Book Review #bookreview #impossible #darcyburke #netgalley
If you love a scarred hero, beauty and the beast, grump/sunshine, then look no further than this new installment in Darcy Burke's The Phoenix Club series! This engaging, delightfully paced, steamily sensual novel is a perfect fifth edition to a really solid series. Darcy Burke gets better and better, each novel ups the steam and character development, while creating a beautiful new romance, and teasing future novels, that I am left in want of the next installment immediately!
In this novel, we get Ava, the Phoenix Club's bookkeeper, and Max's, a friend of the owners and war scarred marquess, love story. The action of the novel opens up with Ava coming to Max's estate to get his books and household in order. Max does not look kindly on Ava's appears but with tenacity and good will she breaks down his walls and shows him its time to step up and take care of his estate, employees and tenets.
I absolutely adored Ava, she loves her job, she loves finding the good in people, and she loves to help others. She is the perfect foil to bring sunshine back into Max's life. She is kind and the perfect listening ear, she does not judge others or jump to conclusions and she has the perfect calm demeanor to bring Max out of his shell and show him that he is worthy of the life he has. There are some content notes around wartime, ptsd, illusion to rape/murder of a loved one, and talk of cheating (outside of the hero/heroine's relationship) and Darcy Burke explores this with care and understanding. Watching these two come together, learning to understand the other, and willingly opening themselves up to love is really endearing and I was charmed by their relationship. They have a really lovely chemistry that softly grows as they get to know each other, and then sizzles off the page when they enter into the physical side of their relationship. Another beautiful strength of this novel is in the secondary characters of this series, think that Burke does a wonderful job showing male friendships, and female friendship, and providing the hero and heroine with people who care about them and want the best for them.
Another fantastic book in this series that I can not recommend highly enough! I am now awaiting the next installment with anticipation! Darcy Burke is definitely a must read author if you love a sensual and steamy historical romance with wonderful characters.
Thank you to Darcy Burke and NetGalley for an eARC, all thoughts and opinions are my own.