Breaks your heart all the way. Lovely story. ( )

Anti race, super woke and modernist feminist hr …. Will pass on it. Life is too short to waste on this style of HR. Would it be so hard for these authors to be true to the genre?? ( )

Let me start by saying, I absolutely adored Celeste and Keiran's story in the first book of this series, so I couldn't want to read Finn's story. And, although it was a good book, it just fell short of the mark I had set for it. And maybe that was my fault with too high expectations. I didn't swoon at the steamy parts. I didn't fully believe Tabitha, especially compared to the way Finn felt about her. Her dramatic exit when he tried to take reason into her reaction made me so frustrated. I have a Dyslexic son so I loved the way they handled Finn's disability and, overall, Tabitha's reaction to it. I just wanted her to fall madly in love with Finn after all the sweet things he was doing for her and for his honesty and love, but she just didn't. It was still a sweet story and deserving of four stars, but I just wanted what I felt while reading Celeste and Keiran's love story.

The Heroine
Tabitha Seaton is a very intelligent woman which, of course, is not a valued asset in Regency England. She has been teased and criticized for her love of books and knowledge her whole life. She wants to have a voice in policies that are being decided and desperately wants to join the Sterling Society so she can help influence decisions. But they won't let her in the society unless she is married, so she decides to get married but not to allow feelings in her marriage. Tabitha once thought she was in love, but the man, her brothers tutor, told her she was unintelligent to have such feelings and it was silly to allow her to sit in on the lessons. I had a hard time with Tabitha...I loved that she was so sweet to Finn and saw past the shield he put up. She didn't call him out for his reading troubles, but read to him and helped him with his confidence. On the other hand, she drove me crazy with her issues in her past and not wanting to love Finn. He gave her no reason to worry about the feelings being reciprocated and I feel like she tried to find the worst in him and, when she did, it was a stretch. And, when she reveals that she knew about his reading trouble all along, I was mad that she wouldn't have understood him more.

The Hero
Finn Ransome has Dyslexia and has spent his whole life being told he is stupid and belittled by his family, teachers and friends. But he excels at gambling and secretly wishes to open his own gaming hell. I adored Finn; he is the sweetest and just dotes on Tabitha. He did everything he could to make her happy and, when she kept leaving their bed during the night, I wanted to cry for him!

Tropes
Regency Era, Warm Steam, Carriage Steam, Beta Hero, Damaged Hero, Historical Romance, Titled Hero, Unworthy Hero, Spinster Heroine, Wallflower Heroine, Bluestocking Heroine, Marriage of Convenience, Disability, Dyslexia

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I just could not muster much care about these characters or their plight. There was nothing beyond their own daftness to keep them from their HEA, so it just felt like drawn-out drudgery watching them fumble through it. The steam was good, but not good enough to get this up to 3 stars for me. I've enjoyed most of the books I've read by this author, but this one was a bit tedious. ( )

There were aspects of this I really liked. I liked Tabitha and her quest to be recognized for her intellect at a time when women's intellect was not only not valued, but was seen as a problem by most. I liked Finn at the start, but did not feel he was fleshed out enough and he was a hoot until he was not and instead became a bit too abject all the time. I appreciated the backstory (view spoiler) and the exploration of how painful it was that people thought him stupid when he was not. I liked that Tabitha saw his intelligence even when others did not. But that sense of hurt and his gratitude toward Tabitha for seeing his true worth became all he was. At the beginning before he fell in love with her he was charming and funny and a bit of a bad boy, and then he fell in love and he became nothing more than a vessel to be of service to Tabitha. I liked the part where they were working together toward a common goal, but I wish it was shown as his goal too, not just his goal only because he wanted her to to reach her goal. Being a great support is amazing and it is wonderful to help the people you love reach their dreams, but working your butt off and clapping as your partner gets all the credit is no more appealing when it is the man behind the woman than the woman behind the man. Also, the tension caused by their fear of vulnerability was stretched out way too long. At some point it became irritating and ludicrous. One man said something mean to Tabitha years ago when he spurned her interest and she was forever broken and unwilling to consider romance. Come on! That is a silly weak person and it made me like the character less. Finn a least was responding to repeated messaging from a parent, that makes sense. Finally, the prose was a hair purplish. Not terrible, but I would have preferred if it were cleaned up and modernized a bit.

Overall I enjoyed this. With some editing it could have been a 4-star. ( )