Reviews

I'm so confused to be honest. I'm confused about the male protagonist Tom Severin. I ended up skimming quite a few reviews, and ended up reading that Kleypas had said he is supposedly "a highly functioning sociopath", or something like that. I honestly thought he was autistic (I'm saying this as an autistic person myself, and I could recognise a lot of his behaviour in myself). Why would I think Tom is autistic? He obviously has a hard time understanding social rules, and recognising feelings in others. His special interests are engineering (very stereotypical), and business. He has texture issues, the protest on ruffles because he doesn't like how they feel, and cake, because it feels gross in his mouth. I can even recognise his insistence on having only five feelings (I've done something similar, and I'm not a sociopath as far as I know). Tom also doesn't appear to be someone who would break the law and put others and himself in danger just because (as can be a thing with sociopaths). He doesn't seem overly aggressive compared to the other male characters Kleypas has written.
So yeah, I'm very confused. I'm just going to headcannon him as autistic.

Other than all of that, I'd say the book is okay. I'll have to agree with other reviews I've seen, and say that Cassandra is a super bland character. The book also suffers from a weak story outside of the romance to glue the whole thing together.

murrrbelles's review against another edition

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funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

a_kira's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

elinorsbookshelf's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

dobbsthedog's review

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4.0

I really enjoyed this one!

I quite liked Tom Severin as a romance hero, even though he’s very much not the typical romance hero. I don’t know if it was intentional on Kleypas’ part or not, but I was definitely reading Severin as being autistic-coded. The high intelligence, his discomfort with emotions, his more factual way of thinking, all feel autistic-coded to me.

I really could have done without all the body shaming throughout most of the book, though. That’s the one thing that I really didn’t like with this one. I know it was done so that Tom would have his moment to tell Cassandra how he would be attracted to her no matter what, but it still felt gross to read.

Overall, really enjoyed this one, probably my second favourite after Devil’s Daughter in this series. Also, Basil is a fantastic side character, I hope we see a bit more of him in the last book of the series.

allyallyally's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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