Quickie Review: Captive Prince

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Whoo boy, I must have missed the controversy that came with this book when it first came out because I didn't really know anything about this going in (random number generator picked it for me out of my recommended by friends list). 

The book provides a map and list of characters, divided by country created world, which is always nice in fantasy, but I still felt really lost in the first chapter with all the names thrown about. The gist is that Damen was betrayed by his bastard brother and sold into captivity to an enemy country. His country and the land think their prince is dead and I guess no one (I bet I know someone who knows who he is) recognizes him in the enemy country. He's treated as a prisoner and brought to the enemy country, a country that has "pets" and sleeps with the same sex because they revile bastardy so much.

 Anyway, by chapter 3 I was already checking out because of the enemy courts rape and pedophilia culture . Damen is brought in and they have a wrestling match where the winner rapes the loser (there's some alluding to it being more of a performance for the people watching). The crowd getting turned on by the rape begin getting sexual with their pets, it's almost an orgy. Ok, fine, I thought we had an erotic/a situation going on here with some line toeing but then Damen remarks on how young one of the pets is, a prepubescent boy and the pedophilia is not quite always front and center from there but with a big secondary character that is a prepubescent boy, it hovers around the spot light. 

What really didn't work for me was the tone, this felt like a Literotica.com story, the sexual overtone felt like it was meant to titillate and with prepubescent boys and a forced sexual act on Damen, the tone wasn't something I liked matched with the action happening on page. 

I see people like the very slow burn tension that is happening between Damen and his captor Laurent and Laurent seems interesting with his ice façade and, what I'm guessing, is survival technique from surviving his own abuse from his uncle but the tone I talked about is not for me. The fantasy world setting seemed less filled out in favor of the cultural sexual aspects, too.

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Review: A Scot to the Heart

A Scot to the Heart by Caroline Linden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.3 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Great God above, he was heir presumptive to the Duke of Carlyle. 

Second in the Desperately Seeking Duke series, this follows Captain Andrew St. James, who we briefly saw in the first (About a Rogue). To get the full overreaching arc of the series, you want to read this series in order. The author does a small recap by showing us the scene where Andrew and Maximilian (hero from first) are called to Carlyle Castle by the Duchess and told that her son, the current duke, is in ill health and that they are two of a possible three heirs. The scene is this time shown from Andrew's point-of-view and he is our captain out of the “An army man, a cardsharp, or a Frenchman,” heirs and currently, the most promising one to inherit. He's shocked but also carefully joyful as to what this could mean for his mother and three sisters. He joined the army when he was eighteen to keep his family out of debtors prison after his father died with numerous unpaid bills and he had to find a way to support the family. He plans on resigning his captaincy and going home to Edinburgh to alert his family. He's given the same deal Maximilian was by the Duchess, 500 pounds to use wisely, stay respectable, and return in six months time for the Duchess to judge their progress. 

And she was so tired of toeing the many, many lines laid down by people who told her that all her desires and interests were wrong or unseemly. 

In his first night back to Edinburgh, Andrew goes to an oyster cellar with his bestfriend Felix Duncan and he is instantly intrigued by a woman there and they share a searing kiss before she disappears on him. The woman turns out to be widowed Ilsa Ramsay and a good friend of his sister Agnes. Ilsa grew up with a loving but controlling father and then married a man that kept her even more locked up, she's bursting at the seams to have even a little freedom. Her husband died in a duel over a year ago and she is getting her first taste of freedom but society restrictions and her Aunt Jean who lives with her keep trying to keep their thumb over her. Ilsa never does anything that is completely wild, you have to keep in mind the scope of late 1700s that this story takes place, but I still felt some of her struggle got lost. I did greatly enjoy the talk of oyster cellars and their new infamy, adding some flavor of the times, which, besides some mentions of wigs and woman wearing kerchiefs to cover bosoms, I'm not sure I totally felt a distinction from Regency sub-genre feels. Reading this in the twenty-first century, I also had to smile at Ilsa and Andrew starting their romance, essentially, with a drunken kiss in a bar. 

Drew had been gleaning scraps of information about Ilsa, and the picture they formed made his heart ache. A lonely childhood, raised by a strict aunt while her father worked. More tutors and instructors than friends. A husband who wouldn’t allow her to ride, even though she relished it. 

