Fun tension-filled start, but the conflict felt arbitrary for such a modern novella - the heroine doesn't want to get married because her parents are unhappy. The step from casual dating to marriage to me seems like the difference between a sandwich and a six-layer cake. Why her fear of marriage stopped her for ages, I just didn't understand. It took them forever to even decide to have a fling, and despite their mutual lusting, I wasn't particularly sold on their romance. Too much time was spent in their heads on very repetitive thoughts, very little development happened on-page.
--- Content warnings: injury, serious illness of parent, death of sibling, unhappy marriage. Sex scenes are fade-to-black.
