I loved this premise… disliked its execution. Yet somehow this is getting a four star from me? Let me explain—

The premise was great. Our jilted duke hero didn’t want a wife he could fall in love with, so he sought out our heroine for her ugliness. Except, her personality was wonderful and this couple was extremely compatible, so of course he fell in love with her anyways. 

I just really loved the concept: how easy it is to fall in love with someone you find beautiful on the inside. And how you even start to find them beautiful on the outside, because how could you not?

That said, I thought the premise was undercut by the instalove in here. If it had taken a while for this duke’s love for our heroine to grow, it would have been angsty and delicious. But he started being into her almost immediately and that was meh.

So why the four star rating? Well, the best part of this book, for me, was its ‘je ne sais quoi’ writing flow that made me forget I was even reading. This feeling is so important to me that I wish I could say ‘je savais pourquoi…’ but alas, I too often can’t. The story just flowed. And there were a lot of intimate, human moments. 

I’m definitely excited to read more from this author.