The first book worked hard to set the scene for the whole series, this scaled things back and for the vast majority of the story, focused on Ilsa and Andrew. I usually favor angsty hard won love but Ilsa and Andrew had a light and easy fall in love that was warming in its own way. They have beginning heated attraction but they also so clearly become friends through it all. When Andrew has to check on a Carlyle holding, Stormont Castle, he invites his family, a few male friends, and Ilsa to join him. At the castle is where their friendship blossomed and they just made me smile. There's a scene where Andrew is going to pretend to be a ghost to give his sisters the scare they all have been wanting and he invites Ilsa to pretend with him. I feel like I don't read enough stories that have the leads being so light-hearted with each other and then the way the eye contact starts to get heated in a way that they both realize they love the person they are having such fun with, gives the romance such a great different dimension. 

There was no one else in the room. It was only the two of them, moving about each other more and more slowly and deliberately, every touch lingering, every glance heated. Then there was no music, just the thud of his heart and the husky invitation of her whispers as she tugged at his clothing, pressing against him as he undid the laces on that scarlet gown and tasted her skin . . . 

It was around 60% that these two both have realized their love and it honestly felt like the story could be wrapped up but then the story goes in a bit of a different direction. While these two are falling in love, there is a lingering to the sides story about robberies in Edinburgh that suddenly comes to the forefront with about 30% left. It felt a bit awkward as romances tend to solve the action and then leave the ending for the romance between leads, this swapped those two. It didn't fully work for me, as I was mostly here for the romance and with that kind of run out of steam because of declared love, I lost some steam to keep engaged in the story. Basically, Ilsa's father is accused of the robberies and the town starts to turn on her and she decides she must find her father who skipped town and try to help to prove his innocence. Andrew does go with her but I still felt like this plot thread was placed out of order. 

Holding her close, he pressed his cheek to hers and whispered, “Let the world go hang. I love you, Ilsa.” 

There was some skipping of time that had interactions I would have liked to see between Ilsa and Andrew and Ilsa's pet pony Robert ended up feeling more hokey than cute eccentric. However, I still enjoyed the little things that make Linden's stories stick-out, the overreaching series arc, the brief but deep mention of Andrew's family not wanting to be English (his mother's cousin died at Culloden and her father barely survived the English brutality after), and the general light, developed friendship between Ilsa and Andrew. There was obviously something between Andrew's sister Agnes and his friend Duncan and that tease has me wanting to read their novella. We also have yet to meet the frenchman who is the third possible Duke of Carlyle heir and I can't wait to read his story as he looks to be paired with the Duchess of Carlyle's ward.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Second in the Desperately Seeking Duke series, the first introduced us to three possible heirs. I really like when a series is tied together with a story plot and not just following siblings. 

Can't wait to meet Captain Andrew St. James. (I already know he wears his uniform well from that cover 😉)

A Scot the Heart by Caroline Linden purchase link

Chicken Enchilada Bowl recipe

Review: One Christmas Wish

One Christmas Wish by Brenda Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.3 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

His betrayal had done more than hurt, it had nearly destroyed her. 

One Christmas Wish, is fifth in the Catalina Cove series but is the first book I've read in the series. The first half, especially the beginning is full of names and relationships that I'm assuming are characters that have appeared in the series and while it could have easily felt overwhelming, there's maybe a smidgen of that there, I felt it more brought the feelings of closeness of everyone in the town. As the title hints at, this takes place around the winter holidays, although Catalina Cove is in Louisiana, so you won't be getting hot chocolate and snowmen but blueberry muffins and gumbo. I normally complain about having a lot of characters thrown at me right in the beginning, but here, it just worked because the friendships and relationships provided those feelings of love and support you want to wrap yourself in during the holiday season. 

However, tonight, while she sat across from Vaughn Miller, he had been able to do what all those other guys hadn’t. He had reminded her that she was not only a woman, but she was a woman with needs. 

