Reading an author's backlist is always a gamble, especially if their writing has noticeably improved in their more recent works. I'm finding that to be especially true as I make my way through Talia Hibbert's backlist.

This wasn't bad, per se, but it didn't really impress me. I wasn't very interested in either of the main characters, who both seemed a little too flat to me. Jasmine had a this idea that she wasn't a good person and ruined every relationship, but it wasn't super clear why she thought that, based on her character. On page, she was kind and caring to Rahul but was convinced she was terrible due to a lot of off-page stuff that we never see (and therefore isn't super consistent with her character). It just made her self-sabotage of her relationship with Rahul seem a little overly dramatic.

And Rahul was just on the wrong side of too perfect, in my opinion. Yeah, I know we read romance for the escapist fantasy of it, and the fictional too-good-to-be-true hero is one part of that, but this was a little too much. He was too accommodating, willing to do anything for Jasmine, constantly saying how perfect she was, and all of that made him a little boring to me.

I was so annoyed with both of them that I almost DNF'd the book at 75% 😵‍💫 I did skim through the rest of the book though

Also, the audiobook almost ruined the whole thing for me. I was reading the ebook, but I've been having so much trouble this year just READING that whenever I can, I also listen to the audio along with print/ebook versions. But that was a mistake with this book. Because whoever decided that an old white man was the best narrator for a Black woman and an Indian man needs to reevaluate some things 🤨 I don't normally like when men narrate romance novels anyway (unless the only POV is a man, which this book is NOT) because they get weird when they do female voices. But this one bothered me so much that I couldn't keep listening to it. He gave Rahul a sort-of Indian accent that was there sometimes, and not other times, which was weird. Because first off, inconsistent, and second, there's nothing in the book that says he ever lived in India, so why wouldn't he just have an English accent like Jasmine does?

ANYWAY. Audiobook aside, this was just...okay. I am going to keep working my way through Talia Hibbert's backlist until the Skybriar books come out (when???), but since I've finished all the main series, I've unfortunately been encountering a lot of duds 😵‍💫