This one was hard to read because although it had some strong bright spots, overall it was slow, overloaded with narrative and sex.
My reviews are technical, so I'll be focusing on the elements that niggle a reader and cause them to drop a star, yet are rarely mentioned by most reviewers.
The plot was rather non-existent. Instead, we got a series of vignettes about D&E over the time that followed their marriage. Even so, the story had a clear ending with an epilogue for those who like them.
Flow was forward and at a steady, rather slow pace. The balance of dialogue and narrative was heavy on the narrative so that in places, the story dragged to the point of being boring. The author needed to up the pace with more action.
Point of view was mixed, with head-hopping. It was probably intended to be third person omniscient, but it came across as third person multiple at times. In two locations, the author had a character "see" themselves blush. This is one of those things that can't happen unless the writing is pure omniscient, yet the scene had not been written in that style.
The author utilized filter words, which is a way to tell the protagonist's emotions rather than show them.
Language was beautiful in places and pedantic in others. The former was almost poetic and worth a re-read. The latter was found in those long narrative sections. Nine non-Regency words and one non-Regency expression were used, and three Americanisms were detected. This is a normal rate for a JAFF book.
Punctuation was good for the most part, with two missing closing quotes and a missing apostrophe.
Canon deviations included using the girl Becky as the youngest; however, this was clearly intentional and worked well as one of the more entertaining parts of the book.
Regency errors included five and ten course meals. Since a course includes somewhere around 8-12 hearty dishes not including the dessert course, there never tends to be more than two courses served. Another was calling a waistcoat a vest. Though not precisely wrong, it's not common nomenclature. Lady Matlock would never be called Lady Ellen. That would be an earl's daughter's name. Also, her Ladyship is incorrect--you do not capitalize the L.
Referring to people's lives as a "story" within in dialogue is not quite right. You wouldn't say such a thing.
Much of the dialogue was excellent. It included banter and a child's strange yet amusing perspective, among others. More of Lilian's dialogue would have helped to create more interest in the book.
The characterization was good, including for the new characters. You really felt you knew some of them.
With all the narrative, one would expect more scene-setting, and it was there, showing the beauty of the story. This would be the parts I mentioned earlier that I loved in the narrative. However, it was almost all visual.
The romance is complete since this is a book about a married couple. Even so, the author does a lovely job of showing the solidification of their relationship throughout the book. The main problem is the sex scenes--there are too many with detail (not detail like erotica, but still they are rather specific scenes). I love me a steamy scene, but this was like beating the reader on the head with the fact that the couple was super hot for each other. At a sensible point, the author should have known to deviate past the detail and show without telling every movement every single time. This has been done, but not early enough and not often enough. Instead, the sex becomes as boring as those long sections of narrative mentioned earlier.
The cover is a play on the previous book, Rainy Days, which had a plain rose. It's different enough to stand out and attract interest among readers. I personally think it's corny, but I also think I'd be in the minority. I believe most readers would love it and it would attract them enough to buy the book because of it.
For an overview, the story is just ordinary, and bogged down by long tracts of text and too-frequent sex. It has its moments in excellent prose and dialogue and some sparkling wit, but not enough to redeem it. In all honesty, I can't really recommend this book without a revamp.
Disclaimer: I'm a JAFF author, and some might claim this review is a conflict of interest. However, I was a reader first, and my reviews are honest and impartial. I write them for both the author and the reader.