This book was really a 3.5 for me, but the reason I lowered it to a rating of 3 is because of one crucial question: would I read this again? Sadly, I will not. There's nothing that stands out as being "wrong" with this book. A cast of fascinating characters comes together to achieve a goal of setting the first transpacific telegraphic cable. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning, but it picked up around the sixth chapter, which is when I started to enjoy myself more. The conflicts were reasonable, and the plot kept me engaged. Overall, I would say this book just suffered from a case of it didn't know what it wanted to be. Is it a romance? Is it historical fiction? Is it science fiction? It's a little bit of everything which means it's a whole lot of nothing.

As I mentioned, the first few chapters are bland because our hero Grayson is trying to convince the brilliant widow Amelia Smith to flee her second proposal of marriage to a missionary with the same awful name (sorry to everyone named 'Alden' out there) and build a morse code for Chinese for him. Readers are hit over the head with how ruthless Grayson is in getting what he wants, but I was honestly tired of reading about Amelia waffling for several chapters about what she should do. For her part, Amelia is a Chinese woman taken in by English missionaries. She is constantly referred to as barbaric and forbidden to learn anything about her culture, even though she desperately wants to know who her birth mother was. At the same time, she's quirky and brilliant and very much suffers from the romance novel trope of "brilliant woman who can't make small talk to save her life" (my least favorite trope of all).

I really enjoyed reading about Amelia's journey to finding her mother as well as her learning to accept and balance the two cultures she knows. She really grows into her own and becomes such an inspiring character. However, that isn't supposed to be the focus of this book. It's supposed to be the romance. As a result, Amelia's reunion with her family felt very abrupt and her new family felt more like an afterthought than the denouement to a very climactic moment.

Similarly, Grayson is suffering from a very severe case of survivor's guilt. Three of his brothers died in the American Civil War. It's a lot of trauma and pain for both him and his surviving family members, and so he hopes that completing this transpacific cable - a project he and his brothers dreamed up - will heal their hurts. It doesn't, but what resolution we do get for Grayson is also quickly wrapped up. I mean, there is a whole chapter on it, but it doesn't feel resolved. Does he spend more time with his family now? With this new telegraphic communication, does he plan on communicating with them more frequently? It's not said. He and his parents have a good cry, and that's about it. Not saying a good cry can't be therapeutic. It just doesn't feel like that should be the only solution to Grayson's problems. In my opinion, he should make more of an effort to consistently stay in contact with his family, but there's very little promise of that.

I also felt the writing was rather stilted, especially in the beginning. Milan is repeatedly trying to make symbolism a thing, but she goes about it in such a bizarre manner. The obsession with megalodons in this book was ridiculous. They're supposed to represent these quirky desires the leads have that threaten to upset the status quo of their lives. Unfortunately, it was distracting and awkwardly inserted. Milan does this a lot in her books. Whether it's dinosaurs or stinky cheese or turnips, there's some goofy element she has to insert that is supposed to represent some lofty concept, but it just takes away from the momentum of the story, if you ask me.

Overall, while I enjoyed bits of this story, as a whole, it didn't feel cohesive to me. This is also because Grayson and Amelia spend very little time physically in the same space. I think they're a cute couple, but I would not classify this story as 'their romance'. It's more a tale about their redemptions, and they just so happen to fall in love. The novel would still be a complete novel if the romance didn't take place at all. By definition, that means it's not a romance. Don't get me wrong: there's plenty to like about this book. Just know that it's not swoonworthy or romantic in the slightest. It's a thought-provoking and emotional read, if a bit discombobulating, but it is not a romance. However, since it's still trying to be a romance, the other elements suffer because they're not as fully developed as they could be, and it's a real shame. ( )

It's been a long wait for this one but so, so worth it. I love so much what Courtney Milan does - delve into historical perspectives we usually don't see featuring H/h who are not usual historical fare. In this one, the central theme is finding belonging in a world that doesn't give you a place to naturally slot in. Also love that the third act crisis isn't between the pair but instead is a reckoning that has been building throughout the book into facing something the hero has been running from. This is what she does. She breaks the mold and tells incredibly satisfying and fresh stories.

I don't want to say much about the plot. It's so good. Just do yourself a favour and read it. ( )

Yay libraries!

I had to re-check out this book in order to finish it, but it's not the story's fault. Historical plots are often slower than I prefer, and the language uses more words than I prefer, thus I read slowly. But the characters are great, and the plot is interesting. The romance is very slow-burn except for the mutual attraction. They're SO SWEET. I didn't follow much of the encoding Amelia works out, but it didn't matter. One of the best parts is Amelia's reckoning of her biracial realities. Another is the subplot of Gray's struggle with his grief. Another is Amelia's realization of what her English mother does to her in the name of love. All the side characters are great, the sailors, the earl's son, the tea shop proprietor, all of them.

I haven't been interested in the other books in this series, but I enjoyed this one, particularly the second half. I saw a review calling this less a romance because of all the distance and tech stuff, but I find that kind of objection silly. I didn't know much about early telegraph technology, and not much more about China generally. In my opinion there was just enough detail to give the romantic plot a solid background and lend Amelia the wings to escape and grow. ( )

Beautiful and wonderful as all of Milan's work is. I found the lack of conflict between the hero and heroine to be noteworthy and a perfect example of how genre conventions can be broken within the rules of a genre (as opposed to the occasional pretending of a book to be romance when it lacks the requisite happy ending); rather than generating artificial reasons for them to delay getting together, or worse to break up for no apparent reason in time for a big crisis near the end, they simply both have trauma that they need to address before they're able to move forward with their lives. ( )

made me soft ( )