This novella didn't work for me for a few reasons. The main one being that it felt like the book started after the character's had met and the beginning of attraction had already taken place off stage. 
 I do like that the female lead, Rose, is a black woman and that she is a mathematician. Yay! 
 It would have been more interesting if there had been decent conflict in this book related to either of these issues. Seriously, a black woman and a white middle class man are getting together in Victorian England and there is no reaction or comment from the community about this at all? 
 What about the difficulties faced by Rose in her profession? I just don't believe it! (I'm an engineer and my predecessors experienced the most basic discrimination - like no female loo's in the faculty and being un-offered jobs due to gender) 
 Stephen, the Actual Man, turned out to be a bland male lead... and after so much promise too.