Scan barcode
kathleenmcg's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I really wanted to love this book. Having a woman of color as the heroine was very promising. I had to go back and check the time period the story is set in. The late 1700s is the late 18th century, just to be clear.
I love the idea of these modern women, for the times, bucking the system. If the book was set in the Victorian era, the 19th century, or the turn of the 20th century, or even the 1920’s, I would not be so critical. I know and am willing to suspend disbelief for most romance novels, especially historical. I just have a hard time believing that the main character would be as free as she is, and protesting about her freedom, to have sex, even group sex, travel between countries, and make art during that time.
She keeps going on about her freedom, even institutes a incredibly creative resolution to the story. I am sure things like this did happen, but I’d expect them later in English history.
The hero was a cinnamon roll. He was just so loving, yet radical in his politics. He was treated as a good time, but not worth a relationship. My heart sort of broke for him, and I, as an admittedly queer woman, would have taken him in an instant. Yes, the reader wants to be or do, and root, for main characters.
The reader should not, however, want to rescue the hero. As a 21st century woman, “I’d be his Duchess. I’d help him try to abolish the class system.” Yet, so, too, was the heroine, really a creature of the 21st century.
I love the idea of these modern women, for the times, bucking the system. If the book was set in the Victorian era, the 19th century, or the turn of the 20th century, or even the 1920’s, I would not be so critical. I know and am willing to suspend disbelief for most romance novels, especially historical. I just have a hard time believing that the main character would be as free as she is, and protesting about her freedom, to have sex, even group sex, travel between countries, and make art during that time.
She keeps going on about her freedom, even institutes a incredibly creative resolution to the story. I am sure things like this did happen, but I’d expect them later in English history.
The hero was a cinnamon roll. He was just so loving, yet radical in his politics. He was treated as a good time, but not worth a relationship. My heart sort of broke for him, and I, as an admittedly queer woman, would have taken him in an instant. Yes, the reader wants to be or do, and root, for main characters.
The reader should not, however, want to rescue the hero. As a 21st century woman, “I’d be his Duchess. I’d help him try to abolish the class system.” Yet, so, too, was the heroine, really a creature of the 21st century.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Sexual content
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Colonisation and Emotional abuse
More...