Reviews

Behind These Doors by Jude Lucens

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galleytrot's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

READ: Apr 2023

FORMAT: Digital

BRIEF SUMMARY:

Warning: I’m a bit salty with my thoughts about this book, so my summary is going to take a much brusquer tone than I otherwise would.

In this historical romance set in London in 1906 a gentleman goes to the theatre with his lovers who encourage him to go have a one-night-stand with a flirty dude they’ve all just met. He takes the flirty dude home instead of a hotel or a back alley, which is immediately a problem because the flirt reveals himself as a gossip writer for a newspaper, and now he knows too much. Also, women are fighting for their right to vote and generally be considered people, and our gentleman just wants to love as many people as he loves without all the societal taboo that comes with sleeping with a guy’s wife, and also the guy, and also the flirty-but-lower-class dude who’s (incidentally) sleeping with another woman’s husband.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 2.5 / 5⭐

I have a lot to say about this book. It is a book that I did not like, but may have been technically good despite that fact. I don’t know what this story wanted to be. It had just... so many goals to accomplish, and I’m not sure if all of them were met. This book tackles: gay relationships in a time when that would get you executed; poly relationships, including committing adultery; social divide among the classes, from the serving man to the working man to the nobility; the constant dance of the nobility to avoid being ruined with gossip while ruining others with gossip; women’s rights and suffrage; and so many other equality and privilege issues that I’m certain I’ve forgotten some.

Then there’s the romance aspect. I’m honestly not sure whose story was being told, or whose romance I’m meant to have rooted for. Ostensibly it’s all of them, but our main thread through it all was that of Saxby and Fanshawe. But, beyond their first encounter (involving a very brief scene of oral), the book just yada-yada’s over the initial development of their connection. Usually that honeymoon period of finding one another and the first time together is treated with absolute reverence in romance novels, but not here; here, we get, “and then they slept together, and they kept meeting up once a week for a month to keep sleeping together.” This, followed by an on-page sex scene for Fanshawe’s other polygamous affair with characters we’ve barely been introduced to, and smattered in with a whole women’s rights activism arc, is what first made me question what the book was even trying to say to me.

In the first third of the book, Saxby and Fanshawe get to that stage of, “I want to spend all my free time with him and all of my time away from him is spent thinking about him,” and I just can’t figure out what on-page evidence we’d been given to support that being the case. The latter two thirds of the book, it shifts from “trust me, they’re falling in love” into “one is threatened by society and the other wants to help but they’re not allowed to do more than be disgustingly romantic and listen to a perspective they’ve never considered. And staining clothes with so much goddamn pomade. Can't forget that. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Seriously, if I ever read about pomade stains again, I might get a hernia. Other things that made me itch in this book included: a lack of physical description for many of the characters, particularly Fanshawe who was almost singularly referred to as “big” on so many occasions; people trying to get their point across and repeating that point five or six times to get there; a very tiresome circular pattern of an issue arising, some cuddling and kissing happening, and then the problem getting solved; and, many characters introduced whose fates are left completely to our imaginations.

If I have anything nice to say, it’s this: I adore Rupert’s character and his struggles and I wanted to see more of him.

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.75 / 5⭐

I don’t know. I felt like this story was well-written, despite the extremely unclear direction of it. It was certainly well-researched and it shows; but it feels like the author wanted to write a story about women’s rights being fought for, as well as a story of making a poly relationship work in the early 1900s, then made the mistake of combining these two things instead of making them their own separate entities.

At this point in my review, I’ve more or less exhausted my supply of salt and would rather just wrap it up. I have a grammar nit to pick – particularly relating to the usage of colons, semi-colons, and endashes – but I’m mostly ready to put this to rest.

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 3 / 5⭐

I’m stuck on whether or not I would recommend this book. I’ve had it in my to-read pile for so long and had such high hopes for it thanks to its great reviews, but those expectations simply were not met. What I got was a completely different book from what I was expecting. This just wasn’t it.

This book has representation for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and ply relationships. There is no diversity portrayed to speak of.

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains: gender inequality, sexism, misogyny; homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia; a flippant joke about committing suicide; mentions of the second Boer war, concentration camps, enlistment; chronic illnesses, inaccessible health care; pregnancy; sexual exploitation of a minor by other minors; classism; adultery/infidelity; implied emotional abuse against a spouse; and, mentions of multiple miscarriages.

Content Warnings

andibez's review

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

neumhuire's review

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Gnarled penis. :(

junovverse's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

suannelaqueur's review

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3.0

This book had good intentions but it just couldn't seem to find its stride and kept getting in its own way. It swung wildly from good, to silly, to preachy, to tiresome, and back to good for a little while. It took a lot of effort to read and oftentimes I just couldn't figure out what the hell was going on with the characters and their relationships to each other.

isweedan's review

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4.0

This was absolutely lovely and I very much enjoyed it.

I hope in the proud romance series tradition the author writes many more Radical Proposals novels full of cameos of all my favorite characters from previous novels because I have a lot of favorites and she's just getting started.