A lot about this book was great. Love a hero with a secret identity. Love a romance that feels a bit forbidden—here, because he was her father’s lawyer and she was supposed to marry a more upperclass family friend. The courtroom drama plot brought all that Gilded Age New York I love from Shupe. And I’ve experienced a total 180 with this audiobook narrator (Justine Eyre) who I used to avoid but now enjoy, especially for historicals set in North America.

That said, the story overall was falling short of five star vibes because our heroine was too.. good? I wasn’t feeling super invested because she didn’t have a ton of flaws or character arc potential. Also, her good qualities were a bit contradictory? She was the level-headed responsible one who hesitated to disobey her parents. But she was also a gambling Robin Hood who fought against inequality and spoke her mind. She was one of the guys, besties with all the girls, humble, but also the most popular and beautiful debutant of the season? idk.. am I a jerk or does that all sound less fun than a character with a flaw or two? 🤷🏻‍♀️

But then the ending became too meh, which dropped it down to a three star. Even though I only had 16min left in the audiobook, I put this book down for days and even considered DNFing it.. because I just didn’t care 🙈 Nothing super wrong happened, there were just too many weak story elements for me. We had random side characters show up to do some info-dumping then Exit Stage Left. The guy she was supposed to marry ended up being a less interesting foil for the hero than I’d hoped. And the forbidden-ness of the romance plot was walked back instead of resolved, imo.

Still, I’m interested to see what this series will bring with a different cast of characters.