Read a couple of reviews on this and then accidentally picked it up at the library. And by accidentally I mean I went online deliberately sought it out and had the library put it on the hold shelf so I could pick it up as soon as possible. I used to read, er, a metric shit ton of romance novels when I was in high school, and I guess I had a bit of a craving. And this was pretty great, as romance novels go. Good characters who actually had inner lives and real conflict, and while Milan certainly doesn't ignore romance novel tropes (after all, what good would a romance novel be if it didn't give us what we're looking for?), she doesn't go for the stupid ones. I had to suspend a lot of disbelief where the historical stuff was concerned (I feel pretty safe in saying that if this was actually real life, events would not have played out the way they did in the novel), but who gives a shit. This is a naughty book -- a very good naughty book -- and I didn't seek it out for its potential historical relevance. Ordered the sequels. Picking them up tomorrow. I am not ashamed.