I really enjoyed this series start! Does the plot hinge entirely on "romance reasons"? Absolutely. Did I mind? Not at all. A fun stow-away story that's plot heavy for the first half and then character-driven in the second, with lots of push-and-pull absurdity between the main characters. I spent about 20 minutes wishing harm for the male main character, King, but recovered from that fairly quickly, and our female main character, Sophie, is delightful. There were several scenes that had me legitimately giggling (the argument over whether or not she's been shot following the mail coach incident was top tier). Excited to continue this series, because let's be honest, I'm here to get hurt in The Day of the Duchess.