You know a book is ~bad~ (putting some ~'s because bad is subjective, isn't it?) when Mary Jane Wells' narration can't save it.

I can tell I'm not connecting with a book when it takes me more than a few days to read it. I can find time for an audiobook. Getting ready, driving, at work, on breaks, while working out at lunch, putting Ava to bed, before bed. I kept finding reasons not to read this.

I felt lukewarm about the first book in the series but gave this one a shot because I liked The Beast of Beswick, and I LOVE Mary Jane Wells as a narrator.

But I could not get on board. For one, the heroine and hero don't seem to like each other very much. I mean, obviously that's part of the plot because it's childhood friends to enemies to adult enemies to lovers... but I was halfway through and he doesn't even know if she's not a ridiculously vapid society heiress! He LITERALLY thinks the worst of her. Even with people - like her brother - telling him she's more.