**Most of my reviews contain detailed Content Notes (including CW/TW) sections, which may include spoilers and general tags.  I have tried to mark them appropriately, but please use caution.** 

3.75/5

Audio (Ell Potter and Sebastain Brown)

* Summary: Marriage of convenience between an heiress isolated and oppressed by her controlling parents and a scarred, notorious veteran with secrets (and a few kids).

* Stats: HR-Victorian, M/F, closed door, part of a series but stands alone.

* Notes: This was the first Mimi Matthews where I felt like the third act actually held up for me.  I enjoyed the story and the recording (though there is one FMC POV section incorrectly read by the male narrator).  There’s some obvious references to fairytales and other books that the author describes in her author’s note which were interesting and the whole thing was detailed and entertaining.  I was a little frustrated with how the ending turned out with the FMC’s parents, but also felt like it was a reasonable and realistic conclusion to the story.  The pacing did feel a little slow and occasionally repetitive - but I’d also guessed the “twist” very early, so maybe it just wasn’t stringing me along so well.

OTT and Spoilery Content Notes:

Veteran mmc, scarred mmc, shy FMC/FMC with social anxiety, ill parents, money problems, 32M/22F, death of previous partner mentioned, children, single parent MC, family abuse (of FMC, by parents, isolation/medical), mentions of war, mutilations, executions, and flogging, arranged unwanted marriage (attempted), mention of death in childbirth (random person), attempted SA of FMC (unwanted kiss), blood, medical care (without consent, bleeding), religion (mentions), child abuse (physical - punching- of an infant, in the past, mentioned), FMC invades MMC’s privacy knowingly, family problems, legal problems