Friends, my hopes? They were so high. I’ve been on a romance kick lately and desperate to read for escapism. And The Headmistress had so much promise: a Lammy-winner with an academic setting, a new-to-me trope to explore, trans inclusion (secondary character), Massachusetts. And a cat! So much to love, or so I thought, and to be fair, I did love the cat. But I found the grandiloquent writing style (why say “mealtime” when you could say “repast hour” instead, I guess?) insufferable.