Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

SPOILERS AHEAD. I've read nearly everything Courtney Milan has written and loved every book -- except this one. The plot is just too strained for me, and I'm typically easily able to suspend disbelief in romance novels. In this tale, however, a duke decides to anonymously foment workers' unions as a way of redeeming his horrible fathers' cruelty and greed, and no one seems to realize that if he simply spent his money and energy in improving workers' situations and pay, his efforts would be much more effective than stirring up unrest. The heroine's situation is just as ludicrous: raised as a boy who plays chess, she was found out and stoned and is now living under an assumed identity working for hygienic reforms. Milan's previous novels have been outstanding for the emotional chemistry the two protagonists share, but the zeal for reform is the big emotional draw in this novel. The hero and heroine deserve each other, but readers don't deserve the wooden characters, overly melodramatic dialogue, nor the completely absurd plotting. Still, I'll be reading more of Milan -- this one just wasn't to my taste.