In general, I adore Mary Balogh (Slightly Dangerous is my favorite, a lovely P&P retelling).

And I liked this book–I couldn’t not. I mean, Flavian was sweet and sincere (albeit a bit lost) and Agnes was prickly (even though she was the one who’d fallen in love)–one of my favorite inversion tropes in romance. I also enjoyed the way Agnes stood up for herself with a strong sense of who she was and how she fit into the world, so she didn’t need rescuing, another of my favorite tropes.

But, the book lacked the tension I think it needed. I never felt like there was any danger of Flavian and Agnes not getting together, nor that anything would really come between them. Every time there was a potential for misunderstanding, they cleared it up right away like real people do! It’s funny to even write that sentence, since I’m always rolling my eyes when characters *don’t* do that, but it’s also true that some of the fizzle was missing from the reading as a result.