An enjoyable read overall: engaging plot with a mystery that neatly managed the balance between predictable and underdeveloped twists, and a reveal that made sense. Loved the acknowledgment that a girl can have both beauty and brains, love both pretty dresses and science, and neither has to detract from the other. Thomas was dreamy, the classic Victorian rake with a heart of gold, and the romance largely skipped over the YA angst that I find so tiresome.

Just a personal preference thing, but I found the writing itself excessively descriptive (I love imagining the scene as much as the next reader, but I seriously don’t need a metaphor elaborating on the exact shade of the curtains) and I wasn’t all that fond of Audrey Rose’s commentary on everyone else’s thoughts and feelings — I get that it’s literally part of her training to make observations and conclusions, but the way she waffled irregularly between certainty and speculation didn’t work for me.