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carapuce's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
The writing style was difficult. Had to re-read sentences to make sure I was understanding what was going on.
Hated the hero. What a terrible dude with barely any redeeming qualities. He listened to his mother call the woman he supposedly loved awful, derogatory names, and excused it as his mother just being angry? In addition to a host of other terrible behaviour. Awful, irredeemable character.
It all could have been fixed in the first ten pages if anyone had the sense to actually TALK.
Also, the book is heavy. Don't know why it's being called light-hearted, but it's heavy on the racism and racial tensions.
I ended up skimming the last quarter of the book, and I regret ever having read this.
Hated the hero. What a terrible dude with barely any redeeming qualities. He listened to his mother call the woman he supposedly loved awful, derogatory names, and excused it as his mother just being angry? In addition to a host of other terrible behaviour. Awful, irredeemable character.
It all could have been fixed in the first ten pages if anyone had the sense to actually TALK.
Also, the book is heavy. Don't know why it's being called light-hearted, but it's heavy on the racism and racial tensions.
I ended up skimming the last quarter of the book, and I regret ever having read this.
melbsreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content warnings: racism, racial slurs, death of a spouse (in the past), grief, classism, bullying, pregnancy (in the past), discussion of slavery, war (in the past)
This was................an interesting read. Don't get me wrong, the romance at the heart of the story was heartfelt and occasionally heartbreaking, but despite all of that, I really loved it.
However. So much of this story is caught up in racism that it was honestly a struggle to get through at times because it was RELENTLESS. And, like, I understand that it's realistic to the time. But it's not exactly what I would have expected from a historical romance, you know? And yes, there are consequences in the end for the most racist of the characters. But by that point it was kind of......too little too late for me.
In short: I liked it, but it was A Lot. And it was A Lot to the point where I don't think I want to continue with the series...
This was................an interesting read. Don't get me wrong, the romance at the heart of the story was heartfelt and occasionally heartbreaking, but despite all of that, I really loved it.
However. So much of this story is caught up in racism that it was honestly a struggle to get through at times because it was RELENTLESS. And, like, I understand that it's realistic to the time. But it's not exactly what I would have expected from a historical romance, you know? And yes, there are consequences in the end for the most racist of the characters. But by that point it was kind of......too little too late for me.
In short: I liked it, but it was A Lot. And it was A Lot to the point where I don't think I want to continue with the series...
miss_melissalee's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
I really wanted to like this one, I love Theo and her friends. I had a hard time with the writing at times. I definitely had many issues with the hero. I will try to keep reading the other books because I want to know what happens to Frederica and Jasper as well as Ester. I will say definitely do give this a shot and form your own opinions because we don't have many historicals/regency with diverse main characters.
I really wanted to like this one, I love Theo and her friends. I had a hard time with the writing at times. I definitely had many issues with the hero. I will try to keep reading the other books because I want to know what happens to Frederica and Jasper as well as Ester. I will say definitely do give this a shot and form your own opinions because we don't have many historicals/regency with diverse main characters.
jacfrostisagirl's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really interesting read. The author is definitely talented. But Theodosia is such an amazing character, person, mother, friend, and boss. And Ewan is…there. It took the entire book for me to find any respect for him.
This entire book was also just one giant misunderstanding trope. And in spite of the fact that Ewan knew people thought he was dead, knew his parents were the worst, and knew that Theo was a poor flower seller being left on her own?? He still blames his ex-fiancé for every hurt he felt. And I’m like??? Dude. She’s so much better than you. Get a grip.
This entire book was also just one giant misunderstanding trope. And in spite of the fact that Ewan knew people thought he was dead, knew his parents were the worst, and knew that Theo was a poor flower seller being left on her own?? He still blames his ex-fiancé for every hurt he felt. And I’m like??? Dude. She’s so much better than you. Get a grip.
jacfrost248's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really interesting read. The author is definitely talented. But Theodosia is such an amazing character, person, mother, friend, and boss. And Ewan is…there. It took the entire book for me to find any respect for him.
This entire book was also just one giant misunderstanding trope. And in spite of the fact that Ewan knew people thought he was dead, knew his parents were the worst, and knew that Theo was a poor flower seller being left on her own?? He still blames his ex-fiancé for every hurt he felt. And I’m like??? Dude. She’s so much better than you. Get a grip.
This entire book was also just one giant misunderstanding trope. And in spite of the fact that Ewan knew people thought he was dead, knew his parents were the worst, and knew that Theo was a poor flower seller being left on her own?? He still blames his ex-fiancé for every hurt he felt. And I’m like??? Dude. She’s so much better than you. Get a grip.
lanidacey's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 to be correct, but I'm rounding up since the things I liked outweighed the things I didn't.
This was a cute story that took a bit of time to get going. I liked our main couple, but they both could have saved themselves a lot of heartache if they just communicated. I really loved the supporting characters, including the butler, Pickens; the hero's brother, the viscount Lord Hartwell; and the heroine's BFFs, Frederica and Ester. I'd definitely pick up any future stories Vanessa Riley wrote about them. I feel like I learned more about them as people than I did our couple. They were given more interesting personalities and more realistic conflicts than our main leads. (Especially, Frederica. She's the acknowledged illegitimate daughter of a duke and is also biracial, so it was fascinating reading about her life.)
