This was unsatisfying with a confusing message. Tabitha's transformation about 2/3rds through made no sense. She suddenly realized she could have been living less frumpishly? If her cousin Jo could be Belle of the Ball, pretty as you please while keeping herself an 'old maid' why couldn't she? Oh because everyone said she was plain and plump.

Other then the 'villain' of this title, no one called her plain or plump. Not her brothers, not her cousins and definitely not Noah. Part of her self-confidence issues stemmed from "people she loved" saying such to her, frequently she would have you believe but no one did! Jo came the closest by apologizing for possibly making Tabitha believe that all these years, but she never said it.

Then there's Noah, who apparently has been making lusty eyes at Tabby for years but no one said anything and he never approached her. It took both her brothers more or less selling her to him for him to realize by jove she's perfect!

I think I liked Leih and Miss Jennings the most but the former is in his own ridiculous farce of a romance with Jo and the latter disappears quite inexplicably given her 'vital' role in Tabby's plans.

And while we are here, I really really got confused by the authors use of names. Told from third person limited in either Noah's or Tabby's point of view, the author referred to several people (Tabby's brothers, and Leih) with different names. Tabby called them all their first names, while Noah alternated between their titles and first names, sometimes in the same chapter! So confusing!

I wanted to like this, but couldn't in the end. I wont be checking out the others either.