I have hit a string of books this month where I didn't really love anything I read. This was another one of those, unfortunately--a perfectly serviceable story, but not one that left much of a lasting impression on me.
This is the third book in a connected trilogy of stories, and it's the one that hangs together the least well for me. Julian and Courtenay, the couple this book focuses on, are fine, but all of the plot around them essentially revolves around everyone in the story being incapable of having a straightforward conversation about anything. Courtenay is the rake in question, a man who we meet in an earlier book and is described as being terrible and wicked, but of course he's not really. And Julian is the straight-laced man who just needs to let love into his life, who has a sister he adores who he thinks sacrificed her life for his health by moving to England from India, and it's just all very complicated and not particularly satisfying, in the end. The plot intrigue needs to either be more important or less; I have read one too many historical romance novels recently that have insurmountable obstacles that are just magically handwaved without actually convincingly solving those obstacles, and I don't have much patience or interest in it at this point.
Grade: C
This is the third book in a connected trilogy of stories, and it's the one that hangs together the least well for me. Julian and Courtenay, the couple this book focuses on, are fine, but all of the plot around them essentially revolves around everyone in the story being incapable of having a straightforward conversation about anything. Courtenay is the rake in question, a man who we meet in an earlier book and is described as being terrible and wicked, but of course he's not really. And Julian is the straight-laced man who just needs to let love into his life, who has a sister he adores who he thinks sacrificed her life for his health by moving to England from India, and it's just all very complicated and not particularly satisfying, in the end. The plot intrigue needs to either be more important or less; I have read one too many historical romance novels recently that have insurmountable obstacles that are just magically handwaved without actually convincingly solving those obstacles, and I don't have much patience or interest in it at this point.
Grade: C
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