As always, these are delightful. I do admit that the hero was a little thinly drawn here - the heroine's internality was great but his, eh, a little undercooked. Still nice to spend time with friends but I wonder if these are getting just a bit formulaic?

The book is written well and has interesting characters. I liked the concept of the story and the overall book. It did feel the story was a bit disjointed and jumped around a little bit. I wish there was more backstory between Alexandra and Magnus and more after they reunited. The true reasoning regarding their separation seemed a bit too unbelievable to me. There were times I found the side characters (those running hotel) to be more interesting. The reunification of Alexandra and Magnus felt too rushed and I wish we’d have learned more about the contents of his pocket. For me personally, the ending was wrapped up too quickly. I enjoyed the writing and think the disjointed feel was likely due to formatting and some final editing page breaks or images which were not on this uncorrected copy. I enjoyed the donkey race scene and it made me wish for more about Dot.

This was a cute historical romance. I've like other books by this author and thought I'd give it a try. I loved how the book started - captured my interested right away, but then I thought it slowed down a lot...perhaps too much. I wish there would have been a little more character development and maybe a little more action to the story overall.

I give this one 3 stars.

Julie Anne Long is an automatic request, automatic buy for me. I love this series SO MUCH. Every one holds up. One typo in "The Beast Takes a Bride" can be found in Chapter 13- it says "taken take" instead of just "take."

Another slow-burn, very funny romance. A not-uncommon Regency trope - estranged couple forced back in proximity and discover they have *feelings*. But, this story has a very fresh take, and damn, it works.

There was one particularly raucous conversation in the sitting room of the Grand Palace on the Thames involving fountains and other garden statuary (don't ask). I had a flashback of reading the "Dortmunder" novels by Donald Westlake, and the "gang" meeting in the back room of the O.J. Bar & Grill. Westlake was the Grand Master of absolutely pitch-perfect bonkers conversations, and I think he'd cackle at Julie Ann Long's characters.