I struggled with the rating, really wanted to give it a 4. There was SO much that I loved about this book but I cannot get past the minimal non-consensual spice. There is no need for that. ( )

I didn’t like the hero much here. He really didn’t seem to care much for the heroine. ( )

A decent story, but I honestly don't think I've ever read such a poorly edited book in my entire life. Missing words. Misspelled words. Phrases like "the teapot pot" and "through him through." Commas lacking in places where commas desperately needed to be. Weird italics. This isn't the typical Julie Anne Long experience, and I'm hoping the next novel in the series isn't quite such an exercise in confusion. ( )

There were several things I enjoyed about this book, and I chuckled outloud to myself many times, but it was brought down by some significant flaws as well, that kept it from being 4 stars for me. The heroine had just appalling judgement at every turn, as well as being reckless, spoiled, and naive. She wasn't entirely unlikable, but she frequently made it difficult for me to enjoy her.

There was a significant power imbalance between the hero and heroine as well, not only is he the captain of the ship she's on, which would usually be plenty, but he's also capable, knowledgeable, experienced, heroic, etc., and she really doesn't have much going for her. She can claim being from a privileged background, having family members who love her, being beautiful, and having some luck, but none of that is by her doing. The story repeatedly claims she's very clever as well, but besides some skill at chess, I didn't see any evidence of that. And apparently she can't even school her features when she needs to bluff, or keep a secret, or gather information, or bargain, etc. So especially against someone as impressive as the hero is described to be, it made her seem like a 16 year old dating a 30 year old. The hero definitely had his moments that didn't impress me either, but overall the balance was like 85/15, which isn't nearly as fun or interesting to me.

Some things in the plot were especially contrived or didn't quite make sense as well, but it probably didn't annoy me as much as the other issues. All that said, I was entertained and I laughed, and ultimately I wished them well, so I'm not displeased to have read it. But I feel like it had more potential than it lived up to. ( )

Enjoyable read. I liked the plot. I had higher expectations though. I did not really like either of the characters that much.

I think that this book would have benefited from input from someone who actually speaks French. The French phrases in this story are pure gibberish, grammatically incorrect literal translations of English. You cannot just directly translate "it's the pot calling the kettle black" as this form of the idiom does not exist. The laughable use of French didn't impact my rating, but it feels like such a simple thing to research that I am a bit astounded by it. ( )