For a long time, this was a 4 star book for me. Then I got to 70% of it or so, and actually got a bit bored. The ending felt both drawn out, rushed, and disappointing. I am more and more getting the impression that all romance novel authors belong to a sect of some sort, where they have artistic freedom up until... let's say 60%, then someone steps in, says "OK, now you've had your fun, we'll take it from here" and ruin the book altogether. Why bother with creating a complex alternate world, build an intricate plot, if you are then just going to write the exact same story everyone else writes? This had potential! The characters were rather refreshing, until they went super soft and started acting like all the other characters I've read about in romance genre books. Partly I just wish the book could have stayed oriented around the murder case it begins with, and not be thrown out into a huge political thing.
