My first reaction following the end of the book was..."Huh, Likable!" More so because of this love confession/proposal. Gah! I was feeling warm and nice everywhere while I was reading this. 
 "Time is what I'm giving you," he said, staring down at her. His hand curved beneath her chin, compelling her to look at him. "There's only one way for me to prove that I will love you and be faithful to you for the rest of my life. And that's by loving you and being faithful to you for the rest of my life. Even if you don't want me. Even if you choose not to be with me. I'm giving you all the time I have left. I vow to you that from this moment on, I will never touch another woman, or give my heart to anyone but you. If I have to wait sixty years, not a minute will have been wasted - because I'll have spent all of them loving you." 
 I hadn't realised how contemporary the historical romances had become in feeling nowadays. Men with feminist values, men oozing rainbows from their secret goodness in character. We've been reading modern stories play-acting as historical romances. 
 Devon's a little chauvinist, could get become a real bully and was a real mean opportunist. But that's okay. You ask why? Because that is what men in those times are expected to be like. We're talking of a society that still treats its women as second class citizens and the gentry hold almost all power in society. Despite all that, he has a believable relationship with Kathleen. Their fights seem plausible. It is not just some drama happening there over silly misunderstanding and their darn feelings. The reader gets to actually see how the 1800's were actually like women in society. It wasn't all just balls and gaiety and bad marriages with horrid men was a strong possibility. Lisa Kleypas weaves a realistic love-story through all that and gives us a solidly well-written novel. 
 I still two-minds over a lot of things in the book though. The book doesn't go on with just the leads POV. We see secondary characters like West, Winterborne and Helen receiving their share of words. And they're not just describing the leads' romance, they're talking of their story. Even though it probably lets the story branch out a little more, it left me feeling as if the leads didn't get enough importance. I suppose Kleypas was experimenting with a new idea of how to link the books in the series by allowing the leads in the following books to share some POV time in the previous book. Guess, we just have to get used to this new writing style. 
 Another thing! Kleypas seems to have left a lot of open-ended and curious conversations in the book. One can't help trying to guess what the next books in the series are going to be all about. 
 My predictions-(read with caution!) 
 (view spoiler)[ 
 We already know that the next book is about Helen and Winterborne, but what we don't know is what Helen's secret might be. Me thinks the girl's father could be Quincy given how unusually close they're shown to be. Plus what is peculiar is that Helen doesn't have the legendary Ravenel angry temper. 
 I am also predicting that we might see some romance brewing between Cassandra and Severin. Kleypas describes Severin as a restless and intelligent man who loves challenging conversations and Cassandra seems to be the ideal sparring partner he could find as a love interest. 
 Also, I am sensing something between West and Pandora. I might just be overthinking it all now and I'd prefer that nothing happen between them because, come on! They're cousins. It could get seriously uncomfortable for us readers. (hide spoiler)] 
 I could have given this book 3 stars but the higher rating's simply because of how fresh it is and important it is that historical romance chick-lit lovers read this.