Anne and her husband, Duchess and Duke of Hawthorne have a convenience marriage. The Duke has been living in France with his lover for the past ten years and is now returning to his duties. Anne, who was deeply hurt by her husband’s abandonment, feels threatened as she doensn’t want to give up control of the duchy or be embarassed by her husband living with his lover in her home. So she chooses to remodel, no one would want to move into a construction site. She chose Letitia for this role, because she believes that she’s so inexperienced that she will fail. But Letty not only doen;t fail her job she manages to thaw the ice queen, You must be willing to overlook the fact that it’s the 1800 and Letty is openly gay without repercusions but having a child out of wedlock and a job is what causes her problems. The Duke is living with his lover and no one, King George included, bats an eyelid. 3.5 stars

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Anne is tried of being known as the ice queen in London society she longs to live her life the way she wants. Letitia finally get to show her skills as interior designer when she is hire to reinvent the Hawthorne estate its opportunity to get her to be known as a designer. Anne and Letitia give into temptation that’s becomes more then either realize but can they find a way to be together when homosexuality at that time could ruined your reputation and get you kill. I like how the author pull from history to show how hard it’s is to hide yourself through marriage and at that time it’s was more important about your reputation then who you are as a person.

I found this interesting because of some of the modifications Letty used when redesigning the house. e.g. the bath with running water, which was unusual at that time but not unknown. When I read historical novels and things I'm not sure about are mentioned I try to confirm if they are correct. Out of curiosity rather than as a critique. Unless a fiction novel says it is factually correct in what it portrays about the time period I am happy to go with the author's take/imagination on a situation. The Molly houses and law enforcement with regard to homosexuality at the time is quite accurate. Many were hanged because of the law. The fact that they felt it necessary to hide their sexuality with a sham marriage in order to avoid at the very least scandal or public vilification was a terrible reflection of the time. Although it did continue long after. I was surprised at how recent some countries were in decriminalising homosexuality. For instance in the UK it was legalised in England in 1967 but not until 1980 in Scotland. In Canada it was 1969 and in the USA it was not until 2003. Hawthorne spent so much time in Paris as France had decriminalised it in 1791. Although being legalised does not mean it was condoned in general either. Who knew reading an LGBT historical romance would make me consider all these things? This is a bit of garbled review but I wanted to let the author know her story made me think as well as just read.
By the way I did enjoy the love story in the book as well!