This was an ok book but I can’t say I loved it . I don’t mind some spice in a book but this book had too much spice for me 🤷🏼‍♀️ I would have preferred a bit more romance and character development
Granted when I opened the book it did come with a lot of warnings so clearly I’m not the right audience - which happens . Many seem to love this book so give it a try and see how it works for you :)

Thank you to the publisher for an opportunity to read and review this book

Lydia Lloyd succeeds in giving readers a playful yet heartwrenching story about lovers who discover each other at the right and wrong time. She subverts reader expectations by providing a heroine who is self-assured in her desires prior to meeting the male main character, which makes her journey of love and trust much more interesting to read.

Overall, I highly recommend!

4.25/5

That was so good!!!! Age gap, brother's best friend, SPICE, forced relationship, fwb, regency? My God, it's the book for me.

I LOVED this. Trem and Henrietta are so good and well-written. Trem was such a good book boyfriend. He saw Henrietta in a robe and became a man obsessed (in a good way!). Completely unhinged, lost all of his marbles just to have a chance with her. He was literally "her or nobody else" but he was also super respectful and loving!!

I loved it. The spice was spicing and I loved each and every scene The pearls? THE PEARLS??? I'm blushing. It was amazing, holy shit.

Hartley was such a whiny guy but I'm glad that he was present throughout the whole book. While I wanted to punch him, repeatedly, it was nice to have a conflict that was not "the older brother doesn't approve of the relationship".

Which, I have to say, the fact that John didn't approve later on pissed me off and is one of the reasons why it's not full 5 stars. When he first learned about their relationship and was so happy and I thought that it was such a good change and I was so happy that this book doesn't have a brother who doesn't approve of the main couple. But then it changed and it annoyed me.

Also, the whole Mary subplot. Henrietta is too good of a person - I wouldn't forgive the woman who abandoned me and never tried to reach out to me for so many years. Henrietta has a better heart than I do that she forgave her.

The book dragged on for me in the latter part. I loved it all but this whole Mary subplot dragged on for me and it was too long.

My favourite line: “What in the devil’s arsehole are you doing here?” she hissed at him, the fury in her voice making the hairs on his arms stand up.

DEVIL'S ARSEHOLE?? I'm gonna use it.

My favourite scene: the pearls. Iykyk.

Amazing book. One of my favourites this year.

THIS. WAS. FIRE.

I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS BOOK.

Henrietta. Strong-willed, impulsive, kind, smart, beautiful, curious. Her curiosity gets her into a bit of a pickle. Afterall, men are able to have a dalliance or two (or many more) before they get married. Why can't she experience for herself what all the fuss is about? The only problem ... she picks the wrong Lord. Rather than a "friends with benefits" situation, she ends up with a bit of a ... stalker, who doesn't understand that the Lady refuses him.

Enter the Viscount of Tremberley. Best friend to Henrietta's older brother. Also the man she's been in love with since... forever. Trem comes to the rescue and finds himself not only wanting to protect his best friend's little sister, but he also finds himself very attracted to her.

What ensues is a historical that is full of spice (the sex starts at 16% into the book), loads of banter, all the feelings and a relationship that you will cheer on from start to finish. Trem is sweet and caring, and as into Henrietta as she is into him. And from the start - there is absolutely no angst between our two mains.

Book two in "The Rake Chronicles" - the series continues after John and Catherine's HEA in "When the Duke Love Me". We were introduced to Henrietta in that book, but I don't think you necessarily *need* to read it to thoroughly enjoy this one. But honestly, book one is good. So why not read it too?

Lydia Lloyd introduces us to some great secondary characters in this story (Cassandra and Sebastian's love story could totally be a novella) and is setting us up well for the next in the series (there are two more Rakes to get to after all!).

Tropes:
💞 brother's best friend
💞 age gap
💞 forced proximity (by choice)
💞 one bed
💞 "it's always been you"
💞 friends to lovers
💞 found family
💞 someone gets shot

Trigger warning: As briefly mentioned, the other Lord doesn't take well to rejection... so there is some on-page harassment/ threatening behaviour.

