Well this was unexpected.

I went into this expecting an interracial historical romance just historically accurate enough to be hella angsty. And, check!

And though I hoped it would be steamy, I don’t think anyone could have expected a histrom to be this 🔥🔥🔥 (Seriously, the number of sexy time scenes in here was approaching infinity 👀)

But what I did not expect at all was how well written this was!

This one is for all the Jane Eyre girlies. And not just because it was a ‘woman going to work in an isolated great house owned by an enigmatic hotty’ story.

It was the vibes. The bleak, kinda religious, Victorian shame, introspective Brontë vibes. It was the language, the imagery, the pensiveness. It was the dark library, oppressively whispering townspeople, wind whipping your hair and dress on a cloudy Cornish beach as you contemplate your own freedom.. vibes. 

The sexual tension was 10/10. I loved the social commentary on racism and purity culture. I loved how emotional this was. How compelling these character arcs were. And did I already mention it was hot?? Because it was 🥵

This had some tropes that I normally avoid (like ‘he’s her boss’ and age gap) but they were handled just the way I like. The forbidden-ness and the angst of the romance were at maximum but everything was so careful and thoughtfully done.

I even loved the single POV—it was the right choice for this story, it felt grounded in the heroine’s feeling and made me glare at Perran like I would Mr. Rochester.