This started out really well, with an interesting female protagonist - a young woman interested in geology in 1814 - and an interesting male protagonist - a viscount mentally scarred by the accident that took his parents when he was a child - but it did not keep me interested until the end. Once they left for Scotland, it began to drag. The slow pace was not helped by sections devoted to the couple that will apparently be the focus of the next book in the Spinster Cove series. I also thought that Minerva changed in ways that didn't make sense given her character. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read the previous book, I don't know. It wasn't bad but it didn't live up to its initial potential.