Twice Fallen is a well written book that kept my attention throughout. But it left me with a conundrum: I’m not sure I liked it and, if I did like it, I’m not sure it’s for the right reasons.

The main characters in this story are Lily and Damien. Lily Bourne has been living in seclusion for the past four years because of a botched elopement. I won’t give away why the elopement went awry, but there was a good reason for it and it wasn’t really anyone’s fault. Still, in Regency England, it was the kiss of death to Lily’s marriage prospects. As a result, she retreated to the family estate and had no intention of returning to society. But with her younger sisters coming out, she felt that it would be in their best interests for her to end her self-imposed isolation. The last thing she expected was to be put into another compromising position only days later.

Damien Northfield has returned to London after years of being a spy during the war. In addition to having trouble adjusting to civilian life, Damien is struggling with the changes in his family and his body. His brothers have found wedded bliss and his leg was crippled in the war. He hopes to make it through the season without too much pressure from his family to join his brothers and find a wife.

But a chance encounter with Lily in a deserted library intrigues him. Suddenly, some of his spy skills are put to work trying to discover the secrets of her past. The reason for his interest is something he tries not to think about too much, but he knows he is only fooling himself. He has never felt this way before and the feelings scare him a bit. Fortunately, his old boss needs some help to discover and catch a murderer/blackmailer and this provides some much needed distraction for Damien as he tries to work through his feelings for Lily.

This is only half of the story in Twice Fallen. In addition to Lily and Damien’s love story, which is a nice and touching story of two “outcasts” finding each other in a society of conformity, there is another love story throughout this book. That is the love story between Lily’s cousin James and his mistress Regina. In many ways, this was the more compelling story. I found myself more invested in their love story, which we pick up in the middle of their relationship, than I was in Lily and Damien’s.

James and Regina are also struggling with issues of conformity. Regina is anything but conforming while James is everything a young aristocratic maleshould be. Their struggles and their wonderful love story really stole the show and that is where I had a problem with the book. I was more interested in the subplot than the main characters. Though the two stories overlap, I felt the real stars of the show didn’t get as much time as I wanted them to have.

I think that part of the problem is the extra plots that were put into the main couple’s story. Dealing with Lily’s failed elopement and her life as an outcast and how to reconcile that with a new relationship probably would have been enough for Damien and Lily. Adding additional plots with the spy work and such just took too much time away and had Lily and Damien’s time on page focused as much on their feelings and their relationship, it would have been more engaging. When James and Regina were on screen, they were the focus. Not outside plots. And that made their romance the real star of the book.

As a book in a series, there was still more going on. Lily’s brother Jonathan and Damien’s two brothers were previous heroes and we had the obligatory checking in on their current situations. Plus, we had to be sure to get some background information on possible future heroines in the persons of Lily’s friends, though since neither of them was mentioned in the teaser chapter, I don’t know if that will come into play. That is an awful lot for a 336 page book to tackle.

As I said, the book is well written and the characters are likeable and believable. I enjoyed the book. I just think that I would have enjoyed the book more if there wasn’t so much stealing the main couple’s spotlight. I know that I would’ve enjoyed it if James and Regina’s relationship were detailed in a book of their own. I think that the book was good, but cutting down on a lot of the extra stories and a little more focus on the relationship of the main couple would’ve made the book better.