This book took me forever to read. I kept trying to pick it up, but would only get through a few pages before falling asleep (because I was in bed, so not really the book's fault on that count) or putting it down in favor of something else. Try as I might, I couldn't get engaged with the central romance. I really enjoyed Charity's perspective, but Alistair was a real chore. I understand that he is obsessed with reputation and respectability to give him room to grow as a character, but all the growth was incredibly accelerated at the end and didn't feel worth it. Plus their central drama didn't feel like it had a lot of stakes, which is wild since Charity has been dressing as a man in Regency society, which is not historically inaccurate as Sebastian points out, but certainly highly unacceptable in "polite" society. It really just felt that so many issues could have been resolved faster by just speaking to each other, which is a really boring conflict for romance novels. There were also weird moments where the writing seemed to slip into slightly more modern phrasing that would kind of throw me off, which I don't remember from the other Sebastian work I've read.

I found Charity's relationships with Louisa and Keating really fascinating and would have loved to get more of a look at their interactions. Gilbert and Louisa were also adorable little puppies, that i kind of wished had been more of a comic relief to the novel. Plus, I liked the Allenbys a lot and am very interested in more stories from them and about the mother's salon (that's right I am rooting for some fictional Byron!!)

I was certainly leaning more towards 2 stars as this book seemed to drag on, but the ending did make up for some things. I did quite like how Sebastian resolved the story because it was incredibly fair and gracious to Charity. Anyway, I'm definitely still planning to read more Sebastian, because I think it's good for me to read some LGBTQ+ themed historical romance, since queer people were obviously alive and falling in love back then too.