When the backdrop is way more interesting than the central story.

Who knew a story of a seditious newspaper and two people trying to write pornography would be boring? It’s weird that such a cool and original set up would not use it to its best advantage but instead would pivot to a very conventional long lost Duke story.

The first half of this book was so rough. It was boring and meandering, focussing on endless conversations and inner thoughts. There was a side plot and setting that could have been extremely interesting except very little focus was on them. I think this might have benefitted from being a full novel so the author could actually work on character development and story arc. As it was the pacing was so off and the narrative flipped at the 50% point and the book became about something else entirely. It almost felt like the author had written two separate books or abandoned the first story midway through.

The second half was much more fast paced and engaging but the originality was lost from the first half. And then the ending was abrupt and wrapped up very quickly. Just overall a badly paced novella.
The writing itself is very good and I like this author, but I can’t seem to get into this series. Her newer series was so good, perhaps she’s just hit her stride as an author recently and her backlist just isn’t it.