Historical, sapphic friends to lovers romance with sweet characters, a lovely friendgroup, accepting parents and a cute lovestory. The first half dragged a little pacing wise and I didn’t like the insta love, but fell in love with the characters over time. Can’t wait to read the next one, to fully end their story.

In diesem Buch war einfach ein bisschen zu viel los. Seit Bridgerton bin ich dem Regency Hype eindeutig verfallen und eine queere Regency Geschichte klang eigentlich auch genau nach meinem Ding. Aber irgendwie wollte sich bei diesem Buch einfach keine Euphorie einstellen. Denn so süß ich die beiden Mäuse hier auch fand, mir hat das Knistern gefehlt. Aufgrund des Settings verbringen die Charaktere nicht so viel Zeit miteinander, bis sie sich gegenseitig Liebesschwüre an den Kopf werfen, wie es in anderen Liebesromanen typischerweise der Fall ist. Und gepaart mit der Tatsache, dass die beiden hier sehr früh zueinander finden, dann jedoch Probleme dabei haben, diese Beziehung aufrechtzuerhalten, war ich leider gar nicht invested. Irgendwie habe ich die Beziehung nicht gefühlt, weswegen sich die zweite Hälfte des Buches sehr gezogen hat. Und auch wenn das Buch durchaus ein paar witzige und auch romantische Momente hatte und mir eigentlich allein schon durch den Akzent der beiden Sprecherinnen hätte gefallen müssen, bin ich bis zum Ende hin nicht richtig in der Geschichte angekommen.

A really nice wlw Victorian romance that was described as "Bridgerton meets Parent Trap," and that's exactly what you get. The beginning was a bit slow, but after around a hundred pages, I was really into it, and it just kept getting better. We follow the two debutantes, Beth and Gwen, who should be looking for husbands, but after they become friends, they are rather looking at each other 👀💕 Though, Beth desperately needs to make a match this season because she and her widowed mother need the security of a marriage to not end up homeless. Gwen's father is also widowed, and it turns out he even knew Beth's mother in her first season, and there seem to be some unresolved feelings. So they conspire to get them together, so they don't have to marry themselves. Also, they all deserve some happiness, don't they? As I said, the beginning was a bit slow until they figured out their feelings for each other and more focused on the matchmaking with the parents. Then there was also a lot of (well done) drama and of course a sweet and a bit spicy love story ❤️ As much as I loved Gwen and Beth together, my highlight was actually their friend circle and families. Their relationship with their parents, especially Gwen and her father, was just great. As someone who is also very close with their dad, I just love to see it. The side characters in general were well done and interesting. I kinda want to rate this higher, but there was still something missing for me. Idk, maybe more of the promised wit, spice and swoons 🤔 Not that there wasn't, but everything could have been just a bit more, I guess. Also, when the big drama started, I didn't understand why they just forgot about one thing. Seemed weird to me. I actually thought it would go in a different direction because of that, but the solution was well done. All in all, a very good book that I would recommend, and I am looking forward to the next volume, and next couple, that comes out in the summer.