romantic scene and I just lost my mind over him.
Speaking about the romance… I was not ready for the amount of steam this book had but I loved it. The first book was quite sexy as well but this one certainly topped it. The dirty talk was off the charts smoking hot. I love a good marriage of convenience where they do consumate the marriage because that’s what they’re supposed to do and where they end up being mindblown by the sex. It was so fucking good! The book also had soooo many bookish quotes so I highlighted the hell out of my e-reader. It was so much fun!
I also want to shoutout Tabitha’s friends which included a lesbian couple (Diana and Iris) and two men of color (Chima and Arjun) who Tabitha met at Benezra Library, which became a home for her where she could talk to her friends about all things academic and intellectually. I really loved them and they were great secondary characters to read about. You don’t see diverse characters like these in historical romance a lot so that made this book all the more awesome to me.
A skilfull gambler and brilliant bookworm comes together in the second Last Chance Scoundrels book. How the Wallflower was Won by Eva Leigh is a steamy marriage of convenience historical romance chockfull of bookish quotes and characters that stole my heart. I couldn’t help but completely devour this book. It was such a page-turner and I loved it so much!
About the author:
Eva Leigh is a USA Today romance author who has always loved romance. She writes novels chock-full of determined women and men who are here for it. She enjoys baking, spending too much time on the Internet, and listening to music from the ’80s. Eva and her husband, author Nico Rosso, live in Central California.
She can be contacted at EvaLeighAuthor (at) gmail.com
Eva is represented by Deidre Knight of the Knight Agency. For inquiries, contact Deidre at deidre.knight@knightagency.net.
You’ve totally sold me on this book! And I want to meet Finn and witness his dirty talking, lol😉
I was like daaamn he’s so much dirtier than I expected! 🥵
Finn sounds like a wonderful hero! Terrific review, Stephanie
He was the best! 😀
MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE??? WITH DIRTY TALK???? I NEED
I knew you would love the sound of this, Nick!
Wow, Stephanie! I’m intrigued by Tabitha and Finn but even more so since you said Tabitha is your favorite heroine, EVER. That’s high praise. I, too, am a fan of a bookish heroine but especially an unconventional bookish heroine. I’ll be putting my grabby hands on this one ASAP. 🙂
I’m pretty sure this book is gonna be in my top 3 of 2022 at the end of the year!
This sounds so good! Gotta love bookish heroines and rogues and a good marriage of convenience trope 🙂
You know I’m all for dirty talk! It’s my jam!!! So I’m excited!
Both Finn and Tabitha sound like fun, amazing characters — and I am loving that Tabitha marries for the convenience because she will do what she has to in order to get into the Sterling Society and change it from within!
I loved this book too! I’m most excited for Dom and Willa’s now!! I hope you get an ARC of it — I’ll be sure to read your review:)