Book 9: A Scot's Seduction by Lily Maxton

So listen. I was sick all weekend and after I got done reading a Cat Sebastian book this was a recommended title that was similar, and I will read about Scots being seduced! And I am here to tell you that this was not a good book precisely, but it did certainly pass the time, and there was in fact a Scotsman who got seduced and a happy ending, as well as a literal cat burglar who was a relevant plot point, so it was worth the buck or so I spent on it. Most of the subplot about five strangers who had to stay at a castle because of a flood and then a sprained ankle was nonsense that never got developed well enough to make me care about any of it, but again, there was actual burglarizing done by an actual cat, so really anything else is gravy. Buy this if you need to pass the afternoon while sick, but aside from that situation you can safely skip it.

Grade: C

Book 8: A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian

So this book is a sequel to It Takes Two to Tumble, and it focuses on Ben Sedgwick's younger brother Hartley and his misadventures in London. At the end of the first book, we had discovered that a Sir Humphrey Easterbrook had left his home to Hartley Sedgwick, his godson, instead of to his son Martin. In revenge, Martin published letters that suggested that Hartley had actually been sleeping with Easterbrook (which he had been) and that his father had disinherited him in favor of his kept boy. Hartley had done all of that because the instability of his home with his bohemian father and four brothers had convinced him that he really needed to become rich and join the upper classes, but Martin ruined his reputation so at the start of the sequel all Hartley really has is his money, not his status.

There's a lot happening even before this book begins! And some of it, if I'm frank, is a bit ridiculous! I never quite believe that Hartley actually wants to be part of the aristocracy, although I definitely believe that he wants a kind of stability he never had as a child. But anyway! That is his backstory, and it's all falling apart (servants are leaving his employ, he never goes out and sees anyone, etc.), when Sam Fox shows up in his life.

Sam is the owner of a public house and a former boxer. The bar used to belong to his father, who was also a boxer, and it's also something of a meeting place for Black London, where black people can meet and get a good meal cooked by Sam's brother, and if they're having a rough time Sam won't always charge them. His path intersects with Hartley when his brother's fiancee Kate tells Sam that she won't marry his brother because of a nude painting she sat for when she had no money--she doesn't want that to be out there in the future. And of course, the man who requested the painting was Easterbrook, so Sam goes to his house to see if he can find it and get it back.

There's a fair amount of plot in this book, as they attempt to figure out where Easterbrook's collection of exploitative paintings are now, and Sam attempts to keep the public house afloat and avoid catching the notice of the terrible neighborhood constable, and Hartley takes in basically two urchins who are his servants now and gets worse and worse at being an aristocrat. But really it's just a lovely little story about two people finding each other, and I really love the depiction of Sam's London, and while there's definitely a bit of the too convenient in the ending, I still like the two of them as a couple enough to go with it all. Hartley's logistical conflicts never quite landed for me, but his emotional ones did, and I really enjoyed where the story goes with him and Sam together.

Grade: B

Book 7: Wanted, an Author by KJ Charles

This is a lovely little epilogue to Wanted, A Gentleman, which I enjoyed quite a bit. The story takes place the morning after Parliament voted to stop the transatlantic slave trade. Martin is still sleeping off the celebrations from the prior evening when Theo discovers another gentleman in the kitchen, who's actually looking to hire Theo to do a bit more writing of dirty books. Only the book he specifically wants to commission is one that involves the actual implied sexual encounters in gothic novels that is usually merely hinted at (especially when it involves two men, no matter how wicked they are).

This was quite clearly written as a little link to her newish book Band Sinister, which I have just started reading, but it was very nice to see both Theo and Martin, and I'm hoping they'll appear in that book as more than just a cameo as well.

Grade: B 

Books 5 and 6: Elegy and Swansong (The Magpie Ballads) by Vale Aida

I have decided to write about both of these books in one entry, since they're essentially one complete story told over two halves and I read both of them within the course of three days. The central character is Savonn Andalle, aka Silvertongue, whose father was the governor of Cassarah. Elegy, the first book, starts with the funeral of his father, who was killed by bandits...or was he? And his son is both the captain of the guard and also a former actor and, we learn, spy, whose loyalties and true motives are constantly at question.

There is also a mysterious and devastatingly handsome stranger named Dervain Teraille (who often goes by the names Red or the Empath), who has a very complicated past relationship with Savonn, two pairs of siblings who are tied up with both of them, a queen and her estranged sister who also has a secret, and lots of murder and intrigue. In short, it is a fairly classic historical fantasy with chapters ending on cliffhangers and misdirection about who is actually responsible for which death and why, but with the added (and welcome) intrigue that both of the main romances in the book are gay, and the intense friendship between two male characters while one is more or less exiled from his home is textually romantic rather than just heavily implied (and then handwaved away in the final act).

There's so much in these two books for me to like, and yet at the end of the day they didn't quite land for me as solidly as I wanted them to. Aspects of the plot felt referenced rather than developed for me; there were deaths that I knew should affect me greatly, but I hadn't had enough time to really care about the characters to actually feel anything. I liked being thrown right into the world and expected to keep up, but instead of working hard to piece everything together I found it all a bit predictable.

Grade: B

Book 4: In Case of Emergency by Keira Andrews

This is one of those romance novellas that has like four different tropes that I'm into and yet never fully commits to any of them and leaves me feeling more grumpy than anything else at the end of it.

One of those tropes is Christmas stories, which I love, even in January! Daniel is the solid, slightly boring dude who after years of being single is trying to shake things up this Christmas season by renting a chalet with his workplace hookup. This plan is complicated by the appearance of his former step-brother Cole (trope number two!) who Daniel hasn't seen in like ten years but had put Daniel's name down on his emergency contact when Cole started grad school in Daniel's city. So okay, Cole has a concussion and therefore can't be left alone and needs to come with Daniel to this chalet (so they can hit trope number three and get snowed in together).

The setup for all of this is fine, an unexpected meet cute/reunion from their past that has the added intrigue of former-pseudo incest. But the novella never really wants to get into the wrong-but-hot aspect of that stepbrother situation, and instead of the two of them being snowed in alone, first we have to deal with the workplace hookup being inexplicably terrible and inviting like five other people to this romantic chalet and only ever hooking up with Daniel in the first place as part of a bet (trope number four!). It's just this dumb conflict we have to wade through before getting to the actual romance between Cole and Daniel, that's delayed even further so Daniel can discuss his damage from his big relationship in college, and man. By the time the workplace hookup finally leaves and the two of them can just have Christmas together, it's hard to remember why the whole setup is even supposed to be compelling. I can deal with a lot of nonsense to get my Christmas romance novel happy ending, but this was the wrong kind of nonsense, for me.

Grade: C