I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

I picked up this book for the princess who crossdresses to pretend to be her twin brother in order to bring him privacy, and the f/f romance was the cherry on top. In a way, I got what I came for: I really enjoyed the scenes where Viola had to navigate talking to his brother's friends and trying to find out what happened without revealing who she was.

Unfortunately, that's about the only part of the book I enjoyed. I wasn't really invested in the love interest, and frankly, the romance arc of the book was so similar to the last three contemporary f/f romances I read that I actually had to check if I've read something by this author before (the answer is no). This made the conflicts and the resolution predictable and not very fascinating.

I also found it jarring that Duke, a random journalist who has never before seen either of the twins up close and (as she admits) barely did her research, immediately had suspicions about Viola impersonating Sebastian at the very first speech. Sure, she starts looking for more clues before she can be certain, but given that not even Sebastian's friends (who knew about his addiction and health) were suspicious so fast, it just didn't feel believable to me.