While parts of this were interesting, it felt like nothing happened until halfway through the book. I'm okay with books with long sections of vibing like this sometimes, but if there's nothing much going on in the plot, the characters need to make up for it. And the character of Simon, who plays a big part in the first half, was not doing it for me. I know that he's supposed to be difficult, but I also know that if I met him in real life I'd want to beat him up so fast... We do not need more insufferable guys who think they know everything in books, but we really don't need them to also be married to women who are way too good for them. Sophie, his powerful, more interesting wife, is given less screentime (pagetime?) and is also constantly borderline disrespected by him. But of course, she loves him so she just puts up with it and sticks around