Bringing Down the Duke

Sebastian's guarded intensity plays as swoony to some, but the narrative's masculine-feminine framing and a scene where his internal monologue entertains taking Annabelle by force before he stops himself land as a genuine sticking point, especially since he keeps needing to “get angry and arrogant towards the protagonist” without much pushback from the story. Elsewhere he's “using his size against her, grabbing her by the arm,” treated as heat rather than a warning sign. Anachronisms stack on top: “language that felt too modern” shows up throughout, and Annabelle spends a scene in a dress no period undergarment could have supported. One reader summed up the whiplash bluntly: “Did I accidentally fall into a Sarah J. Maas book?”