Man, it's always a bummer when you hit the first book by an author you really like that just doesn't work for you. There's so much to like about this story, too, but it's a classic unsuccessful romance novel where the characters spend 90% of the book discussing all of the reasons why their love can never work and you're nodding along the whole time thinking 'yes, they really are in a pickle, how will they resolve this???' and then they get to the end and are like jk who cares about social mores and the realities of the world this story takes place in, love should be enough! And ugh.
The story centers on Robert Selby, the older brother of the beautiful Louisa, who goes to Alistair de Lacey, the Marquess of Pembroke, for assistance in the Ton. The reason he needs this assistance is because Robin is actually Charity Church, a female servant for the Selbys who assumed Robert's identity with his knowledge in order to attend Cambridge and then assumed his identity permanently when he died in order to prevent the estate from being entailed away from Louisa and leaving her destitute. So they're in London in order to find an acceptable match for Louisa.
Alistair is a very straight-laced Marquess who is only interested in restoring his family's good name and financial well-being after his father had long-running affairs and spent too much money too often. He's kind of a Darcy-esque figure who softens and learns valuable lessons about himself when he falls for Selby (whom he calls Robin), first when he thinks he's a man and then for a second time when she confesses that she's a woman. There are all sorts of misunderstandings about Alistair's intentions and the cousin whom Louisa and Charity prevented from inheriting by concealing Selby's death plus an ill-advised elopement attempt and all that, but the main conflict is how can Alistair and Selby aka Charity aka Robin be together given everything?
There are a bunch of different answers to that question that could theoretically work, but for me the one the book goes with doesn't at all. I'm glad that queer historical romances are expanding the idea of what a queer romance can be, and I'm here for happy endings for those characters and an examination of how people lived non-cisgender heterosexual lives back in the day. But the resolution here feels both so ahistorical and out of character for basically everyone in the book that it just reads like utter fantasy. I think a happy ending was possible for Robin and Alistair, but this one wasn't it.
Grade: C
The story centers on Robert Selby, the older brother of the beautiful Louisa, who goes to Alistair de Lacey, the Marquess of Pembroke, for assistance in the Ton. The reason he needs this assistance is because Robin is actually Charity Church, a female servant for the Selbys who assumed Robert's identity with his knowledge in order to attend Cambridge and then assumed his identity permanently when he died in order to prevent the estate from being entailed away from Louisa and leaving her destitute. So they're in London in order to find an acceptable match for Louisa.
Alistair is a very straight-laced Marquess who is only interested in restoring his family's good name and financial well-being after his father had long-running affairs and spent too much money too often. He's kind of a Darcy-esque figure who softens and learns valuable lessons about himself when he falls for Selby (whom he calls Robin), first when he thinks he's a man and then for a second time when she confesses that she's a woman. There are all sorts of misunderstandings about Alistair's intentions and the cousin whom Louisa and Charity prevented from inheriting by concealing Selby's death plus an ill-advised elopement attempt and all that, but the main conflict is how can Alistair and Selby aka Charity aka Robin be together given everything?
There are a bunch of different answers to that question that could theoretically work, but for me the one the book goes with doesn't at all. I'm glad that queer historical romances are expanding the idea of what a queer romance can be, and I'm here for happy endings for those characters and an examination of how people lived non-cisgender heterosexual lives back in the day. But the resolution here feels both so ahistorical and out of character for basically everyone in the book that it just reads like utter fantasy. I think a happy ending was possible for Robin and Alistair, but this one wasn't it.
Grade: C
No comments:
Post a Comment