Because of the fairly simple premise, and the long length, the book meanders a bit and felt kinda slow at times. There weren't any terrible bits that desperately need to be cut, but there were definitely several parts that were just 'fine', or scenes that lingered longer than they needed, and the book would be much tighter and more continually engaging without those 'filler' parts. I quite like sort of 'cold' heroes, and watching them melt, and this hero was cold and did melt to some degree, but I'm not sure I fully bought his reasons for being cold in the first place. Often their backstory is absolutely tragic and there are strong reasons they are the way they are, but his were just kinda 'meh'. It didn't feel like he was quite overcoming as much when he made progress away from them. But I didn't dislike him, and there were still sweet moments when you could tell he was learning to care. The heroine was pretty resilient which I like. And this also fits well with the 'sunshine and grump' trope which is a fun one. The steam felt a little slow to get going, for the premise and how much of it there was, but that might go along with the book just generally being drawn out a bit longer than needed, that I mentioned before. I could follow the descriptions though, and there was a nice variety to the acts and scenes. And a nice verbal quality that is often lacking in steam. Overall it wasn't quite as good as I wanted it to be, but I was entertained. This is my first book by this author and I will try others.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )

review copy for ARRA ( )

review copy for ARRA ( )