I was never a huge fan of Mary Balogh, but this is the book that converted me. Lord Carew is one of the sweetest MMCs ever and I loved his relationship with the beautiful and kindhearted Samantha.

I was really excited to read this book as the state attorney + legal intern dynamic wherein it was the FMC who was older seemed interesting.

Don’t get me wrong, this book was amazingly written and I loved all the characters off the bat. However, I do feel like we didn’t really get to see their relationship blossom and develop that much before it fast forwarded to “two months later” and the internship was already ending—and this was all in the beginning of the novel.

It felt a lot like insta-love and hijinks! I normally love fast-paced romances, but I felt the couple deserved to take more time—felt like all their growing closer and post-misunderstanding resolutions happened OFF the page, rather than on.

I felt Lord Dashwood could have been more lovable, and that we saw more of him that would make it easier to forgive his past actions.

Not a fan of other Spindle Cove characters, so I wasn’t too keen about how so many of them had extensive scenes here.

I liked the heroine but I feel she should’ve made the hero grovel more for what he did (despite it being in the name of love). I get there wasn’t time for this as it was a short story though, and that’s why I thought they should’ve lessened the scenes of other Spindle Cove characters.