I have strong mixed feelings about this book. I loved its flow and there were a few scenes that left a lump in my throat. It also had beautiful descriptions of different venues, I felt transported. BUT, SO MUCH fluff! This book is more than 100,000 words long and if you trim it down to say, 30,000 words, you wouldn't change the story. There were so many details repeated, again and again. There are only so many times you can call the same man's noes "powerful". After I was halfway through the book, it enraged me how much the author was having the readers go through to get to the significant parts of the story. So many scenes had no need for them, they neither helped the story move forward nor build the world or a character.
Barbara O'Neal is a talented writer, otherwise, I would have not finished the book. Her writing style pulls you in, which is why I thought the plot was a great waste of her talent.

P.S. I think the author has some internalized issue with body-image. The words "skinny", "thin" and "slim" were repeated more than 35 times in the whole book, mostly for the same 2-3 women. All the men in the book are the perfect, tall, handsome types with well-built bodies and big shoulders and thighs. Not a regular looking man in the whole story.