OOF. I won't really be saying anything that many others haven't said and said better.

The bloom has been slowly leaving the rose for me when it comes to Sarah MacLean. Part of that is my general disinterest of historicals. They all read as modern stories which bothers me more then it used to. I veer toward contemporary romance now more then ever because there is much less suspension of belief required. I'm not sure if authors realize this but...Regency England was not the only time period to ever exist. Most people aren't titled aristocracy. Women weren't treated as amazing jewels for being different.

All that to say, this book was a SLOG. I considered stopping a few times because I just COULDN'T anymore with the "I'm unworthy", "no one has ever loved me". Back and forth, up and down, blah blah blah. I honestly would've been more interested in a story between Lily and Stanhope! The thing is...once you finally learn Alec's background, his behavior makes WAY more sense. Too bad I had to get over 80% into the book to learn it.

I decided to round up to 3 stars because I did genuinely enjoy a lot of the dialogue and banter, especially between Lily and the Talbot sisters. There was good stuff here but you really had to put up with a lot of nonsense to get to it.

I feel an obligation to finish this series but I'm honestly not excited about it. I appear to be in the minority since reviewers still rave about MacLean's books.