I truly did not enjoy this book. It was incredibly anticlimactic. Nothing really happens in the entire book. The plot was lost on me. I kept waiting for something to happen but then I got all the way to chapter 35 and I realized nothing would happen. But I was already so far in that I finished it anyway.

We never see Belle reconcile with her true heritage which, would have been more racially positive. And her relationships with all these men are flawed in the worst ways. Her personality was written as an early 1900’s pick me girl lol I never thought I’d use the term “internalized misogyny” but it’s everywhere in this book so, here we are. I just did not like Belle’s character development at all.

I gave it 2 stars because I got through it and the prose wasn’t terrible. It was probably better listening to it as an audiobook. I don’t think I would have lasted 42 chapters if I was reading it as a print book; the reader’s voice was pretty interesting at least.