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marget_orange's review against another edition
5.0
Read this!
I was directed to this book by a recommendation from another author’s Facebook group. I am so glad. This is a great story, with some excellent communication happening between the protagonists.
I was directed to this book by a recommendation from another author’s Facebook group. I am so glad. This is a great story, with some excellent communication happening between the protagonists.
kaa's review against another edition
4.0
This story is a lovely, slow reflection on interpersonal relationships and power. (However, see my content note for ace readers at the end of the review.)
There were a lot of things I really liked in this book: engrossing writing, thoughtful interrogation of power dynamics, interesting political arguments through a historical lens, examination of intersections between class and gender oppression, polyam relationships with lots of communication, lots of queer characters (including several who were bi and one who was pretty clearly ace-spec) with mostly realistic discussion of the costs and dangers of being queer in that era.
There were also a few things I didn't like, which took my rating from 5 stars down to 4 in the last 20% of the book: the ending felt too easy and anticlimatic, with most of the plot threads being conveniently resolved all at the same time, and the writing was occasionally too flowery, which eventually got a bit exhausting to read.
I do have one note of caution for ace-spec readers (the author is demi, so I won't comment further on this aspect of the plot) - since it isn't mentioned at all in the blurb, ace readers may want to know that.
There were a lot of things I really liked in this book: engrossing writing, thoughtful interrogation of power dynamics, interesting political arguments through a historical lens, examination of intersections between class and gender oppression, polyam relationships with lots of communication, lots of queer characters (including several who were bi and one who was pretty clearly ace-spec) with mostly realistic discussion of the costs and dangers of being queer in that era.
There were also a few things I didn't like, which took my rating from 5 stars down to 4 in the last 20% of the book: the ending felt too easy and anticlimatic, with most of the plot threads being conveniently resolved all at the same time, and the writing was occasionally too flowery, which eventually got a bit exhausting to read.
I do have one note of caution for ace-spec readers (the author is demi, so I won't comment further on this aspect of the plot) - since it isn't mentioned at all in the blurb, ace readers may want to know that
Spoiler
one major plot thread late in the book centers around internalized acemisia, and an allosexual character has to convince the ace-spec character that being ace doesn't mean he's broken or unworthy of loveeemms's review against another edition
4.0
I couldn't put this down, which in retrospect I'm pretty surprised by because it's all relationship negotiation and usually I am like BUT PLOT!? Partially there are enough through lines that it kept me interested, but mostly the characters were just really compelling and I was super invested in all of their relationships. I love that this opened with a polyamourous relationship and added to that rather than building one from the ground up as is more common in "menage" books. Do recommend! Full review >>> https://dukedukegoose.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/behind-these-doors-jude-lucens/
tempest_1313's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
Cheers for a polyam romance that actually shows something more complicated than a closed triad!
Cheers for a polyam romance that actually shows something more complicated than a closed triad!
saintsaens's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
magicshop's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
He didn’t belong and never would; when they looked at him, nobles and working people alike saw only a flawed imitation of themselves.
i got this book recommended to me through gnod, a pretty nifty little recommendation service. totally free, and no affiliation here — just wanted to remind my future self of where i found this book and possibly help other people potentially find new media at the same time!
you should read this book if...
- you want positive polyamourous representation
- you want positive ace-spectrum representation
- you're willing to put up with quite a bit of tell-don't-show
the good
- just about everyone’s poly and they all end up happily together (i'd put this under a spoiler tag but i'm sure most people reading this will want to know they're not diving into yet another tragic queer ending)
- one character is in the asexual spectrum and extremely relatable (i had a good cry thanks)
- good writing for the most part, time and place are well established, reading flows well
- the book deals with every topic in a very open-minded, communication-forward way, and there’s something to be appreciated about the intent behind that even during times where it didn’t work too well in the narrative
the bad
- i don’t really like how often the author uses the same phrasing for certain things, mainly when a character is thinking about something they shouldn’t be thinking about and they suddenly go “no.” before continuing on. she gets better about it as the books goes on, at least.
