What a difference a story makes. My second JAL book and much better than my last experience. Yes there were still typos abound but the overall writing was much tighter and cleaner and a couple that actually grabbed my interest. So there's that. While I enjoyed this there were a few things that definitely could have been better or had me scratching my head. 
 1. How old were Lyon and Olivia when they first met and fell in love? That unanswered question kind of drove me nuts. I really wish the author included it simply because of the 5 year gap and how much it's stressed that these two grew up and learned and how silly, young and naive they were. We get a hazy generalization that Lyon was in his early 20s when he met Olivia...so that makes him roughly what....26? 27? when he returns? That strikes me as still pretty young and much younger than he comes across, especially given all the things he's done while away. As a lovesick young man he carried himself and sounded so much older. And yes some children grow up faster and are more mature beyond their years, but still. I needed ages. I have no clue how old Olivia was in all this. Is she around the same age as Lyon or younger? When ages aren't given it bugs me, I need something to go off of. And I *sometimes* let it slide but given the heft of this story and the long drawn out reunion, it would have helped and sharpened the edges of the character development. To me it's the same as not bothering with giving physical descriptions of your characters. 
 2. Either Lyon's ship has some serious magical components or Miss Long doesn't know her geography at all. Sailing a ship at full mast from England to Spain in ONE DAY is ludicrous and asking readers to imagine the ship can fly, Hogwarts style. This more or less screamed of the author running out of page time to pace out the h/hr's reunion in a more realistic gradual fashion. Which is a shame. But oh what a fun reunion it was! 
 3. I am a new reader to this series, meaning I did not read books 1-10, (book 1 was a DNF disaster). From my guess and some nosing around, these two's story and Lyon's sudden disappearance were milked, teased and dragged out through every book. That's a lot of build up. But the fact that the sole reason these two broke up and Lyon left Pennyroyal Green is exactly what rumors and song ballads speculated on all that time just seemed.....underwhelming? Just a little. Olivia Eversea, the 'clever one', the most beautiful and coveted woman of the ton, did in fact break his heart. He did in fact run off and become (view spoiler)[a pirate (hide spoiler)]. I was expecting a little more given the high stress it caused and dramatic tales spun over these two. I just thought there would be more to the story over what separated them. More to Olivia's flinching and wringing hands and refusing to speak 'his' name for 5 years, more to why their story was made into a song for everyone to hear about and whisper about. More to Lyon's many colorful escapades that are illustrated and sold as prints in newspapers. This is just another example of the bigger you build something up, the bigger readers' expectations will be. Not saying I hated it or was invested in something bigger I just found it a little thin and falling flat. 
 4. Lyon was not celibate for 5 years. The horror! How dare he sleep with other women while the heartbroken heroine tried to move on with her life by getting engaged to another man. *scratches head* Am I missing something? Because I don't get why this ruffled feathers (not bashing any reviews here just a general observation) considering they BOTH moved on, tried to at least. Liv could move on but Lyon wasn't allowed to? Was he supposed to live like a monk? It's not considered 'cheating' when the 2 parties involved are in fact not together. (This is more an observation than anything to do specifically with the book). 
 5. That epilogue. 
 What kind of absurd ridiculous fuckery is that?? I didn't bother reading it but the caption itself said enough. (view spoiler)[No I don't want to know what Pennyroyal Green is like in 2015. 
 Are you kidding me? You want to set up an opening for your new series, fine. Do it as a sneak preview. But to waste 40 pages of the book and title it as the 'Epilogue' when it has NOTHING to do with the hero/heroine's story is ridiculous. It's also a total disservice to readers who follow this series and expect a 100% payoff and full closure. Don't cram in a silly subplot for an alternate genre to promote new work. I also hate hate hate when authors do flash forwards in Historical's because the beloved characters are freaking dead by then. Don't freaking ruin my happy bubble dammit. It's just so jarring and unnecessary and the hopeless romantic in me just finds it incredibly morbid and sad. (hide spoiler)]