My problem with this book isn't entirely the fault of the book but more so a genre issue in general. I've read romance long enough to know that if there's one book, there's a series. There is never only one brother, only one handsome duke in a nefarious club. This is not a problem for me. My problem is when a book is part of a series but is billed as stand alone. When the author or blurb makes a fuss to say "part of X series, but can be read completely on it's own." This is often times a completely false statement. Series are series because they are built off of the book before it. No one would tell you start watching Breaking Bad in season 3. Blurbs and reviews pushed the fact that this could be read alone and it just can't be.

For me, this book suffered from "you needed to read the first 3 books". The entire first segment of the book is confusing and clearly references storylines and actions that happened in prior books. It was obvious to me that I'd missed out on something and immediately put a bad taste in my mouth. I almost stopped reading. I carried on and the rest of the book was fine. Parts made me smile and laugh but ultimately it never picked up from that bad start. It always felt like it was leaning on the assumption that I already knew and liked these characters and didn't need to delve that deeply. It wasn't horribly written, but certainly only worth the 3 stars it got.