I enjoyed the old fashioned feel of the language but ultimately this book didn't work for me. A big part of the plot is various blackmail notes going back and forth creating misunderstandings. But apparently the author forgot that handwriting exists and most of the misunderstandings don't make sense since the notes were all written by different people, who would have had different handwriting. Also, the extreme age difference in all the couples (Daniel/Luke,

Spoiler

Bridget/Sophia, Clarence/George

) feels icky. Daniel keeps rhapsodizing about Luke's innocence and sweetness so it's hard believing their relationship is going to last once he gets a bit older. Add in some unnecessarily long scenes with characters I don't care about (Luke's parents, Clarence's parents) that I skimmed and two really off-putting sex scenes, and this just wasn't the book for me.