Our heroine Sierra, has moved back to town after getting a divorce, she found her husband in bed with the neighbors, and now owns a soup cafe, The Green Fig. She also has an adopted goddaughter from her bestfriend who died two years ago. She's decided to devote herself to raising her goddaughter, Sierra doesn't think she can trust again after her ex-husband. He's also been starting to call her nonstop trying to get her back. When her goddaughter tells her she gets one Christmas wish, she wishes for happiness. 

Vaughn had kissed her in a way that even made her toes tingle, and she had liked it. 

Enter our hero Vaughn, a former Wall Street man who was sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit. He ended up serving two years of the five year sentence and gives a lot of the success to a prison pen pal that sent moving words of encouragement while he was incarcerated. He ends up moving back to his hometown Catalina Cove and given a job by Lacroix Industries on their executive team. He also gets exonerated and found innocent of his original chargers. When he's having supper at the Green Fig, he takes a good look at Sierra and finds himself drawn. 

Sierra closed her eyes for a second as she drew in a deep breath. How could she fight this? How could she fight a man who was so charming, so charismatic, so full of sex appeal and who had more magnetism than any man she knew? 

This was a very low angst story that had Sierra not wanting to get involved with Vaughn in a serious capacity and Vaughn sweetly but surely wearing her down. By the 50% percent mark, they are hitting the sheets and steaming up the pages. There's some outside elements trying to distract them, Vaughn's ex-fiancee and a divorced woman in town trying to catch his eye, Sierra has her ex-husband trying to win her back so he can get a promotion and then her being scared to trust again. It's mellowed tone but as a holiday book it works because it provides that snuggle in, looking for human closeness. 

“I would do just about anything for you, cherie,” he said softly. 

There was a towards the end, brief, moment of Sierra's ex-husband trying to take her adopted daughter away that had Vaughn taking charge in a way that Sierra did not like and gave us that romance black moment that felt a tiny forced in Sierra's swing of emotion but that is the most angst you'll get here. There is also the set-up for, I'm guessing, the next in the series with a second chance romance that will have the man fighting and working to get back in the woman's good graces and I'm ready to see the guy work for it. There was also a thread of the town's founder Lafitte and his Princess Zara, Vaughn is their descendant, that has me very much wanting the author to take some artistic license and write a prequel starring them. 

I would have liked to delve deeper into Vaughn's feelings of being sent to jail and the ending had one of those improbable but sweet reveals that you just have to go along with in a holiday book. Overall, this was a low angst story of family, friendships, and loving, perfect for snuggling in with and warming you from the inside out in the holiday season.

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Review: A Night with a Rogue

A Night with a Rogue by Julie Anne Long
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For more quotes and comments: 

The Beauty and the Spy buddy read 

Ways to be Wicked buddy read 

 I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

The Beauty and the Spy 5 stars 

All the way there she'd rehearsed in her head what she might say to him, how she would ask it, what she might do if his answers broke her heart. But then he turned suddenly and saw her. And his face, unguarded, told her everything she needed to know, and questions were no longer necessary. "Oh, Kit. It's all right," she said softly. "I love you, too." He stared at her, caught. And then he laughed a short laugh, which was no doubt meant to sound incredulous or devil-may-care, but which failed miserably. 

Beauty and the Spy starts off with a reach out and grab you prologue where James Makespeace arrives in the middle of the night to Anna Holt's cottage in Gorringe. He warns her that his friend, her lover and the father of their three daughters, Richard Lockwood, has been murdered and she's been framed for it. With only seconds to spare, the decision is made for Anna to disappear and have James take her three daughters into hiding until everything can be figured out. Chapter one then brings us to seventeen years later. 

This is a reissue, with the first two books in the series bound together in this edition. I read this series over ten years ago and I was happy to see that the first book still holds up as one of my favorite stories. The plot of why and who could be involved with Richard's murder takes over a lot of the beginning, the reader is let into the details before the characters, which I think works perfectly as there is a lot to keep track of. Thaddeus Morley is a come up from the slums who is a dirty politician and the known villain, he also ties together our heroine Susannah and Kit. Susannah is the youngest daughter of Richard and Anna and has little to no memory of her true parentage, she thinks James, the man who raised her is her father. After James is killed, she winds up penniless and living with her Aunt, who eventually reveals that James wasn't her real father. Kit is an ex-solider, now spy who is drowning in boredom in London. His father threatens to send him to Egypt if he can't finish a nature folio project in Barnstable. The city Susannah's aunt just happens to live in. 

