Hmm... how to sum up my thoughts about this book? Mostly, it needed a harsher editor.
I'm a huge fan of Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby series, and the writing in this is equally as good, but it's just too long. The story dragged for at least the first half of the book, and as Ella is a poster child for co-dependency, a situation that was played to the hilt, the reading was tedious at the start.
Once it got going though, the reading became much easier, even at times, exciting. Huber never goes for the fantastical and cliched plotting choices, but still weaves an impressive story. The ending felt a bit abrupt, but I can't say that's a fair call; I think I tried to anticipate how the end would happen, and being completely wrong is what felt abrupt.
I'm not sorry to have read it - it was a good story (and a good romance) - but it would could have been a more amazing story with tighter editing.