the thing about this book is that the second half is an absolutely lovely romance, but the first half is shockingly slow paced (the bicycle race that is the main plot point besides the romance? does not start until 45% into the book). i truly do not believe it needed quite that much setup.
also, the miscommunication trope was so prominent in so many places while reading (mainly in the first half). after a while i was just like “oh my god muriel!!! you are smart!!! why did you jump to this incredibly strange conclusion off of one piece of information and then not back down!!!!” got pretty frustrating :/
most other stuff about this i liked though! the author’s note about the historical setting was really cool