There was good tension, both between the couple and with the various major and minor antagonists. I would have liked the final showdown with Lester to be more vindictive, but I'm a petty person. 😂
One critique, if I can get technical. There were some quirks in the writing that drove me nuts. For example, the hero's eyes were always described as "bluer-than-blue." Every. Single. Time. Once or twice, I get, but it's weird for the color to be referred to that way whenever they are mentioned (and this is a romance novel, so they are mentioned a lot.) It's not actually that descriptive. Are his eyes ice blue, sky blue, a warm blue, a cold blue, dark blue, light blue?
Also, and I'm not entirely sure how to describe this, sometimes characters would move around and not be where I expected them to be. For example, a character would be described as rising from his seat, but I never remember reading that he'd sat down in the first place. Another time, the text mentions that a child is sitting on the hero's shoulders, but then a line describes how the hero had to bend down to whisper in the child's ear. This is a super minor issue, but whenever it happened, it confused me and would pull me from the story.
Overall, a cute read that really picks up steam in the second half. I'm looking forward to more of this series.
This was a cute story that took a bit of time to get going. I liked our main couple, but they both could have saved themselves a lot of heartache if they just communicated. I really loved the supporting characters, including the butler, Pickens; the hero's brother, the viscount Lord Hartwell; and the heroine's BFFs, Frederica and Ester. I'd definitely pick up any future stories Vanessa Riley wrote about them. I feel like I learned more about them as people than I did our couple. They were given more interesting personalities and more realistic conflicts than our main leads. (Especially, Frederica. She's the acknowledged illegitimate daughter of a duke and is also biracial, so it was fascinating reading about her life.)
There was good tension, both between the couple and with the various major and minor antagonists. I would have liked the final showdown with Lester to be more vindictive, but I'm a petty person. 😂
One critique, if I can get technical. There were some quirks in the writing that drove me nuts. For example, the hero's eyes were always described as "bluer-than-blue." Every. Single. Time. Once or twice, I get, but it's weird for the color to be referred to that way whenever they are mentioned (and this is a romance novel, so they are mentioned a lot.) It's not actually that descriptive. Are his eyes ice blue, sky blue, a warm blue, a cold blue, dark blue, light blue?
Also, and I'm not entirely sure how to describe this, sometimes characters would move around and not be where I expected them to be. For example, a character would be described as rising from his seat, but I never remember reading that he'd sat down in the first place. Another time, the text mentions that a child is sitting on the hero's shoulders, but then a line describes how the hero had to bend down to whisper in the child's ear. This is a super minor issue, but whenever it happened, it confused me and would pull me from the story.
Overall, a cute read that really picks up steam in the second half. I'm looking forward to more of this series.
solaana's review against another edition
She really does deserve better than this motherfucking corncob
pn_hinton's review against another edition
3.0
This book took a very long time for me to get through and I had to force myself through most of it. That alone makes me sad because I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did with it being a historical and interracial romance from a period *other* than the Civil War. But for me the execution missed the mark. A lot of this had to do with the trope of misunderstanding being dragged out way longer than it should have been on both parts.
The hero was an emo man-boy for roughly the first quarter/two-thirds of the book, not believing the heroine and what she said his family did even while being very aware that they were racist as all get out. In truth, he was completely unlikeable for most of the book and it was only his efforts at the end that edged this book to the three stars. The heroine wasn’t all that great herself since she didn’t seem to have much of a backbone at all until almost the very end of the book. Again, eventually she did at the same time Ewan become somewhat marginally likeable, but that was towards the end of the book before either didn’t make me groan and/or roll my eyes every other page.
It’s not that I’m not a fan of the misunderstanding trope because when done well it is enjoyable. It just dragged on too long in this book and the cycle got tedious very quickly. It also took the story entirely too long to find its footing and direct path. Some of the phrasing used also seemed out of period or misplaced for the situation so that was a bit jarring. Overall, this book just dragged, and the hero and the heroine required more patience than necessary from each other and the reader to be thought of as endearing.
The hero was an emo man-boy for roughly the first quarter/two-thirds of the book, not believing the heroine and what she said his family did even while being very aware that they were racist as all get out. In truth, he was completely unlikeable for most of the book and it was only his efforts at the end that edged this book to the three stars. The heroine wasn’t all that great herself since she didn’t seem to have much of a backbone at all until almost the very end of the book. Again, eventually she did at the same time Ewan become somewhat marginally likeable, but that was towards the end of the book before either didn’t make me groan and/or roll my eyes every other page.
It’s not that I’m not a fan of the misunderstanding trope because when done well it is enjoyable. It just dragged on too long in this book and the cycle got tedious very quickly. It also took the story entirely too long to find its footing and direct path. Some of the phrasing used also seemed out of period or misplaced for the situation so that was a bit jarring. Overall, this book just dragged, and the hero and the heroine required more patience than necessary from each other and the reader to be thought of as endearing.