Mary's father embezzled money from his business partners (one of the partners, John, was Mary's fiance). After her father's suicide, Mary leaves her life behind to work as a lady's companion.

After Mary ends their engagement and leaves with barely a trace, John becomes convinced that Mary knows where the money is. After he hears her name mentioned in a letter, he goes to the neighborhood to search for her.

I really liked Mary, but John frustrated me sometimes. He does get better as the book goes on, though.

This novella was pretty complicated given its length. It had a second-chance romance, a mystery about missing money, and a villain who was abusing his wife and employees by isolating and controlling them. I think the book would have worked better if it was longer, but I still enjoyed reading it. ( )

For being one of her earliest stories, this novella from Milan is really good! You never know what you're going to get with romance authors' earlier works, but this one delivered. The pacing is good. The supporting cast is quite memorable and surprisingly fleshed out while being completely devoid of tropes or cliches. It's clever and sweet and steamy. Only criticism I have is that it's not the most romantic story in the world. It feels more like a story of empowerment for Mary, and the romance feels more like a subplot than anything. In fact, I think the story would be a lot stronger if it was framed as historical fiction than as romance. The love story, in my opinion, just wasn't as memorable.

The beginning opens up very similarly to the fairytale Beauty and the Beast: Mary's merchant father has fallen into disgrace and her life is turned on its head, leaving her to flee to the country and abandon her fashionable life. John Mason is one of the partners her father cheated, but readers are discouraged from ever sympathizing with him. In fact, as brilliant and caring as John is, readers are almost encouraged to see him as a villain. Even though he's supposed to take care of his widowed sister and nephew, this intelligent man is expected to sit back and not at all be upset that he was cheated by Mary's father. So, when he finally tracks down Mary after 18 months, we're supposed to be appalled that he only wants to talk to her to get answers and not out of the goodness of his heart.

While I understand that Mary is completely blameless in the situation, it's not fair to make John out to be the villain when he's just as much a victim as her. In fact, John is often painted as an idiot because Mary figures things out about the people around them before he does while he's reduced to being the "hulking male" in the background. If this were a true romance, there should have been more development on his part and a little more sympathy into his predicament.

Meanwhile, Mary is quite the complex character. She was very fun to read about, and her situation with the Walters was simultaneously terrifying and gripping to read about. Her schemes to liberate both her and Mrs. Walters from their predicament were quite interesting to read about, and would have been more so if more time could be dedicated to it. Like I said, this story would work much better as a historical fiction novel of a young woman in the 1840s looking to test her powers and break out of the mold society set for her.

Alas, it is an imperfect romance. There is still plenty to enjoy, if only to wonder what it could have been. Highly recommend this early tale if you're a fan of Milan's style of storytelling! ( )

Not enough angst or trauma to get on my shelves, but still, close to those themes and engaging to boot! ( )

Not enough angst or trauma to get on my shelves, but still, close to those themes and engaging to boot! ( )

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