However, she still dreams of the man she spent one perfect night with ten years ago, rising politician Stuart Somerset.

"[2][3] Chicago Tribune said "Sherry Thomas neatly blends subtly nuanced characters, a stylishly detailed late Victorian setting, and a sublime, fairy-tale inspired romance into an irresistible literary treat.

"[4] However, another critic said the "secondary romance is as charmingly rendered as that of the main characters, and the author thoroughly understands the universal appeal of both descriptions of fine cuisine and romantic scenes.

[5] A reviewer with All About Romance enjoyed the metaphors and the well crafted prose but felt the plot suffered from authorial intrusion at times and that there was too much going on.

This factor kept it from earning an A, in a book she otherwise enjoyed, saying "Thomas mixes a fairy tale, a social imbalance, and a knife-sharp grasp of language so well that I was in turns dizzy with the hope for a happy ending, thoughtfully mulling the social problems in that time period and how they reflect current times..."[7]