The folio project was a little of a stretch to get these two together but you'll be impressed with how Long connects all the other characters and dots involved in the plot. Morley, the man who destroyed Susannah's family, also happens to be the man who took away Kit's childhood love, Caroline, and caused a shift in Kit's life. It's a lot of clues and journey for Kit and Susannah and you'll want all the secondary characters to get stories of their own. Seriously, where is John Carr's story?!? 

The plot has depth and breadth and I like how it wasn't just created for this first book but will carry over and serve to really connect the next two in the series. I also loved the patience and care Long took with not only the plot but the characters and their relationships. Susannah and Kit get to know one another and it was a beautiful relationship to watch grow. They both have a bit of devil-may-care to them and I loved their playfulness with each other; I felt the emotion between them. If you have a short attention span and like how characters jump into bed right away, this wouldn't be for you but if you're ready to sit and sink into not only a story but a series, the plot and quiet love between Susannah and Kit is a must read. 

 

Ways to Be Wicked 2 stars 

She did not want to be found until she'd learn what she'd come to learn. 

The second book in the trilogy, Ways to be Wicked follows the sister Sylvie. We meet her as she's sneaking away to travel to England from France because of a letter she found from a Lady Susannah Whitelaw claiming to be her sister. Like Susannah, Sylvie doesn't have much memory of her mother and sisters and the woman that took her in, a former dancer with the famous Daisy, has been burning the letters from Susannah, thinking Sylvie is still in trouble. When Sylvie gets to England, she lands in the lap of Tom Shaughnessy, the dance hall owner we meet in the first, and also gets robbed by highwaymen. There's an instant something between her and Tom and he offers the name of his dance hall if she needs refuge. Which is what she ends up needing after going to Lady Susannah's home and discovering that not only have Susannah and her husband traveled to France but the butler doesn't believe her story of being Susannah's sister. They have been inundated with impostors after the story of Susannah and her sisters has hit the papers. Sylvie is left with only one place to go, Tom's. 

The story then becomes a little disjointed as multiple threads are happening, Sylvie a ballerina struggling to stuff her pride to be a dance hall girl, the wavering attraction between her and Tom, Tom's discovery of a child, Tom trying to get funding for a new project, The General and Daisy, and Susannah's lover Etienne, who may have followed her to England. The first had a lot of threads also, but here, they never gelled together right for me and Tom and Sylvie never got the focus required for me to feel the emotions between them. The connecting thread from the first is also not really integrated until the end when Kit and Susannah come into the picture. 

This second book didn't have the heat and emotions I delighted in from the first and Sylvie and Tom never got the focus I would have liked. The dance hall setting was at least a different place to visit as none of the main characters were aristocrats.

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Reading Update: 20%

 

Y’all got me with the Christmas in July 🎄❤️☃️ 

It’s early morning here so I’m reading this with some oatmeal bars but I have a feeling soup is in my future because of all the yummy shout-outs it’s getting in this book. 

What are you all reading to start the week?

One Christmas Wish by Brenda Jackson preorder (Oct. 26) link

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars recipe

Went great with morning tea!

Review: Heartless

Heartless by Gena Showalter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

 Kaysar realized he had a choice. Save the girl and his conscience, perhaps condemning himself and Viori in the process, or walk away and condemn the girl and his conscience. 

With his parents having died of the plague, teenager Kaysar is responsible for his stopped speaking traumatized five year sister Viori. When he comes upon the Frostlines, the royal family of the Winter Court, in the woods, they capture him and he spends a year of torture at the hands of King Hador and his brother Lark. When he finally comes into his own power, using his healing song and glamara power of compulsion, he is able to escape his chains. He kills Lark but feels that wasn't punishment enough, so he decides to routinely make war on the Frostlines because of how Hador and Lark tortured and raped him and how he is still searching for his beloved sister Viori and what happened to her after he was captured. 

In the aftermath, he'd discovered only the hatred remained. 