- mostly fairly flowery sex scenes that didn’t really do much for me in any way
what happened to william? why was he sending lucien all his belongings at the end of the book? a way to care for lucien even though he’d stopped visiting as much? a way to coax/bribe lucien into visiting more? how can there be no resolution to one of lucien’s most influential relationships in his life, for good or bad? DID THEY SERIOUSLY NEVER AIR OUT THEIR GRIEVANCES TO EACH OTHER? AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THERE WAS NO REAL FRIENDSHIP BEHIND ALL OF IT? where did ultra-romantic true-el-o-vee lucien/ben come from? HELLO????? i do think the family stuff introduced by lucien’s relationship with ben’s wife and kids is super cute, don’t get me wrong, but there was absolutely no buildup to any of this. i was laughing my ass off when it happened because i didn’t know how else to react. i needed way more development between lucien and ben than what we got to even begin believing that — hell, we got more interaction between lucien and ben’s wife in the end. if you wanted to make lucien poly so badly (very welcome but not strictly necessary imo), william’s right there. ymmv on this and some people would hate it, but honestly it’s fucked up, it’s like the opposite of lucien/aubrey in terms of how viable and healthy it is so it provides a foil, and it had a LOT of interesting, bone-deep resentment and mutual emotional constipation to unpack. would’ve been way more interesting and rewarding to me. also i know they grew up together and that might gross out some people but from what i understood it was clearly not an equal, sibling relationship — lucien was trained to serve william in the future at the end of the day. i’m not saying developing the relationship more would’ve been easy or that it would’ve ended well, hell very probably not, but i do believe it was worth trying over shoving some random epiphany about a character we see twice 90% of the way through the book. (i do realize there’s a prequel story about ben and cath but i shouldn’t be required to read that to at least understand where lucien’s coming from, if not necessarily enjoy/agree with it.) aubrey gets everything fixed for him financially at the end and never has to work or do anything to support himself. that was a major lost opportunity in my opinion — he could’ve been forced (or better, chosen) to work for a living at least for a while and consequently start understanding lucien’s life and struggles a bit more. rupert should have apologized for stonewalling and making life-changing decisions for both aubrey and henrietta without their consent. period.
the complicated
- this book was well-written and well-researched for the most part but imma be honest, i just… really didn’t care as much as i wanted to about the characters. i maybe cared a good amount about lucien? and the female characters? both lucien and aubrey are super kind and well-meaning people but they didn’t tickle anything in me in terms of how interesting they are. there was nothing really pulling me in to the extent that i wish it would’ve. most of my reactions were to general queerness and asexuality relatability through the characters than the characters themselves. this only started changing about 70-80% of the way through as the plot actually started moving forward, which is way too late for both things.
- some (too many) scenes felt less like they were organic situations happening between the characters than something constructed for the purpose of educating the reader about x topic (suffrage, polyamory especially), with characterization as a secondary priority. it often felt like characters were reading off an informative script about whatever the Complex Issue Du Jour was. this may sound too harsh (the scenes weren’t bad by any means) but i don’t really know how better to put it. way too much tell/exposition, not enough letting the story flow in a way that allows characters come to conclusions by themselves.
- i know i talked about lucien/william before and how it was shafted despite deserving a more through resolution (for lucien’s peace of mind, if nothing else), but i really do like the idea of lucien/ben as a different type of foil to lucien/aubrey, an easy relationship with less power imbalances to deal with and a family to take care of, which lucien clearly appreciates in some form. it was just really, really poorly executed.
- the suffrage plot was well-represented and full of real life figures and references, but ultimately pointless within the book itself. and it rings a little hollow when
the main female character herself isn’t even allowed to help fix her own relationship directly at the end of her book, instead having to rely on her male lovers to solve everything for her. i know the situation required her to be discreet at that time, but it should have been written differently in that case, in my opinion. or at least the book should’ve had an extra scene of some sort where henrietta got to say her piece about it all.
like another review on goodreads says which i think is really well-put, if nothing else, this book is worth reading. take that statement by itself, and go for it — you might come to entirely different conclusions than i did. personally, it was worth my time despite everything, and that's the most important part to me in the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Homophobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Miscarriage
enareil's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
pam_h's review against another edition
5.0
This was so good, I don't think I can do it justice. First, it reads very much like an m/m romance in case everything else has you concerned. It is first and foremost the love story of Aubrey and Lucien, and it is lovely.
It jumps straight in to the first encounter of these two men who have full lives separate and apart from each other, but find themselves drawn to each other over and over again. There is no intsa-anything (apart from lust :), so we get to watch a realistically paced romance amidst this fascinating exploration of class and the societal power dynamics of the time.
And that part is just so interesting. I am not a history buff, I don't like non-fiction, I don't do dense historicals. That is NOT what this is. It's just fascinating in its realistic portrayal of the differences between the working class of 1906 England and the nobility, and even among the different ranks of nobility.
