He was just too handsome to look at, and so Diane often made it a point not to, especially when they happened to talk.

This was a fun enough read with some nice themes and a few laugh-out-loud moments, but I genuinely felt like it was too short. I would have enjoyed it more, I think, as a full-length novel, perhaps even as a dual POV one, because the one-sided narrative and Liam being such a stoic enigma most of the time made it hard for me to figure out how the leads were connecting. Can’t say I didn’t ship them at all—some chemistry is definitely there—but, at least for the first half of the book or so, I struggled to see the romantic feelings and not just sexual attraction and mild interest. Looking back, I think the foundation for all the feelings definitely was there, but the constraints of the novella format made everything a tad too rushed.

I also had some issues with the prose: it was messy at times, with awkward phrasing here and there, sentenced that seemed to be missing a word, etc. I’m usually pretty forgiving of these things in indie books, but when they’re so frequent, they get aggravating.

Despite these complaints, I generally had a nice time with these books. Diane is an interesting heroine, and I liked to see her embrace more and more agency, despite initially being resigned to getting continuously smothered by well-meaning relatives because of her fainting illness. Some of my favorite tropes make a welcome appearance, like “only one bed“ / getting stuck in an inn together. The fainting goat is cute. Diane’s artsy hobby is quirky, unexpected, and fun. So while I wouldn’t call this book particularly memorable, I have no regrets about reading it and would probably even recommend it to those looking for a quick, easy, romantic read.