After Kaysar escapes, the story then jumps centuries and we find out that Kaysar is now King of the Dusklands and his own created Midnight Court. He's earned the nickname The Unhinged One and he has jars of the Frostlines' tongues as his war trophies. Everyone in the land fears him but he still doesn't know what happened to Viori. When he is exacting a new plan of revenge on King Hador's son, Jareth, which involves kidnapping Jareth's new wife Lulundria, getting her to desire him, and then sending her back to Jareth pregnant and forced to have a child of Kaysar's in the Frostline royal court, a mortally injured Lulundria escapes to the human realm. Kaysar can't follow her because he isn't a doormaker but he did manage to sing a song of compulsion and order her to return to him. 

“Return to me, princess. Return to me by any means necessary.” 

Chantel “Cookie” Bardot is twenty-six years old but with a heavily damaged heart, if she doesn't get a heart transplant, she doesn't have long to live. She makes her living being paid to stream and play an enchanted forest video game and lives with a hypochondriac geriatric and an extremely picky cat. When she receives a call that a heart is ready for her, she can't believe it and a few months later when her hair starts to turn pink, she's seeing pixies buzzing around her, and vines are growing from her finger tips, she really can't believe it. As her and her roommate are finally confronting these changes in her, Chantel's vines create a doorway and she is pulled through. 

An angel merged with a devil, both haunting and haunted. 

The start to a new series, Heartless was amazing on the world building. The fae realm called Astaria and it's five royal courts, Summer, Winter, Autumn, Spring, Dusklands, and Kaysar's created Midnight court and the mysterious Forgotten court were engaging and fascinating. The creatures, magic, and land described by the author really placed me in this land and had me excited for the series on a whole. The author's choice to have Chantel be a professional gamer who just so happens to play a game that very closely resembled and copied the fae realm, allowing her to more readily accept her changed circumstances, felt a little too easy in the beginning but as the story went on, I thought it fit perfectly, especially since I think it was a clue to what happened to Viori. 

Use her. Protect her. Use. Protect. 

In order to be more accepting of Kaysar's consuming mindset of revenge, with a little feeling of childishness swings of emotions, you'll have to remember his young age when he suffered his horrific abuse; he's stuck in that age, time and place. His map making on himself, slicing his arms with the metal claws he wears on his hands, is obviously a coping mechanism to release the emotions and pain he never has learned to deal to with. This made it a little hard to fully come on board when he has insta-attraction and lust for Chantel, he felt too emotionally young for me to enjoy that dynamic he instantly had with her. As the story went on, he does grow and change as Chantel explains and is patient with him and I was able to go along with their sexual connection more. 

Kaysar de Aoibheall did not beg for anything. Ever. But he had promised to be better for her, and he always kept his word. 

The constant battle between these two is all about Kaysar choosing Chantel over his vengeance. Chantel is the child of divorce and with her two parents starting other families they forgot about her, she wants to be number one is someone's life for once, making Kaysar's one true love of constantly battling the Frostlines a problem for them. Along with that emotional battle, there was also physical battles that didn't skimp on some gory details. Towards the latter half, when Chantel and Kaysar hit the sheets, you could just call this the fighting and the fucking book because both are singeing the pages. 

Why was she holding on to her hurt, letting fear rule her life? 

Overall, this story was entertaining in it's, at times, wilding out elements and components. I thought both Chantel and Kaysar stayed too stubborn at moments towards the end that hurt the pace of the story and kept it longer than it needed to be and I'm not sure the whole thread of whatever outfit or costume Chantel wears changes her personality was needed, there was already a lot of magical components to keep track of and absorb in this story. Kaysar's slow growing might take too long for some readers but I thought his gesture at the end was good for a traumatized man learning to change a centuries long learned behavior and coping mechanism. As I mentioned, I'm into this world Showalter has created because it was at turns entertaining, wilding, gory, emotional, and sexy. I can't wait to see if I did catch a clue about Viori, if our redeemed Prince Jareth will find a new love, what King Micah of the Forgottenlands is going to get up too, and if Pearl Jean's sciatica will go away enough for her to bag a fae realm hottie. Immortal Enemies has the world building to be entertaining for awhile.

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40%

The world building in this is really fun, all the courts in the fae realm. Although, I can't decide if it is genius or too wilding to make the human heroine transported there readily accept the realm because it so closely matches a video game she was paid to play. 

