Honestly? I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. My favourite bit was the historical note at the end (which is both a praise for the historical note and a criticism of the book itself) but I did find myself gripped by the story, and enjoying the ride along the way.

📚Find this and other reviews on my blog!📚

The book is a romance between Mary, youngest daughter of a Scottish duke, and her third cousin (yikes but eh, third cousins is okay I guess), a military man nicknamed Tre who is reeling from the trauma he experienced on the battlefield. They are both real people, but aside from their names and the positions very little is known about them. The two bond over solving mysteries together which I absolutely loved. It gave us plenty of fun adventures, and gave Mary and Tre something to bond over and spend time on together, so their relationship grew very organically over the course of the book.

So while I enjoyed the main plot immensely, it was the little details that let this book down for me. Mary’s characterisation felt very inconsistent; for the first half of the book she would talk about how she’s mousy and shy, but her actions demonstrated the opposite. And then, later on, she said those four words that we all dread: “not like other girls”. For wanting to be friends with her husband, apparently. I wasn’t a huge fan of the way women’s bodies were described (especially for a book written by two women, shout-out to Marguerite Kaye whose name should also be on the cover). Weirdest of all were the repeated, shoe-horned in references to Princess Beatrice (daughter of Queen Victoria), which of course reminds of us Princess Beatrice (daughter of the author) – except it was always in the context of Mary not wanting to end up like Princess Beatrice.

All in all there was a strong core to this book, but the details and inconsistencies let it down for me.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.