This is one of the those books that I didn’t really like, but I can’t exactly pinpoint what it was that I didn’t like about it. It had every element to be a new favorite for me. The writing style was dark and gothic, and the plot involved the mysterious death of the heroes ex fiancée. I think the characters had enough chemistry too, I just didn’t really like the hero. He was too tortured and too whiny, which would usually work for this type of story but I just found him really annoying.

Also the author of this book has a very obvious foot fetish, which…I guess whatever floats your boat bestie. But it was so odd at the times. The hero has to cut off the heriones boots, and he says ”[I] gained intimate knowledge of her toes. Her toes, by the by, are beautiful.”. I was giggling, because of how much foot fetish shit was in here. But my limits were set when the hero literally puts the heriones foot in his mouth during sexy times and I had keep myself from vomiting lmao.

And the really odd usage of the g*psy slur, over and over and over and over again. The stereotypes against Romani people in this book; calling them “fortune tellers” and the MC’s saying how they wanted to run away to their “caravans”. One of the quotes being: ”Put me in a G*psy caravan, I too could astound customers with the clarity of my visions in the crystal ball.”.

Even saying the hero looked like a “g*ypsy” at one point in the story because of how tanned he had gotten in his traveling around the world: ”You should have worn a hat in Egypt at least. To keep the sun off your face. The other day, Mrs. Wheatcroft told me her daughters are calling you ‘the g*psy.’ And the Wheatcroft girls haven’t had an original notion between the five of them for as long as I’ve known them. If theyre calling you ‘the g*psy,’ that means it’s all over London.” The g*psy is such a fashionable figure.” Lord Blackwood cocked a black brow. He looked every inch a g*psy king. “Everyone tells me this is the for g*psies. They’re in the highest demand.” Like what??? What does this even mean?!! Alexa play Justin Bieber rn frl…Anyways, Is the author European? It would not surprise me in the slightest due to their history and treatment of Romani people. But this is crazy? Like “every inch a g*psy king” really? Wtf. It was weird, it made me uncomfortable, it was definitely problematic.

Idk, this book wasn’t terrible. The writing was beautiful, and had some really quotable scenes and I loved the gothicness. I’ve also never read a book with a character that has epilepsy, let alone a historical. But I just couldn’t really find myself enjoying this one as much as I wanted to.

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My Gothic Book Playlist