"Don't expect cuddles," she warned. "I hate cuddling, snuggling, canoodling, and everything in between."

"I would rather die," he replied with a shudder.

"Good." Right?

"Good," he echoed.

Minutes passed, neither of them moving. Outside, a great wind blustered and a shutter slammed.

Remembering how amazing she'd felt in his arms, she inched toward him. Not to cuddle, just to...touch. Connecting with another. At the last second, she thought better of it and rolled to her back. But the desire only magnified, until she tossed and turned, miserable.

When she could stand it no longer, she whispered, "Kaysar?" Was he still awake?

"Yes, Chantel?" The rough rumble caressed her ears.

"Try to survive this, okay?" She draped her body over his. He hissed in a breath as she rested her cheek over his heart. His racing heart. He wasn't immune to her nearness. She burrowed closer.

"Chantel?" he said, the tightness of his voice rousing dread.

Ugh. Was he about to order her to move?

"Do your best to endure this, all right?" He tentatively wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.

Reading Update: 10%

It’s muggy af here, I’m melting and my burritos that look like tacos are melting 😭 

But we persevere with a fae realm romance fantasy that is wilding out from page one. This is going to be a heck of a ride!

Heartless by Gena Showalter purchase link

Old Bay Shrimp Burritos recipe

I don't think you can go wrong with Old Bay seasoning!

Review: Not the Kind of Earl You Marry

Not the Kind of Earl You Marry by Kate Pembrooke
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

It was the announcement of her betrothal to the Earl of Norwood. 

With a storming morning visit that has William, the Earl of Norwood, interrupting their breakfast, Charlotte Hurst and her brother Philip are accused of trying to trap William into marriage. When it becomes clear that Charlotte and her brother are just as shocked as him, William apologizes and realizes a political opponent is probably at fault. To save Charlotte's reputation and William's chance at gaining a political appointment to a committee Liverpool is forming, they agree to enter into a temporary engagement. 

This betrothal was only a means to an end---a political appointment for him, an intact reputation for her. 

Not the Kind of Earl You Marry, struggled with providing the emotions for a character driven story as it felt pretty plotless. Charlotte and William had never met before they are engaged and they didn't get enough time together to develop and provide a relationship that could carry the story for three hundred plus pages. When they were together, it's an amiable time but Charlotte considers herself a homebody and prefers reading books to the social whirl. She continuously holds the feeling that she would never be good enough or be able to support William enough in his political career. We don't get a lot of insight from William but you can tell he likes spending time with her. 

She'd briefly let herself imagine what it might be like if things between them were real. 

When I say there wasn't much plot, I mean there wasn't enough there to keep me engaged or following along. The political rival setting-up William to cause a scandal with the betrothal in the newspaper is largely forgotten until around seventy-five percent and then William just confronts the guy and goes to Liverpool with the whole story. Why was William spending three-hundred pages avoiding this? The same with Charlotte's refusal to consider it a real engagement, she doesn't think she'll make a good politician's wife, so much so, she feels this way up to only twenty pages left in the book. However, when William proposes, she just says yes, leaving me to feel like the previous three-hundred pages I read didn't matter because of the lack of development. 

Miss Hurst might claim that kiss hadn't changed anything, but he begged to differ. 

The majority of the story was dedicated to following the characters around to the hotspots of the romance Regency sub-genre (Gunter's and the like). It seemed to want to be like a traditional Regency and more quiet like a Grace Burrowes (it lacked the emotional heft of a Burrowes). Regency is such an oversaturated sub-genre and perhaps I've read too many, but oof, was there nothing new or fresh here. What was a surprise because of how it felt more towards traditional Regency, was how good I found the late second half sex scene, it gave me the emotion I was looking for between these two and took it's time exploring. 

This is a debut and while the technicalities seem to be nailed down, the emotion and heart I look for in romance was missing for me. There was some letter writing between the two that played well, giving us some sweet byplay between them. The political rival plot was mostly forgotten and Charlotte's motivation for not accepting a real engagement between her and William was bemoaned for three-hundred pages to only be up and forgotten at the end. There simply wasn't enough story or emotion for me in this book.

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