There just is no other author in historical romance who writes with the kind of sentence level beauty as Meredith Duran. This was no exception and easily takes its place as one of my favorite Durans yet. Mina and Phin are all caps DAMAGED and the revelation of this book is watching them slowly peel back their own layers for each other and begin to trust again, even in the midst of an investigation that both of them initially believe the other may be the villain in. Just so so so good. My only complaint is that the ending felt slightly rushed and I would have liked a little more time with one of the characters who appears only briefly at the end and who I think I just wanted more closure with (being obtuse for spoiler reasons). Brilliant and moving otherwise. I think I highlighted the whole second half of this book when I switched to the ebook, I couldn’t help myself!