*I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I had the opportunity to hear Amalie Howard speak on a panel last fall and she spoke about this book and it sounded interesting and she spoke very passionately about it, but unfortunately, I didn’t really work for me and I’m sad.

I think Howard has a very voicey writing style, and in the one historical that I’ve read from her it didn’t bother me because it was very clearly a historical with modern sensibilities like it was a take on 90s romcom movies but make it Regency. Here, though it felt too Not Fantasy so I struggled to care about the fantasy elements and the world wasn’t explained enough for me to really care about the fantasy elements, but I also didn’t really care about the characters enough to care about the romance. 

To be completely honest I finished this book 2 days ago and I don’t really remember much of what happened. Ultimately very sad that it didn’t work for me, but I think it will work for the romantasy fans who don’t really care about the fantasy part. And in the meantime, I will finish her Taming of the Dukes series, and maybe check out some of her other historicals.