If you read this and enjoyed it - then I 100% recommend: Stacy Reid's "How to Marry a Marquess" (book 3 in the Wedded by Scandal Series), and "Her Wicked Marquess" (book 2 in her Sinful Wallflowers Series), and Felicity Niven's "Bed Me, Baron" (book 2 in the Bed Me Books). All of them have a similar feel - without being the same (ya know). Also all three are equally spicy (if that's your thing). (also If you read those - then you might like this one too).

Loved this. I can not wait for book 3 in the series. The books are going from strength to strength. Absolutely entertaining, well written and our mains are hard not to love.

100% Recommended.

Thank you Netgalley and Tule Publishing for the ARC in return for an honest review.

First off, let me start with the fact that I was very excited about this book because I loved the 1st in this series and I love the brother's best friend trope so when I was finishing the last book and I saw the sparks between Trem and Henrietta, I was very hopeful for this book. I still enjoyed Lloyd's writing style and I loved seeing Trem and the Rank Rakes again but Henrietta came across as very immature throughout most of this book which in and of itself wouldn't be a problem, except that I didn't see any growth in her character throughout the book.

Another problem I had with this book is that there was just too much going on. It had one too many storylines and that coupled with the fact that it's written in 3 parts, made it feel way too long. I am trying not to spoil things but I would have rather liked to see either the issues with her mother OR the issues with Hartley, not both of them. It just felt like some more editing could have cleaned this up quite a bit and would have made an overall better experience for the reader. Regardless of the issues I had with this book, I am still excited about reading the rest of this series and more by Ms. Lloyd too.

Thanks #NetGalley for the advanced copy of #WhentheViscountWantedMe by Lydia Lloyd in exchange for an honest review.

I liked Ms. Lloyd's first book. However, I loved this one. Lloyd did a wonderful job taking a standard "brother's best friend/best friend's sister" trope and upping the ante. Most of the time, one of the characters clearly has it bad for the other. But in this case, despite what others saw, the main characters didn't recognize it in themselves. I enjoyed how bold Henrietta was for a FMC. She knew what she wanted and went after it almost every time. I loved how empowered she was. I appreciated Trem trying to save Henrietta when he realizes he's gone for her. Their chemistry is sizzling. The spice level is very nice and Lloyd does a great job giving us the heat but at the right times. Not just giving us sex to give us sex.

The scenes with Henrietta's mom were a bit emotional. I confess I was a bit frustrated with her mom at times and found her behaviour to be selfish. I needed to trust Lloyd to do the right thing and she did. Both with Henrietta's mom and with the couple overall. Trem needed a purpose and he found one, both in Henrietta and within himself.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I want to start by saying I have not ever read historical romance before. So this is a first for me and it was a great start to the genre. While I would argue that there is quite a lot in this one that is not historically accurate, it didn't bother me. One big thing I noticed was that the FMC and MMC were allowed to spend a lot of time without a chaperone and that just isn't historically accurate and it didn't bother me considering the plot (I won't spoil it) but I think I may have enjoyed it a tiny bit more if it had been a little more accurate.

In this book, we have Henrietta and Trem. Trem is the best friend of John the MMC from book one (which I have not read but I don't think you need to). John is Henrietta's older brother. Henrietta has sort of gotten herself into a sticky situation with a man who is very much obsessed with her but she does not return the infatuation. Trem offers to help her out of the situation and along the process realizes that his feelings toward Henrietta have turned from being family-like to romantic attraction.

They both had a similar sort of family arc to bond over and I felt like there was a lot of growth for both of them over the course of the book. There was some heavy, well-written spice and I enjoyed the chemistry between the two. I think all things considered the ending felt a bit rushed. Overall, it was a great introduction to historical romance and I look forward to the next book.

I liked this one! Not as much as the author's first but I still had a good time reading it.

Henrietta chooses to have sex on her own terms, because she wants to. She thinks she making it clear that she doesn't want marriage, but the man she had sex with is now determined to marry her.

Even though she's not interested in marriage, she has a fake relationship with Trem to get the other guy to back down. Trem is besotted right away, and really wants to marry her. I assumed that the central conflict would be marriage; Trem not asking Henrietta out of respect for her wishes, and Henrietta changing her mind about marriage because she loves Trem and then feelin frustrated that he won't ask. This plays out a bit, but not long before the greater conflict shifts to another direction. Instead, it was more about convincing her brother to accept the marriage and avoiding Henrietta's stalker.

