Thank you so much to Aurora Inkwell Media and NetGalley for this ARC.
I listened to this on audio and had a pretty good time with it! I really enjoyed August Roy's voice, she spoke clearly and enunciated each word so the story was incredibly easy to understand. In the beginning I did find her narration a bit flat and monotone, but as the story built she began to inject more passion and emotion into it, which I felt was a really good parallel for the growing feelings between our two main characters. August Roy also did a fantastic job making unique voices for Ingrid, Cecilia, and Becky, and she's one of the few audiobook narrators who I feel does a convincing male voice.
Cecilia and Ingrid were such fun, dynamic characters, and I particularly loved Ingrid for her "ice queen" persona that she tried to portray for the first half of the story. Watching her melt was super enjoyable as she fell head over heels for Cecilia. Cecilia, likewise, was so sweet and incredibly grounded considering she was meant to be a rich socialite. I will say I found myself wishing we saw more of how their feelings developed, but that could be because this is a relatively short novel and obviously Rochelle Wolf, the author, didn't feel the need to pack in a lot of character building. The character building that was there WAS incredibly effective, I just wanted more! I really enjoyed spending time with these two characters and would've loved to see more of them falling for each other.
I will say some of the sex scenes felt a little awkward to me - like Wolf is still developing their voice when it comes to writing intimacy. They weren't bad at all, just sometimes a phrase wouldn't land right, or a character would try to be sexy and it would fall a little flat. What I will praise is the evident care and tenderness between Ingrid and Cecilia. Even when their relationship was just developing, they very clearly wanted what was best for each other, despite the arranged marriage. Also, weirdly enough, the arranged marriage/marriage of convenience plot worked really, really well for this story! It's not a trope I usually enjoy so I was pleasantly surprised that Impossible Match did it so effectively.
I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to seeing what Rochelle Wolf writes in future!