3 Stars
Per my typical 3 month cycle, I finished my quarterly Emma V. Leech historical romance. I never want Emma to stop writing these!
But, I will say this didn't quite hit the right mark for me. It was fine (ok, maybe more on the 2-star side, I physically cannot rate this lower bc I LOVE this series)... but there was something off with the chemistry between Alana Cadogan and Reverend Harry Martin.
The first ~50% of the book almost didn't feel like a romance at all. Harry found Alana attractive and decided to ignore her, and Alana ran around with Cat to prepare for an auction to raise money for... something (the church?). Anyways - the story was really missing the romance/a real plot? Don't get me wrong, I adored the side story progressions with Emmeline and the blind marquess//Cat and Kilbane, but I shouldn't have preferred reading those chapters/letters more than the actual story, ya know?
I also didn't love the setting. Usually we have more characters around and it creates a very charming scene of house parties and lovely interactions. This felt very much set apart - with Alana and Cat having a pretty quiet visit to the St. Clair estate before the season starts. It wasn't bad, per say, but it wasn't my favorite.
Then towards the end of the story, when we finally receive information about Harry's past, I was left a bit disappointed. I expected Harry to have a very very sordid past - like drunkenly killing a family in an accident/leaving a women with a bastard child - something extreme right? No, it ends up that he was an alcoholic and... that's it. I felt like the story was alluding to a dark, specific event (connected to him waking up in an alley/when the Reverend found him) that happened. But there was almost no follow up on that - which makes me wonder if it will be revealed in a later book (Kilbane/Cat's since Kilbane seems to have some sort of connection to Harry), or maybe it's nothing.