Holy goodness for a book not that long, it took me quite a while to finish it. And why not? It was so tempting to fly through it in one go. I honestly had to ration out the readings so that I could stretch them over a few days rather than having all the fun in one sitting. [Thank you so much, Brianna, for being so kind to offer me the arc and saving me from waiting for the book! <3]

I'm personally not a fan of huge age gap in relationships (they generally have a non-consensual power imbalance which I hate and at worse, the younger partner is groomed by the older partner which makes me want to puke in their coffee) But...I always seem to like the age gap relationships portrayed by Brianna Hale. She just writes them so beautifully while also addressing the issues that might and do crop up because of the said age gap. What I love the most is that she presents a warm, nurturing and above all, a healthy relationship between two consenting individuals and I can totally get behind that. (except for her Midnight Hunter which is ten degrees of fucked up with some good old Stockholm Syndrome on the side but I have always been trash for transgressive stuff...so there's that)

So the story begins when Lazlo takes a cello prodigy under his wings and basically rescues her from a harsh life with a deadbeat dad and crippling poverty. He raises her as his ward and being a rising star in the world of classical music, trains her to be a cellist. That is pretty altruistic in my opinion and raising a child (much less someone else's) made me like Lazlo right off the bat. He's a warm and an indulgent guardian who knows when to be strict and when to be loving.

Things fall apart when Isabeau (the ward) realises that she's in love with her guardian. The story is told between alternating PoVs going back and forth between the present time and the past when Isabeau was living with Lazlo and I could feel the genuine affection and adoration they have for each other.

The novel primarily revolves around a DD/lg dynamic between the two (which I understand might put off some of the readers) but I personally like it a lot. One thing about such TPE (total power exchange) relationships that a lot of people don't understand is that the power exchange isn't just some giggity giggity ubermensch controlling alpha shtick (yes, there are a lot of trash people who use BDSM as a crutch to abuse their victims) but at the core of the relationship, it's about guiding the other person so that they're their best person. It's about putting their needs above yours. That's what domination is about and I absolutely loved how Laslo was the embodiment of that.