The romance is completely unbelievable. It’s insta-love and it’s especially unbelievable because the MC, Eliza, claims she wants to be independent and run a business and not marry for a long time but then she immediately falls for the first man she sees and goes on and on about how excited she is to throw balls and dinner parties. I’m not saying you can’t do both but the character depth we had from the beginning just suddenly changed and the romance begins within 50 pages.

Nearly 130 pages in and it’s nothing more than a historical romance/bodice ripper 😭 I wanted ghosts and creepy tension and GOTHIC VIBES as promised but it’s been nothing but romance and sex. I really wanted to love this debut because I so loved Kennedy’s sophomore novel (The Witch of Tin Mountain).

Sadly I’m DNFing because it’s so slow and there’s been no gothic/creepy vibes this late into the novel and I’m just not enjoying it. For once Kennedy didn’t have the curse of the sophomore novel as that was better than her debut, and rather a good thing I didn’t start with her debut because then I probably would not have read her second. I just hope her third book is better 🤞🏻