Review: KJ Charles's THE SECRET LIVES OF COUNTRY GENTLEMEN.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Q: if you had to put these in order of preference how would you do it?: historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance. This is actually an impossible question I think . It would be contemporary & paranormal tied for me & then historical.
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Well KJ Charles’s The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen was basically a little slice of heaven. My enemies to lovers greed was quenched by this lovers to vague dislike to lovers again story, I got my steam wants met, & I think this is definitely one of the more romantic KJ Charles books I’ve read…

All of which makes for a very happy Jess.

Gareth Inglis & Josiah Doomsday are anonymous lovers who have a bit of a bitter break-up thanks mostly to Gareth’s past trauma.

Then they unexpectedly meet again when Gareth—now a baronet after the death of his father—moves to his family home & into the life his estranged dad left behind. Unbeknownst to him, his former lover is the leader of a smuggling family within his new community & Gareth has gotten himself involved in a bit of a mess.

I just adored how sweet the relationship between Gareth & Joss is. They both want & need certain things from each other & it’s lovely how they make their relationship into a refuge—or maybe just embrace it as one. There are some lovely speeches & a symbolic gesture with pieces of grass *weeping* & it was all what I wanted.

There’s plenty of family drama & thrills in this one too & Charles captures this life & these characters so vividly. Can’t wait to return for more books—this was a good one!

5⭐️. Out 03/07. 

CW: attempted murder. One of the leads was abandoned by his father. Reference to losing loved ones and grief. Child abuse on page. Reference to rape & assault is threatened against secondary character.

[ID: a white woman wearing a chambray shirt, a teal scarf, a white sweater, & black jeans holds the ebook in a field. A dark grayish blue sky is in the background.]