This is the book of the series that I’m the most torn on. On one hand, the romance, the mystery, the pacing, the ending - not just to the book, but to the series as a whole - they were all great.

My problem with this book is that Pen explains to Mark several times body/gender dysphoria and how being an earl would trigger that, and each time Mark sounds like he understands and then a few pages later, suggests that Pen can and/or needs to just deal with it. Pen was frustrated. I was frustrated. Everything resolves in a very satisfactory way (that I totally saw coming, but am still glad it ended as it did), but I’m still a little miffed at Mark in particular. I’m not sure how to represent that in my ranking. 4 stars feels like both too much and too little, but there you have it.