I had a different response to Daughter of Mystery, which is fine! To each their own! I mean, I found that the book was personally microtargeted to me, and I know that my particular obsessions are unusual. The thing is, Heather Rose Jones herself says that she isn't trying to write romance, but for publishing reasons, her books ended up with a lesbian romance small press. She doesn't hit the romance genre conventions at all. I think part of the problem might be that the book's marketing (such as it is) doesn't mesh with its actual content, so it's hard to get the readers to expect the right kind of book... which is what you said at the conclusion of this review.