The writing really shone in this book and Lloyd's creativity really makes for a fun book. (Oh, and the sex scenes are really well done.) I think my big drawback was the plot, which didn't have focus and direction. Meandered too much.

This is advertised as an age gap, but it's not really that big and not very significant for a historical romance anyway. The brother's best friend aspect is quite a significant plot detail.

I am super bummed about this one because I really like Lydia Lloyd, and did really enjoy her debut, but I knew pretty much immediately that this relationship dynamic was absolutely not for me.

Brother's best friend is tough for me in general because it's always such a big deal to prevent the brother from finding out and I would just like to know why you think you're so shitty that your own best friend doesn't think you're good enough for their sister?

But on top of that, Henrietta was immediately annoying to me. Within the first three chapters, it feels very clear that everything is set up to take the reader from one sex scene to the next, and I don't think we got enough character/relationship development between these two to really justify it.

Overall, this was a miss for me, but not necessarily on quality, this type of romance is just not really my deal. I think if the brother's best friend trope is something you normally love, this will likely be much more successful for you.

I was so thankful to read the second book in the series! Lydia’s writing is amazing and book 2 of this series by no means disappoints. I love the brother’s best friend genre and Lydia did it well with Trem and Henrietta. And I love an author that can write a strong female character but doesn’t mind letting her have a little fun and scandal. I can’t wait to read more by this amazing author!

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley

When the Viscount Wanted Me by Lydia Lloyd is a very spicy Regency romance between Trem, a viscount, and his best friend’s sister, Henrietta. Their romance starts when Henrietta’s friend loudly proclaims that he’s slept with Henrietta. Trem takes it upon himself to defend Henrietta’s honor only to find out Henrietta had indeed slept with her friend by choice but wasn’t in love with him.

Trem is understanding of Henrietta’s sexual curiosity, partially fueling his interest in her as well as noticing that she has grown up. They quickly form a secret sexual relationship, unable to keep their hands off of each other.

One of the things I liked was that Trem and Henrietta’s friends and family do not shame her for choosing to have sex out of wedlock or for choosing to have sex with someone she had no romantic interest in. The Regency period frowned on women engaging in premarital sex, so aspects of that are indeed reflected in the text, but not everyone agrees with it.

There’s some kink in the book and Henrietta’s friend is obsessed with her, but I thought both aspects were handled fairly respectfully.

I would recommend this to fans of Regency romance looking for a higher spice read with the brother’s best friend x little sister trope.

I read and reviewed Lydia Lloyd’s When The Viscount Wanted Me as an advanced reader copy from Netgalley. The review is my honest review.

When The Viscount Wanted Me is the second book in the series by Lydia Lloyd. The story follows Henrietta and Tremberley as they embark on a steamy affair and marriage. Henrietta finds herself in a sticky situation with a lover. Trem rescues Henrietta, his best friend’s younger sister, from ruin.

First I'll start with what I loved and respected about this book. The best friend’s brother trope always pulls me in. I also enjoy a good age-gap story. Henrietta chose to explore sexuality as a debutante, even though there is a risk to her reputation if it were to be discovered. But her curiosity did not deter her, and she felt little shame about it. This was a departure from most historical romances, where the heroine feels remorse at the loss of her virtue. I liked that about Henrietta. Her affair with Trem is off-the-charts steamy. Loved Trem’s dirty talk. Absolutely perfection!

There were a few aspects of the story and writing that failed to captivate me. There were too many side plots that made the story cumbersome. For example, the side story regarding Henrietta vying for the editorship. Also her entire parentage. In addition, I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two characters. Yes, they had plenty of sex, but I never understood the love connection outside of the sexual attraction. I didn’t see what they say in one another (besides the attraction) as though they didn’t really know one another’s character or personality. It felt their relationship was based on lust and not love.

The book also suffers from too much internal dialogue from the characters. I skipped several pages feeling the dialogue was unnecessary. It would definitely be improved by additional editing.

