I love this author, but seriously, Eloisa? Does any mother tell her daughter, “go seduce that man and force him to marry you, because I know that, deep down, and despite him having the nerve to chase after your younger sister, it’s you he actually likes”? Based purely on intuition, apparently. And coming from a character we already know from another Eloisa James book — which, by the way, I love — The Ugly Duchess.

Well, that’s the advice the Duchess of Ashbrook gives Lady Grace Ryburn, her eldest daughter, sending her off alone with Colin Barry, who has just returned home after being wounded in combat. The fact that Colin is Griffin Barry’s son does absolutely nothing to make this premise plausible. The fact that he never answered Grace’s letters makes it even less so. But credit where credit is due: even so, Eloisa still manages to keep us hooked, because it’s impossible not to root for sweet, quiet Grace and for tormented, attractive Colin.

We root for them because they’re loving, each in their own way: she, in that steady, unbreakable love of so many years; he, in the struggles of a man wounded by the traumas of war. She, in the way she understands the pain hidden beneath Colin’s skin. He, in the way he admits it was Grace’s letters that kept him hopeful during his years in the navy.

I’ll admit the carriage scene gave me some chills. Colin is completely drugged on laudanum when he decides to make a move on the virginal Grace, believing it’s all just a dream — but the truth is she doesn’t do much to stop him either, and the scene ends up being a clumsy first time (a rarity in books, but pretty close to real life!).

The characters — especially him, who really doesn’t come off well here — redeem themselves in the scenes that follow, sweet and ravenous, with and without a blindfold, which for the tormented Colin slowly become a way of coming back to life, and which give Grace the confidence she needs to believe herself loved and desired.

The wedding scene is one of the most romantic I’ve ever read, especially since these stories tend to save the happy ending for after this moment. Here, they’ve already declared themselves deeply in love before getting married, which might seem odd, but in historical romance is actually rare.

Because after the wedding there’s still a road ahead, and the following pages are an account of healing our inner wounds — one that inspires us to believe that, when we have the right person by our side, everything becomes so much easier. And when we don’t, I’d say, we do it anyway — because a wounded soul that can’t find its way back to smiling is a rare thing indeed.

With This Kiss, by Eloisa James

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

An absurd premise (“go seduce the man who likes your sister”) that somehow only Eloisa James could pull off. Grace and Colin win you over slowly: her quiet tenderness, his war-scarred edges. The carriage scene is a rough moment, but everything after, the healing, the trust rebuilt, a wedding that happens way earlier than the genre usually allows , makes up for it. Not my favorite Eloisa James, but a solid reminder that loving someone broken can heal you too.