I didn’t see the purpose of the outside narrator, not enough backstory was given so I was just confused by their interjections and they often just took me out of the story. Generally it was moving a bit too slow, and while I did get a bit mildly interested once it became clear what the main plot/conflict was, it still was not attention keeping enough. The romance wasn’t really selling me either. Possibly on audio it might be a bit more interesting but I just wasn’t invested enough in the outcome of the characters.