It isn’t easy to balance highlighting particular passages in my Kindle with ending up highlighting the entire text. While I didn’t necessarily love this book, I always adore Hall’s writing. On the other hand, I was delighted by how Valentine jumps straight into the deep end of exploring said “feelings” with Bonny, which was both some steamy fun and added another layer to how Hall styled this entire story. I think he was rather traumatized by the profligate expression of feelings portrayed by Bonny and Belle, which made his character development both intriguing and occasionally unnecessarily painful.

He’s the typical grumpy character to Bonny’s sharp-edged sunshine, with bonus demisexual representation.

Unfortunately, sometimes the manner in which Bonny and Belle dictate their views of how the world (and people) should be diminished the depth of character portrayed by Valentine.Īlas, poor Valentine. Almost every character is a study in extremes, which I recognize adds to the intentional melodrama of the story.

If anyone with less of that ability had written this, I probably wouldn’t like this book nearly as much. As usual, Hall’s excellent use of language in both the narrative and dialogue of this tale elevated it from potential massive cliché to self-aware use of genre and tropes in the best way possible. I giggled so much while reading this delightful story that the spouse thought I was losing my mind. This book isn’t usually the Regency romance we get, but it is absolutely one we deserve.

Something fabulous by alexis hall