This one was an interestingly mixed bag for me. I absolutely adored Fitz and Georgiana and their kinky awkward romance. Fitz discovering his dominant side in the bedroom, while still being the last guy you’d expect it from in his day-to-day life is absolutely perfect. And the other Jennings are solid side characters I look forward to reading about. The writing was a little odd for me though— for one thing it reads like a novella despite being full-length, I’m not even quite sure how. And while the author warns of anachronisms/modern language to begin with, it still needed an edit on that front, honestly. Some things like cultural references that don’t exist yet, “smog” in pre-Industrial London, or using the word “shag” just served to take me out of the narrative. Set at Christmas, but not festive enough to feel weird reading in April.

Alas, I have to give up on this one. I was so intrigued by the premise and I love that the FMC is mixed and actually from China, but the British society inaccuracies are hitting too hard for me to trust that her backstory isn't potentially inaccurate also. She giving a bit manic pixie dream sailor- literally is doing flips off the ship's rigging - and he has a lot of explanation as to why he's Not Like Other Lords. I don’t understand what’s going on with her sister, her dad gets called Mr in one sentence and Lord in the next, and there’s no way that our MMC could be a duke and his paternal cousin is heir to the earldom. It doesn’t work like that. Also if he so thoroughly compromised her as he did, not marrying her is only going to ruin her prospects, full stop. This courting plan is shenanigans. For that reason, I’m out.

So this is in my reread objective, but I actually have zero recollection of reading it the first time, so do with that what you will, lol. This is a solid story and shockingly does hold up to a modern lens for the most part, but I did have a lot of issues with it— more than just my sticklerhood for British nobility titles and how a THIRD son would never be a viscount, what is even happening. My biggest problem though was the overbearing amount of screentime given to the Previous and Future MCs, as well as previous books being given the Babysitter’s Club rehash treatment only more so, even. And as much as I enjoy James (especially calling her George and when his plans go awry), he becomes unnecessarily manipulative in the end. Spent a credit on the audio, which was fine but the accents/voices are very inconsistent and I switched to eyeballs < halfway through.

This was an odd one for me. I blew through it and didn’t NOT enjoy it, but the FMC is insufferable a lot of the time, the “why choose” seems insupportable, and the writing is compelling, but much in need of an editor. Stunich makes some interesting narrative choices though and I’m invested enough to see where this goes. The fact that Eve has a successful life back on Earth and friends and family waiting for her makes her standout from Ruby Dixon’s heroines who were usually alone to begin with and have no chance of getting back to Earth anyhow. But her quest to find Jane is single-minded to the point of stupid choices, and she’s petty enough to condemn her annoying pop star client to her fate at the hands of whatever, and makes a snap judgment of Zero— the consciousness trapped in the ship they live in— and proceeds to treat her like crap because of it. The worldbuilding is interesting, but weirdly human-friendly for Earth not being in the intergalactic mix (there’s wine, whiskey, macarons, guys named Trevor and Taylor and Hieronymus). And I don’t know how this is going to end up in a poly situation… or why. Two of the three MMCs are thinking she’s their fated mate (or they’ll DIE), Bachelor #2 gets a little more sympathetic but he’s still her kidnapper and there’s nothing that makes me want them together, and Bachelor #3 is around but not in the game yet. So I’m still only rooting for Bachelor #1, but we’ll see what happens. Seems like the other guys could have been used for the other abducted human characters though. 🤷🏻‍♀️