The Last Season

DEBUT A historical romance debut from longtime friends Judson and Mahfood. Crispin St John and Cassandra Drayton became friends as children when he is employed as a stable boy at her family’s estate. They meet up again as adults when Crispin’s prospects have changed dramatically; now wealthy and accepted by society, he still feels a pull to Cassandra. Cassandra makes a dramatic and successful entrance to society, but disaster soon changes her prospects. The reversal between Crispin and Cassandra should lead to conflict, but the authors don’t develop this shift’s effects on the characters. Shallow characters, glacial pacing, and the lack of connection between the leads creates an unsatisfactory romance. Among the defects are that all the novel’s virtuous characters are members of the aristocracy (even the initially impoverished hero has a gentleman for a father). while the non-aristocrat characters are villains, and Cassandra’s Aunt Eugenia is a frequent subject of fatphobic comments. Several subplots lead nowhere; Judson and Mahfood conclude them without fully resolving them, leading readers in circles for no clear reason. The book is somehow both too long and not long enough and ends abruptly after the leads reconnect.