Science artist is employed by interesting looking naturalist to live in a island castle and draw Florida Man's natural habitat.

2 POV, 3rd person past tense, some mid scene hand offs, romance, spicy, MCs are 25 & 40 (he's "almost 1 and 40" for like 8 months.) Story over the course of 5-9 months. Employer-employee, Scotland, 1800s, age gap.

Minerva Spencer is a good writer, so the prose is solid, but the plot on this one was a bit of a grind and the pacing was wonky.

I don't know if this didn't hit for me bc the age gap was both awkward (25 vs 40 with a 24 yo son) and like Spencer wrote them as the same age despite the gap ([70% in]

Our dude gets jealous Aurelia has seen naked bodies before

and 40 seems like an age to be over that in an SO.)

Both main characters are likeable and interesting- their relationship interacting with big plot developments on the back half of the book is where the pacing starts causing structure and vibe issues.

Narrator: Gabrielle Baker delivers consistent performances- while she isn't my flavor all the time, you know what you're getting. Her accent work in this is well done.

Overall, this is a fine mid series book, if not as fun as Hyacinth or Selina.