What a delight!

When Delilah Swanpool, the Countess of Derring's husband falls dead, she's in for the surprise of her life. Their marriage was tolerable at best and cold at worst and now his secret gambling debts have left Delilah with nothing but a dilapidated building and his mistress.

Joining forces with Angelique who is in just as much of a lurch as Delilah without even the grace of a title, the two women sell their last remaining possessions to turn the building into a boarding house.

Delilah is determined to never depend on a man again, but when a dashing, tall, and gruff specimen of one turns up on her boarding house's doorstep, she can't help but be a bit intrigued. What Delilah doesn't know is that Captain Tristan Hardy is on the hunt for a smuggling ring and that her new home may be the epicenter of it all.

Battle weary and looking to finally buy his own merchant ship, Captain Hardy always gets his man and is ready for this to be his last mission for the Crown. But Lady Derring is a beautiful distraction, with her kindness and her strength.

What starts as a seduction for information turns into an affair of the heart, but will Delilah be able to forgive Captain Hardy's deception as he circles in on the true criminals?

SO SWOONY. I marked so many passages, and for a man who claims to be "no poet," well Captain Hardy, you sure sound like one to me! Also, this story has THE BEST grovel. My word. Captain Hardy lied, he got caught, and he needed to really crawl through it to gain Delilah's forgiveness. Well, you convinced me Captain!

I received a free copy in exchange for a fair review.

Some spoilers:

Spoiler

One bit that irked me was after Captain Hardy prevents a man from raping Delilah, she and the Captain have sex for the first time almost immediately after the incident. I always side-eye this a bit, and I guess I feel I wouldn't want to get it on after something so scary? But, it was a blip in an otherwise sparkling story. The grovel included a POEM which was the best poem.