Overall I would definitely give Lydia Lloyd another try in the future. The story was steamy and there were good elements. Yet the cumbersome writing and side plots outweighed the good aspects of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tule Publishing for my ARC copy. #netgalley #lydialloyd

This is the first book I’ve read by Lydia Lloyd and it reminded me of old school HistRoms in its plot, but brought up to today’s standards in its details. Consent! Not every character is white! There is more to life than ballrooms!

From virtually start to finish the MCs are horny for each other and don’t deny themselves. Lloyd takes the brother’s best-friend/childhood crush tropes and gives us the best story in Henrietta and Trem, two MCs who are DTF and otherwise just perfect for each other.

I enjoyed their story and their shenanigans! If you enjoy HistRoms where the MCs can not keep their hands off each other this book is for you!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ebook and this is my freely given opinion.

This is book 2 of the Rake Chronicles, and follows the sister and best friend of the MMC from book 1; we first met Hugh, the Viscount of Tremblay, as the best friend of John Breminster, the Duke of Edington, and the owner of the estate where John meets and falls for Catherine Forster, as adults. Henrietta Breminster is the younger sister of John, and the saving of her dowry, because of the will of their father, the late Duke, was the quest John and Catherine embarked on in book 1, and in that first book, the family secrets of the Breminster family are exposed.

This book occurs several years later, after John and Catherine have been married and started a young family of their own, with a toddler son. Henrietta lives with them, and has been out in Society for several years. She is a popular young woman, wealthy, beautiful, charming, and sought after, but has not yet found someone she wants to wed. She has nurtured an infatuation for her brother's best friend since childhood, but always figured he was unattainable. But being a witness to the love matches of her brother and friends, she wanted a taste of passion herself, and thought to achieve that by dallying with her own friend, Justin, the young Earl of Hartley. What she did not realize was that he did not see it as a friends with benefits situation, but as a claim to her, having likely a hidden infatuation for her himself. He has taken their tryst uncomfortably far beyond what she intended, importuning her to marry him at every chance, despite her constant refusals.


Hugh overhears a drunken Hartley proclaiming his desires for Henrietta publicly at his club one night and is incensed by the public rending of Henrietta's reputation, but not being aware of how far things went. He takes it in his head to right the situation in lieu of his best friend, by dragging the drunken lord to the Duke's home for a reckoning. Luckily only Henrietta was home to witness the situation. She and Hugh end up alone to have a heated discussion of the situation, and Hugh is forced to acknowledge that Henrietta is no longer the sweet little sister he saw her as, and the situation becomes heated in a different way as he realizes that she is now a grown woman - and one that he has become increasingly attracted to.

This is a friends to lovers, forbidden fruit (best friend's sisters being off limits) romance, with Hugh and Henrietta rapidly progressing to having frequent, hidden trysts, and Hugh rapidly going from realizing that Henrietta is not a little girl anymore to giving up his rakish ways and reforming to a man who only wants her for his wife. Henrietta seemed initially reluctant to accept Hugh's proposal that she expected him to make out of guilt and honour because of his relationship to her brother, but rapidly changed her mind. Then the both of them have to weather the mine field of the secrets of their relationship and how much to expose to her intemperate brother.

But let's not forget, Henrietta has a deep, personal secret that she fears will cause Hugh to not accept her as his bride... and also causes her to question her own identity. Enough that she decides suddenly that she must confront her past before she weds Hugh, which initiates a scandalous runaway bride situation, which causes an angry rift between Hugh and John.

Also, still in the background, continuing to cause difficulties is the lovelorn, and angry Justin, Earl of Hartley, who feels that Hugh stole Henrietta from him, and is determined to take her back, no matter what.

Despite knowing each other and being friends since Henrietta was 14, Hugh did not see her as a woman and lover for many years after her debut. But once he did, he and Henrietta ramped up to lovers pretty rapidly - the steamy sex scenes started early and pretty rapidly. However, I do object to the quite frequent use of "pelvic muscles" in the initial interludes. It seemed to me to be too clinical for a romantic sensual scene and used frequently enough that I found it rather annoying, but luckily it was not peppered too much for the rest of the book.

