Still in My Heart Book

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Things I liked -
An alcoholic H. I liked that this subject was taken up and some authenticity is shown.
"It is an illness, like any other. Recurring and difficult to recover from."
"You talk as though you believe recovery is possible."
"I think it is."
He smiled as though he pitied her. "So is relapse."
I loved the H despite everything. Despite or maybe because he's the kind to take to "relieving himself in the cut crystal punch bowl for all to see." Yes, you read right!

A truly lost (in a fugue) but remorseful H.
Took him years to make his grovel but I accepted his reasoning and redemption.
"You were a hopeless drunk, but you were not dishonorable."

A martyr-saint h but I could like her. She has doubts regarding her sister's role but she cannot believe a girl she's been a 'mother figure' to could be so treacherous.
A definitely fresh approach to the sloppy seconds-second chances trope. I like the mild tension in the story but it doesn't overpower nor do things get over-rehashed.

Not liked or confusing-
The sister and her involvement. Of course, she would be unlikable (that's how the story gets its push) but how could the h give her so much leeway for years. The h is shown as sceptical of her actions and words but still it took her years to call her out.
"Was she? How could Lydia have not known about Eleanor's infatuation? Everyone seemed to know that Brahm intended to ask for her. How could that have escaped Lydia's notice?"
The h buys the argument that the sister was always unaware of the h/H relationship and their brief betrothal. How's that even possible when her father and another sister definitely knew about it, the people of the ton knew about it and wouldn't such a thing be discussed in the family/among the sisters after the h cries off?
Only thing I liked about this mess is that the sister stays unredeemable.

And did the father know everything all along?
"So many years had passed. If the old man had been so concerned with Eleanor's well-being, why hadn't he done something long before this?"

The confusion of the timeframe! The author so obviously has kept things confusing. I wasn't sure for a long time if I'd actually read 10 years as the period of separation in the beginning. So how old is the h now? Around 30, but exactly how old? I got my answer very long into the book- Thirty two and a virgin. Was the sister married at the time of the 'indiscretion'? Yes, I'm finally told.
Math time! So she's five years younger than the h. 'Things' happened ten years ago. The h is thirty two now. That makes the sister seventeen. Not odd for a regency girl to be married at seventeen but to be so cold and callous as to not only sleep with another man but to hate her sister as much as to do it?
"What kind of power was there in admitting that your marriage was so awful that you had to seek "companionship" elsewhere? She would think there was more to boast about in a faithful marriage than an unfaithful one."

And another time frame problem is the H's relapse. I wanted to know how many weeks/months had elapsed to get him into the withdrawal symptoms stage?
"If so, what had changed in her mind since rejecting his proposal a fortnight before?"
The fortnight includes him traveling back and the later week of him being forcefully detoxed. So after two years of giving up, he gets severe withdrawal symptoms and 'brain fever' with less than a week of drinking? I cannot buy that!

I liked the h but I cannot forgive her deja-vuing her stupidity! She almost destroys him - not with her refusal but with her doubts. And for making him doubt himself.
The most pathetic part was that he had actually started to believe that he did deserve her, that he was worthy of her and all her goodness and fucking propriety.
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