I was really excited about the premise of this book, adorable cover, huge lover of queer historical fiction... but I'm sorry to say that I was just incredibly bored. I read 50% of it, and every time I picked it up between 30-50% was honestly a struggle to get myself to do so. I didn't find the drama of the book compelling, there wasn't a ton of chemistry between the two MCs in my opinion, and things weren't moving fast enough. I didn't come in expecting an epic adventure or super high romance, but I didn't expect to be *bored*. 

Their spatting isn't fun; I was often bored by the content of their spats, instead of finding it fun and banter-y. I'm not even sure why they are rivals/enemies at the beginning? The seem to just be completely inept at getting through a conversation without inadvertently offending the other. The extortionist, to the best of my understanding, is a slimy queer guy who has hooked up with both of them and is trying to expose both MCs as queer, so that's an unfun dose of the persecution of queer people I wasn't expecting. I hoped for fun meddling cousin antics but didn't find there to be much of that. Maybe there is later in the book, but I'm too bogged down by the gross villain to get there. 

I think perhaps this isn't a bad book -- certainly lots of people seem to love it -- but I'm not sure the summary did a great job of preparing me for what the book actually is, and therefore left me expecting something else and disappointed. 

Maybe someday I'll come back to give this book a second chance, but for now, life is too short to finish books I'm not enjoying.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this eARC.