This felt like the good old historical romances I used to read, romantic suspense that used to be in the prominent HR authors that I find lacking in the Bridgerton era of HRs.

I love a secret child in Historicals more than in Contemporary, the stakes are higher: keeping a child hidden, being shunned by society, labeled damaged goods. This delivered, though I wish we'd seen Perry and Aurelia bond more!

Perry knew what he wanted and went for it. Truly, he deserved that HEA >> but Charlotte needed to get in line. She second-guessed him too much even when everything was already aligned.

The side characters outshone the MCs, honestly, I'm more invested in Perry's siblings' stories now.

I appreciated the diversity and the unconventional circle Perry and Charlotte surrounded themselves with refreshing for Victorian times.

The suspense was interesting, but the romance felt a bit lacklustre. Still, I'm excited to read the other two books in the series.

Thank you, Love Notes PR & Mimi Gunn, for the ARC.

3.75⭐️The art made me read this, not BookTok, thank God. First things first: disclaimer, I don't really read romantasy/fantasy because the imagination is hard work for me. I don't need extra burden, I just want something to escape my shitty healthcare job, and usually it's all too much BookTok hype.

The pacing was super fast—everything and everywhere happens at once, every freaking chapter. There are so many things going on that Aris, couldn't even catch a break.

Enemies to lovers is one of my favs, and I'd say this is genuine hate, because 80% of the book is them hating each other, then 5% towards the end they become enemies again.

I preferred Harlan Raker around the 60% mark, but one thing's for sure: I WANTED Aris to punch him from the early parts of the book. By the end, he's my kind of constipated MMC that I usually like. Give me a morally grey hero any day, babe!

I do have a soft spot for Aris, I just can't help it, even though most of the time she has so much inner contemplation that it irritates the hell out of me. But there were parts where I was like, 'You go, girl!'

One chapter of 🌶️ was adequate, though I wished it was really, REALLY hate 💥filled and angsty!!

What I disliked, the book didn't need to be this super-duper long. It was exhausting to read and became repetitive. 🥱

What saved this book was the enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-again arc and THAT CLIFFHANGER (I can't wait to read the next one, but I don't need it to be 800 pages, please!!!). So it does deserve to be rated more than average. BTW, Vanessa Moyen & Anthony Palmini’s narration of this, is 👌 they made this book engaging.

So, see you in 4 months, I guess, Raker!

And feel free to recommend romantasy that's not overhyped, please!

Luckily this is a novella, cos this is so 👎

Initially i enjoyed this but by the end, when Sarah was trying to experience what happened to Val/Peter, i was like Okay, not my thing. I’m glad I read book 3 first.