Lacklustre ending to the series 

There were so many things about this book that just did not land for me. The execution was muddled, the pacing was slow and the romance lacking. 
This book is a finale for not one but two series, and as a result, it was bogged down by side characters and cameos. And for a marriage of convenience, they didn’t get married until nearly the end. Very little time was spent with them together and I felt very little between them. The thing I could not get over was Stella saying she decided to fall in love with Teddy because she wanted love in her marriage. But they truly both married each other out of desperation and a need for both of them to live freely and independently from their domineering families. This could have been ok if we had enough time with them together building on that, but we didn’t. I still feel incomplete and like I don’t really have an idea of what their HEA looks like. 
Also the family drama on Stella’s side was a caricature of what Mimi usually writes. It was almost lazily inserted and not resolved. 
This is so unfortunate as I was highly anticipating this story. Overall this was just so very flat. It had moments of the style I like from Matthews but it really lacked emotion and angst. 
I’m rounding to three stars because it’s still a Mimi Matthews, and she is a very good writer. There were moments of great description and I could always tell I was reading one of hers, this one just wasn’t her best. 

I do appreciate the complimentary copy of this book and look forward to her next series, but this was just not it for me.