I wanted to like this book. I had such high hopes considering the voyages across the Atlantic for both the heroine and hero. I love it when characters connect through being misfits. The problem was: Nathanial. It's a fine line between heartbroken and jerk. He kept falling into the jerk category. And Charlaine often felt like she was created just to fit into his redemption. Frustrating because her backstory was almost inconsequential when it was honestly the more interesting one. I wanted to hear her background because the implication was a black woman in society would have created waves. Yet we never saw that.

Added to that, there was lot of redundancy in plot points and several chapters could have been eliminated. Too much show and not enough tell as well. I really wanted to give the book a higher mark. Unfortunately, the combination lowered quite a bit.

However, I did like some aspects. I loved one particular moment between Charlaine and Nathanial, right before the big misunderstanding. I liked her freedom from shoes. I wish more of the book had been similar. And I very much liked Daphne and Susan. I felt like they were nice additions and helped balance the domestic plot points a bit.

I was looking forward to the book and am disappointed I couldn't give higher stars.