“I want to burn the world down and rebuild it for you.” 🤧
The third book in the Las Leonas series is hawt.
This story also takes place in Paris, 1889. Dr. Aurora Montalban Wright’s two best friends find love in the first two books. Now it’s her turn. Except, she’s not open to that possibility. She’s not willing to take risks with her heart the way she risks her life by running an underground women’s clinic.
There’s always been tension between Aurora and Apollo César Sinclair Robles, Duke of Annan. She finds him arrogant, but he has his own struggles with embracing this position that was thrust upon him. He’s under a lot of pressure to choose a woman from the upper echelons of society to be his duchess that would open doors for him in the aristocracy.
None of these vanilla women will do. They don’t challenge him like his chocolate lioness Aurora. They don’t have anything to teach him. But Aurora’s haunted by a past that she gave up to have independence. She doesn’t want what she did to tarnish him and lead to him breaking her heart. She’s used to loved ones choosing their reputation over her. She doesn’t believe she’s enough, which is sad. Some man did a number on her.
Aurora doesn’t make it easy for Apollo. She’s a better woman than me. I wouldn’t think twice about ruining that man’s life. You mean I get to be married to your fina ass AND piss off racist snobs? Say less 🤣
Unlike some men in his cohort, who restrict their wives’ freedom, Apollo champions women’s rights and admires what Aurora does for her patients. He does his best to keep her out of harm’s way when she traipses around Paris at all hours of the night, doing procedures against her patients’ husbands’ wishes. When her safety is eventually threatened, Apollo whisks her away to Nice to try to convince her to claim him outside the bedroom.
I was like, for f***’s sake, Aurora. Please tell that man his d*ck belongs to you. 😩
There’s something about a big, brooding, possessive man that would risk it all to try to change the world for his woman. I loved that he doesn’t care to carry himself a certain way to appease the ton, is proud of his Black Latin roots, and is obsessed with Aurora’s big, black booty.
I really enjoyed the history lessons in this story, like discussions around contraceptives used back then. I ate this up. There is a loose end at the conclusion, but I guess it’s more realistic for a powerful, white man to do abhorrent things and leave the woman to face the repercussions.
Thanks to Net Galley and Canary Street Press, I got to kick off Black History Month right with this story of Black love that’s also about women’s resilience and not compromising who you are for society. It’s the feminist read I needed.
Herrera is great at historical romance with just the right amount of spice.
Y’all need to get into this series.
TW: medical content, blood, abortion, domestic abuse, injury, violence
The Bookishevy Book Blog 