Yeah, this is my least liked of this series. Too many conveniences. I don't mind the whole portraits revealing the truth about a person as some others do because I believe its possible. I think Gerard's abilities weren't established enough for it to be completely believable that he could, especially since he's primarily a landscape painter. But I could ignore that. However, the people in this town are too stupid to believe. And then the usual Cynster male planning to marry his chosen female but not telling her happened, but when they have their confrontation it wasn't satisfying to me. Lastly, at the very end of the book, suddenly we remember he's from peak county which obviously means he can rock climb. Rme, no that was some slapdash work I did not appreciate. The ending epilogue was different. Not bad but different enough that after everything else I didn't appreciate it. These are just the major highlights. This one was not up to the usual standards for me. I also think the insta love bothered me in this one because Gerard was so set against doing a portrait in the first place.

For the good, there's Barnaby who I love. The always present familial bonds. And then the descriptions. Especially since we have this special setting of the gardens. And actually the murder mystery aspect in general was nice. Just the unbelievable idiocy of literally everyone believing what they did with no reason. But this made for a new dimension in a cynster novel. This was darker than the ones before it. Though it didn't seem so at first.