For all that I claim to be a high minded academic, I consider romance novels to be a difficult to match pleasure. And for all that I protest against the modernist (and onward) need to categorize and rank fiction by how "good" it is (with good meaning that other modernist and onward writers/critics/academics consider it to be good), I still have to work to leave out the word trashy.

That being said, this is a trashy romance novel in the most fun sense. It delivers exactly as promised, only sent me to Wikipedia once to check if Jeffries was making stuff up or showing off her research (this is a good thing) and the whole bundle was enjoyable.
There is what to be said about a book that delivers exactly what you expect and which you can enjoy watching things unfold as they should.

Also, there was beer. And research, but seriously, research into beer.