Hugh and Henrietta were characterized as quite wild and impulsive characters - rather chaotically so and this was acknowledged in the story - while it explains much about the rapid build up of their relationship, and their choices, I have to admit, if they were real people in my life, their drama would be emotionally exhausting. But in a book, as a reader, it was fun and adventuresome. I enjoyed the connections and continuation of some of the story from book 1 as well.

Fun, rapidly paced story, with some emotional angst (and some of it more friendship related, than romance, between John and Hugh).

3.75 stars out of 5

3.75 stars rounded up. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I love historical romance and it is so great to see new authors to the subgenre. I definitely will continue to read from Lydia Lloyd and enjoy her presence on Instagram rounding up scenes, tropes and history in historical romance.

This is a very high steam level book with intimate acts that really push the envelope. If you like a slow burn or lower steam, this won't be your cup of tea, but there is a lot of character and relationship development with Henrietta and Trem, even though this could look like insta-lust. Not to spoil anything but this couple doesn't have sex in a bed until like the 4th time.... it really is steamy and puts the pedal to the metal.

Brother's best friend is also usually a hard sell for me but this handles it well. There are multiple conflicts throughout the story but they are all resolved. Some of them are internal character work for the hero and heroine, some do have to do with their relationship with Henrietta's brother and sister-in-law and one is external with a silly villain. That subplot I could have done without, although I understand its purpose considering what sets this story in motion.

I will definitely continue to read from Lloyd due to her smart, liberal characters and her diversity. There's a real heart to this romance as well as it being very steamy.

Well, Lydia Lloyd has made a fan out of me. This is the first book by her I've read, but the second in a series. I loved that at no point did the men in Henrietta's life--her brother and her brother's best friend--ever try to blame or shame her for sleeping with a man out of desire. It's historical romance, afterall, so she's expected to marry the man she "loses her virtue" too, but Henrietta is a smart and capable heroine who knows that she should not marry a man she does not love, and sex is not love.

The man she DOES love is her brother's best friend. Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed is Henrietta's relationship with Trem, the man she's loved since she was fourteen. The two do have a passionate relationship (so much sex in this book), but they also have lots of long talks, and get to know about each other's families. They support one another. As a reader, you want them to end up together, and there is no doubt that they belong together.

I really can't wait to read what Lydia Lloyd has in store next.


Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.

Opening a book with the MMC POV being all melancholy because his best friend is happily married and a new father, he now isn’t feeling being a rake and is starting to feel like he is missing something. Best friend’s little sister my new favorite trope. Not even 50% and there were so many good storylines happening. So much spice but does not take over the plot.

The second book in the Rake Chronicles, Lord Hugh Aldershot, the Viscount of Tremberley is best friends with Lady Henrietta Breminster's older brother. She has had feels for Hugh for a long time. Their story is engaging with very good characters. I enjoyed seeing them get a happy ending with the twists and turns they went through. I want to read the next book. I received a copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

What a fun historical romance! The chemistry between the two main characters, Trem and Henrietta, is palpable. I love that there is mutual pining, but we don't have to wait too long for the tension between them to completely explode. The spicy scenes were creative and fun and I LOVED that the main character wasn't a simpering innocent (though that trope has a time and place.). The inclusion in this book is phenomenal and goes to a level that so few modern historicals get close to. My only critique is that I wanted to get to the wedding quicker, but the character development that happened between their engagement and wedding was well written, so I can't complain too much!

BOOK: WHEN THE VISCOUNT WANTED ME
AUTHOR: LYDIA LLOYD
PUB DATE: JANUARY 2024
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REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”
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I requested this book because I read and liked the first book in the series and this was just as good as this. I liked that Henrietta and Trem got their story and I loved seeing John and Catherine again.
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This book was unlike any historical romance I've read. It was very spicy, lots of opened door scene during the short courtship, and I've never seen an ex as annoying at Hartley, he was so frustrating! The fast paced-ness was a bit jarring, but I came to like it since they both had an extensive history.
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I loved how both of them found each other and helped each other. They fit each other perfectly and it was amazing to read this book. The author did a very good job. You should definitely read this book
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