I bought this book because it takes place during the Christmas season, I really liked a contemporary m/m romance by the same author, and it's a post-WWI novel and for some reason that setting is really hitting the spot for me right now. I understand why a lot of people find the parallels between now and various terrible points in history to be frightening, but for me there's something oddly comforting about recognizing the fact that humanity has always been a work in progress.
Anyway! This book is about a young man whose brother was killed on the front in potentially suspicious circumstances, and he rents a room in a house under a fake name because the main person he suspects was at the root of it all lives there. George (real name Roger, although the narration never refers to him as that) had been a conscientious objector before being moved into intelligence work due to his knowledge of German, and his post-war mission gets a bit complicated when he starts to fall for Matthew, who makes it quite clear that he returns his affections.
I loved the developing relationship between George and Matthew, and the world they lived in together, and the grief and underlying tension of George's actual aims built up and then resolved in a very satisfying way. I would have liked a bit more passion and emotion expressed in the actual consummation of their romantic relationship; it didn't quite live up to the emotional connection between the two of them. I felt it could have used perhaps another chapter or two to really settle into the resolution. But overall I enjoyed this book very much.
Grade: B
Anyway! This book is about a young man whose brother was killed on the front in potentially suspicious circumstances, and he rents a room in a house under a fake name because the main person he suspects was at the root of it all lives there. George (real name Roger, although the narration never refers to him as that) had been a conscientious objector before being moved into intelligence work due to his knowledge of German, and his post-war mission gets a bit complicated when he starts to fall for Matthew, who makes it quite clear that he returns his affections.
I loved the developing relationship between George and Matthew, and the world they lived in together, and the grief and underlying tension of George's actual aims built up and then resolved in a very satisfying way. I would have liked a bit more passion and emotion expressed in the actual consummation of their romantic relationship; it didn't quite live up to the emotional connection between the two of them. I felt it could have used perhaps another chapter or two to really settle into the resolution. But overall I enjoyed this book very much.
Grade: B
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