Gotta love this story premise (I love it so much, I read two books like this in a row 😆). We had an impoverished duke, an American heiress, a bit of culture clash, Gilded Age/late Victorian setting, a Bluestocking heroine who didn’t want to get married, and a hero who could have picked anyone—except he picked the one woman who would turn down his proposal.

I really liked the flow of the writing. It even had me questioning my professed dislike of this audiobook narrator, because this was really enjoyable to listen to!

That said, I was getting four star vibes right away. The story was introducing a lot of plot and character elements but everything was staying too surface level to really draw me in. I wanted the book to return to something, at least give us a second scene with that idea, in order to flesh it out more (though maybe not the prizefighter duke plus cringy boxer name thing—that could stay superficial 😆).

I was so certain that at least one of the 10+ story elements introduced would be the third act drama thing; so certain that this four star feeling read would end the way I thought it would. So when a whole host of new things were introduced as the third act drama things… I had to bump it down to a three. It was too unnecessary and it left too many loose ends to the story—literally everything was a loose end. I have so many questions.

But I was having a good time while reading. I’m intrigued by the next couple and I plan to continue in the series.