Typical Charles, in that it was readable and pleasant, but I'm finding that her newer standalone books lack the snap of Henchmen of Zenda, Magpie Lord, or Will Darling adventures, or even Sins of the City. I think it's because they're focusing on being romance first, rather than romance + something else: fantasy, thriller, etc. Also, the Sins of the City and the Society of Gentlemen books had this really clever structure, in which all three books in the series wrap around a particular mystery or conflict (who is the heir to the title; will the seditious printer be caught and hanged) with all the events intertwining in the same period of time, from different perspectives. These standalone books don't have the scope for that sort of clever structure.