What I liked about this story is that half of it was basically a treasure hunt. I love mysteries and it was a clever way to add some actual plot to the love story.

Sadly, I didn’t enjoy this as much as I did the earlier books in this series. Especially towards the end the story was dragging a bit and I wasn’t really that invested anymore. I was still intrigued by the mystery, but there wasn’t enough of it for my taste. Spoiler alert ⚡️ reading the second epilogue is also very necessary if you want a bit of closure...

Lady Danbury absolutely stole the show (I mean what else could you expect?), but even though her role is much bigger is this book compared to the others, it wasn’t enough to up my rating to 3 stars. I’ve expressed my love for her before and I’ll do it again. What a queen. Hyacinth aspiring to become just like her is so cute. Apart from the mystery, their relationship is what I enjoyed most about the story.

If I had to rate the couples from these books, Hyacinth and Gareth would probably be at the bottom of the list... (Penelope and Colin are easily #1). Their relationship just felt a little forced at times. Also, Gareth had more than the required amount of toxic masculinity for a man from the Regency era (or a historical romance novel). I’ve gotten used to the extreme possessiveness some of the men in this series can display, but where I could forgive Anthony, there was just something about Gareth that didn’t sit right with me...

2.5 stars