If you like historical details, and want to know about Victorian London, manners and mores, this is the book for you. If you like full drawn characters that you can relate to, I'd skip these. I love serials, and bought the first four. I wish I'd only bought the first two. This is the second book and there is nothing about the courtship or wedding, or the relationship, or parents and sibling reactions. Anne Perry keeps telling me that Charlotte is independent, but I really only have her word for that, as marrying Thomas "beneath her station" seems to be the only independent thought she has. I'm disappointed in the characters, or lack of same; all of these people are strangers to each other, but even worse they are strangers to me. I disagree with other reviews that say the writing is good. It is adequate.