I really liked Ben and Kit; I love reading characters who are competent at their job. It was great to see a heroine in a somewhat realistic depiction of working in STEM. I also enjoyed all of the home restoration parts and the portrayal of complex family dynamics (though I wish both Kit and Ben had realised they don’t owe their father/mother anything, respectively). There were so many great secondary characters in this but I think Ben’s dad was my favourite. And it’s so nice to read about a solid female friend group in romance that isn't just about setting up the next books in a series! The writing was not as lyrical or polished as it was in Love Lettering (which was published after this but which I read first), but still lovely and evocative. 

However, it was a little bit too slow-paced at the start and then a bit too angsty and melodramatic at the end for me. It was such a quiet story for the first 80% that the conflict seemed a bit dissonant and out of proportion. The straight up refusal to communicate for a month was completely out of character and endlessly frustrating to read. I did like that the heroine apologised properly after messing up, but the conflict didn’t get resolved until 96% and that felt too late! I want to actually see the couple happy together for longer than a couple of pages at the end. There was also a part where Ben says to his friend, when he talks about the heroine disrespectfully, 'don't talk about her like that!'... the implication being it's OK to talk about other women like that, as long as they aren't the heroine? I don't know, it really rubbed me the wrong way.

Oh and what was with the Chekhov’s bondage?? You can’t just have the hero think that he might like the heroine to tie him up and then not show that on page!