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As a reader who absolutely lives for character development, this historical romance novel was literally begging to be read.
While I enjoyed it, I do think it fell short in some areas. The romance beats were absolutely spot-on, and I loved the relationship between Julian and Portia, our two main characters, but it felt like it was missing that big element of true character growth.
Even though we know they have feelings for each other and face many issues, it just felt like none of it was ever really resolved.
And by resolved, I don’t mean everything tied up neatly with a bow at the end, but at least showing an effort for the characters to come into their own.
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I was actually very surprised because the character with the primary dilemma was our male lead, and I would have liked to see him shine more or at least have his underlying struggles explored more deeply.
Our female lead, Julian, on the other hand, mainly struggles with figuring out her husband’s feelings for her as well as her own feelings for him.
In books like this, where romance is the main focus, it can sometimes feel repetitive. That’s exactly what happened around the middle of the book—it felt like we were going in circles and repeating things that had already been said.
The chemistry between them is amazing, but this is a closed-door romance, so it’s not explicit. We do have a few intimate scenes, but nothing graphic. This was probably the first time I’ve read a romance like this—it’s different from what I usually pick up. If I had to rate it, I’d say this book is PG-16.
In this story, our female lead, Portia, is in town for her debut when she suddenly hears that the male lead, Julian, and another man got into a fight because of her. As a result, her reputation is ruined before she even has the chance to make her big debut. She decides one of them has to fix this mess, so she proposes marriage to the male lead, and he immediately agrees.
So this is essentially a marriage-of-convenience story that turns into love after marriage, which I always enjoy.
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A large portion of the book is dedicated to repeatedly showing how naïve our female lead is, and honestly, it got a little grating. That’s not to say that every heroine in a historical romance needs to be perfect, but the story placed so much emphasis on her lack of knowledge about anything intimate that it became off-putting.
Since this was a key part of the plot, it stayed front and center in the narrative. I would have appreciated it more if the author had tied it into her emotional journey. Perhaps if we had seen her struggle with these new feelings for her husband alongside her overall personal growth. Instead, it just felt like a separate issue.
Perhaps my favorite part of this book was how the roles were reversed. I know this might sound contradictory since I just said she was very naïve, but we hardly ever get emotionally constipated heroines in historical romance. In this story, she’s the one wrestling with all these new feelings and refusing to express herself, while the hero is surprisingly open and expressive.
There were so many moments where he was clearly rattled by how poised and reserved she was, and I really appreciated that dynamic. Usually, it’s the heroine who’s bending over backward trying to figure out the hero’s erratic behavior, but here the tables were turned and it was refreshing to see.
Misunderstanding is one of the main vehicles driving the plot here, and I honestly didn’t mind it. As readers, we mature, and while this kind of lack of communication and abundance of misunderstandings would have annoyed me a few years ago, I now see how realistic it can be.
As young adults, we’re more open with expressing ourselves, but as we grow older, people often become a bit more reserved and hesitant. Watching these characters struggle to understand each other in ways that were rooted in their own personal experiences felt very real and I could totally relate.
Since the author focused so heavily on the romance, we didn’t get to see much of society outside of this couple’s immediate circle. That was something I really wanted. This is actually the first historical romance I’ve read where neither the male nor female lead has any friends.
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That was hard to reconcile because there was almost no scene where they were bouncing ideas off friends or having conversations outside their relationship. Friendships are often a great tool for revealing more about a character, so that absence left a gaping hole. We ended up spending an inordinate amount of time with just the main couple.
That said, the romance did come together beautifully, and I’ll definitely be reading more from this author. As I mentioned earlier, I’m curious to check out the other books in the series, but honestly, only one character really piqued my interest and that was the frenemy of the male lead.
When you read this book, you’ll see that it’s essentially his actions that set the story in motion and if I understand the front matter correctly, this is going to be a duopoly and we’ll get Mr. Frenemy’s story next.
I love romance books where the hero is completely besotted with the heroine, and that’s exactly what we get here. I ate it all up.
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