Series: The Phoenix Club #5
Author: Darcy Burke
Published April 19th 2022 by Zealous Quill Press
Goodreads Synopsis
Society’s most exclusive invitation...
Welcome to the Phoenix Club, where London’s most audacious, disreputable, and intriguing ladies and gentlemen find scandal, redemption, and second chances.
Ada Treadway has been in love before, and it brought nothing but heartache. Still, she retains her cheerful optimism and is fiercely protective of the independence and respect she’s earned as bookkeeper of the Phoenix Club. When the owner enlists her help to organize his friend’s estate ledgers, she’s eager to prove her expertise and her worth. But his friend turns out to be a disagreeable, unpleasant beast, and Ada works to find the warm-hearted gentleman she’s sure lurks beneath.
Maximillian Hunt, the Viscount Warfield doesn’t care if he lives to see tomorrow, and he certainly doesn’t want to recall yesterday. The arrival of the meddlesome and effusively positive woman who will put his accounts in order not only reminds him of the past he’s desperate to forget, she sparks something within him he thought dead. Tempted by a future he never imagined, he must do the impossible: convince her that he’s worth risking her heart a second time.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Ada Treadway loves her job as bookkeeper at the Phoenix Club, and helping her friends, so when her boss/friend, Lucien, asks her to go to the estate of Maximillian Hunt, the Viscount Warfield, and look over his books and ledgers, she agrees. The fact that Warfield has been angry ever since his return from war, and is her best friend's half-brother - who ignored her requests for help - aside, Ada is more than ready to get into her job. But after arriving at Stonehill she realises it's a bigger job than she expected, and Warfield is more damaged too. Max wishes he wasn't he anymore, and his time in Spain has changed him. He never should've been Viscount, and he's definitely not a war hero, so he's pushed everyone away. When Ada turns up, and starts pushing her nose in and changing things, Max starts to consider what life could be like if he opened his wait up to the possibility of the future.
As soon as I realised that this book would be Ada and Warfield's, especially after hearing so much about them in Indecent, I knew I needed to get my copy opened. Ada is a character who seems to always be happy, and not let bad things disturb her. That being said, she's faced a lot in the past, and we see how much those traumas have affected her. Because of that, she doesn't like letting others spiral, and with Max, she sees a sort of kindred spirit who needs help. She was ready to hate him for his actions towards Pru, but being around him, and learning just how much the war had changed him, she wanted to do as much as possible to improve his life at Stonehill, and try and help him too. I loved the scenes when the pair were at Stonehill, and you could see a lightness start to come into Max. He allowed Ada to make repairs on the estate, hire new staff, and even dine with her. When she left, the light went with her, and I could've cheered when Max decided he needed to go to London to see her, and try and mend things with Prudence too. There are some dark themes in this book - mainly all in flashbacks or off the page - but not something I was quite expecting when I got into it. If that could be something which may bother you (CW for PTSD, rape, death, abandonment) perhaps this book is not for you. That being said, I do think this one may be my favourite book in the series, and Max and Ada's romance was phenomenal to read!
Dates Read:
January 3, 2023
Rating
3 Stars
