I love an excellently written free-with-the-newsletter novella. And I read this in one sitting with a big dumb smile on my face.

Such an interesting and well-built setting: 1909 Seattle. Just the description of the clothes alone—it was everything. And the characters were so well-drawn, so compatible, and really unique!

We had:
💛 fake engagement: our girl just wanted to catch butterflies and be a bug scientists in peace, but her parents were setting up a betrothal to a weeny. Solution? Fake date someone else.
💛 all the mutual pining: pining heroes who’ve had the hots for her forever? Obviously delicious. Pining heroines who have also had the hots for him forever? Even better!
💛 epistolary: it’s the superior trope, everyone knows this. And this novella not only contained letters between the MCs, it also had letters to the mastermind behind this whole premise, Cecelia; our heroine’s best friend and our hero’s cousin. And it was just lovely 🥰 

This author has shot onto my auto-read list.