I typically dislike most romance stories, feeling they are some form of reader fantasy or that they simply follow a standard formula with the characters blending into each other from series to series. In this instance that is not the case. The art style is passable and pleasantly avoids much of the visual fluff you might see elsewhere like flowers bordering the panels, and the story is a good vehicle for the character interactions even if there isn't a lot of complexity to it. but the place where this story shines is the characters. I have never actually read a story before from japan that had relationship dynamics like those of Jane Austen, with a strong female leads that believably fits into the established world and has a distinctively unique dynamic with the love interest and rest of the cast.
If you are like me and think you normally scoff at romance as a genre because the characters seem shallow and the whole affair easily scripted, I encourage you to challenge those notions and give this a read. I don't guarantee that you will like it, but I am sure it will at least be different than the typical writings and lack many of those trite pitfalls that led you to form that opinion.
