Martin is utterly inexperienced and fears ALL things related to physical pleasure (including acts done, ahem, alone).

Will is widely experienced and honest about it. The physical side of their romance takes on a slant that doesn't sit right. Almost all their fluffy sweet moments that establish their deep friendship/love are skipped and just referenced later. We're told they cuddle in bed and spend wholesome time together, but we don't really see any of that. I thought I'd appreciate that they were slow to explore the physical part of romance, but since I didn't care about the characters, it was just boring.

I didn't even realize they'd kissed because they were busy pondering air again. After such an uneventful story, the moment they finally act on their romantic feelings was a bitter disappointment. Learning to live without servants is not a personality. They repeat themselves for pages and pages, and I was still never convinced that they're fully developed characters. We spend way too much time in their heads as they ponder their slow-paced country retreat, and it's through all this pondering that we learn what's going on, rather than actually seeing it.

It's like their thoughts are just copy and pasted from a character sheet rather than fit to match what's happening (not that much happens). Their motivations for delaying never feel believable, which chips away at how believable they are as characters. It's hard to buy that Martin would feel this way, though, since we never see Will doing whatever Martin says. He states it like that's the established dynamic of their friendship. For example, Martin fears Will will just go along with it because he does whatever Martin wants. All of these are an extreme stretch unsupported by what we see in the story. They know they love each other and just wait on acting on it for extremely flimsy reasons. I thought this might feel like a slow burn, one of my favorite styles of romance, but it doesn't. It seems wrong to put such serious topics into a story just to tiptoe around them. But the majority of it happens off page, and the stuff that does happen on page is cut short. It's frustrating because the serious issues they're burdened with could make for a truly touching, deep story. We're TOLD so many things about these two that we never see.

We get a glimpse and then we're told it over and over. Will endured serious trauma in the navy and struggles to cope, although we barely see this. Martin has a serious illness that makes him sick a lot, although we barely see this. The core 'conflict' between the two leads is paper thin: whether or not they can adequately take care of each other (they clearly can).

Cat sebastian two rogues make a right