2.5 stars

I just finished this book and I'M STRESSED-

This is so hard to review.

First of all, this book opened wonderfully. I love how Bex and Ester met, and it was adorable how Ester couldn't string a coherent sentence in Bex's presence because she's been crushing on him for two years. I even enjoyed the horrible road trip these two made to Scotland in order to elope. The banter is great, and Bex is really the hero of my heart, he charmed both me and Ester.

The only thing that didn't work for me turned out to be Ester, and since she's, well, the heroine, it really affected my enjoyment. I can't pinpoint exactly when it went wrong for me, because I truly adored her in the beginning. She was innocent and sweet, but also stubborn and determined to escape what would have been a horrible arranged marriage. But Ester also had this one-track mind of how things should be and if anything didn't go her way (read: Bex and his abolitionist efforts) then BYE. Her persistence in trying to get Bex to abandon the cause he had devoted his life to also didn't really sit well for me.

And then there was her reaction to Bex and his Past. I was a bit stressed when Bex didn't tell Ester about the truth of his past upfront because I knew it was going to be a source of conflict and I wasn't looking forward to it. But after what happened post-confession, I understood a bit of Bex's hesitation to open up about his past. It was a MAJOR conflict and there wasn't enough pages to deal with the aftermath, IMO, and in the end, I was left to wonder if Bex would be better off without her. Because really, she made him miserable and still the poor guy jumped through hoops to win her back, and she wouldn't even give him the chance to properly explain himself.

Overall, I came for the romance and I was disappointed that it didn't work out for me, but I liked Vanessa Riley's writing and I'm still going to check out her other works. This book just unfortunately didn't do it for me.

E-ARC is received thanks to the publisher via Netgalley.