blandly charming, which isn't an insult! it just is. ye olde steminist meets so-called rake... as usual not much of a rake except when he purposely tarts her up to take her to a gambling house for Plot Contrivance reasons.

there is a certain type of book that could be 200 pages lighter. this is one. an adventure story allows for a lot of sidebars and even after, the hero has an ungodly amount of Feelings for pages and pages beyond the pale.