the concept and the beginning of this book are quite strong: a mix of friends-to-lovers and second chance romance featuring a poc gay couple with nuanced backstories and motivations (e.g., the dialogue about Vik not wanting to visit his homeland, India) brought together by the disappearance of a boy whose family can't count on the official authorities to find him, dead or alive. however, it all eventually goes down the drain as there's no development whatsoever and the external plot's main conflict is resolved off page. if you think about it, there's not even a romance, just one sided pining followed by a drastically change of heart in the course of two days, even though we get both pov's and finding a poor indian boy in Regency London shouldn't be that easy.