Okay, this book should’ve had a different title. The woman in the lake??? THE WOMAN IN THE LAKE??

There was like, one reference to the mother who was murdered in the millpond (which I wouldn’t even consider to be a lake) and like, her character wasn’t built up enough for us to want to care about her. I was seriously expecting either Constance or Isabella or Fenella to literally be the woman in the lake. This book should’ve been called “The Golden Gown” or “The Moonraker” or something else. Anything else. Also, Jake tying Fen up and being ridiculously cruel and faking his death was really out of line and didn’t make sense. It was a quick way to wrap things up but it was so preposterous.

There were a lot of things in this book that were preposterous and could’ve been handled better. But I’m a sucker for gothic historical fiction so 2.25/5⭐️