Sweet historical romance novel. Loved the heroine, the hero was grumpy and brooding but not in an overbearing non consenty way and clearly cared for his wife even if he had a boatload of baggage. It's a fairly straightforward beauty and the beast esque "ugh I'm scarred people are scared of me and call me a monster!" character arc but it's done well and I liked it. Strangely enough, given my own adoration of this trope, the only part I didn't think worked very well was the batman-esque disguised vigilante subplot. It seemed a bit thrown in there compared to the more interesting things that were happening with Emma. Maybe if his vigilante-ism was more important to the overall story, but as it stands, I think you could have removed it entirely from the book without much lost. However, the core of any romance is the two main characters, and Emma is one of my favorite heroines I've encountered thus far. Ash is above average, primarily due to his respect for Emma and his lack of sexism towards women and their "proper place," but can be a tad dense at times. All in all, a fun, light-hearted romance novel that was a joy to read.