Lucien has a very specific background that allows him to navigate between the different classes in a way most people couldn't, but the hard and fast rules of this society only stretch so far, and I love how realistic this is without being at all depressing. It is very matter-of-fact as Lucien and Aubrey figure out a way to carve out a place where they can be each other's go-to person.
Lucien has such concise, insightful thoughts and opinions on the class structure and is able to express himself so well, yet even the most kind, open-minded of the "nobs" struggle to wrap their brains around these things they just don't have any frame of reference for.
And then conversely, we get to see Lucien be the one who takes the ingrained imbalances between genders for granted. And it's not preachy or boring or heavy -- it's just woven so well into the story, as Lucien gets thrown on a piece about women's suffrage for his newspaper and works with a female journalist, as we get to know Henrietta (Lady Hernedale), as we see tiny moments of the lives of the women who run the boarding house where Lucien lives.
And these moments are all just woven in between the romance. I am ridiculously picky in that I like my romances to be about the romance, but I also want other stuff going on, yet I don't want to get taken away from the romance *too* often or for *too* long at a time... like, I want exactly the right percentage of romance to non-romance plot points to the nth degree :) And this hits it perfectly. (Partially because a lot of the non-romance stuff on Aubrey's side is really still romance since it pertains to his other romantic relationship!)
The polyamory aspect had me hesitating to try this one because I am so sensitive to any emotional imbalances between the different parts of these relationships — this is just so outside my reality, it can be hard for me to enjoy — but this one was just fantastic. And again, REALISTIC. Even as a relatively powerful Earl, there's only so much Rupert and Henrietta can realistically do to include Aubrey in their lives. This is just not something that people would accept or look the other way about, especially in a time when you literally get arrested for being gay.
Aubrey's background with the Hernedales is revealed slowly, but we get to see all the nuances play out, and it all just makes so much sense in the end. And as long as the three of them have been together and as much as they love each other, there's just only so much time Aubrey can spend with them as the technical, legal, societal "outsider" of the relationship, even if he's not the third wheel by any means in their hearts.
The way all the relationships fit together just makes so much sense as a product of that time in history and the constraints it would place on each one, but also in that way polyamory stories have to work for me personally, in that it all feels like how it was meant to be.
The whole thing is just so impressive with all the fascinating nuances she works in while also being, first and foremost, immensely enjoyable.
Note: You do have to have a little tolerance for the f part of an mmf sex scene, but I think there's just one in the whole book, and the languaging really avoids the common pitfalls. I am currently in a phase where I can't do mf sex scenes, but this one did not bother me at all. I don't know how to explain it, but even though Henrietta is a huge part of the story and very much an equal part of that threesome, this is very much an m/m romance.
It jumps straight in to the first encounter of these two men who have full lives separate and apart from each other, but find themselves drawn to each other over and over again. There is no intsa-anything (apart from lust :), so we get to watch a realistically paced romance amidst this fascinating exploration of class and the societal power dynamics of the time.
And that part is just so interesting. I am not a history buff, I don't like non-fiction, I don't do dense historicals. That is NOT what this is. It's just fascinating in its realistic portrayal of the differences between the working class of 1906 England and the nobility, and even among the different ranks of nobility.
Lucien has a very specific background that allows him to navigate between the different classes in a way most people couldn't, but the hard and fast rules of this society only stretch so far, and I love how realistic this is without being at all depressing. It is very matter-of-fact as Lucien and Aubrey figure out a way to carve out a place where they can be each other's go-to person.
Lucien has such concise, insightful thoughts and opinions on the class structure and is able to express himself so well, yet even the most kind, open-minded of the "nobs" struggle to wrap their brains around these things they just don't have any frame of reference for.
And then conversely, we get to see Lucien be the one who takes the ingrained imbalances between genders for granted. And it's not preachy or boring or heavy -- it's just woven so well into the story, as Lucien gets thrown on a piece about women's suffrage for his newspaper and works with a female journalist, as we get to know Henrietta (Lady Hernedale), as we see tiny moments of the lives of the women who run the boarding house where Lucien lives.
And these moments are all just woven in between the romance. I am ridiculously picky in that I like my romances to be about the romance, but I also want other stuff going on, yet I don't want to get taken away from the romance *too* often or for *too* long at a time... like, I want exactly the right percentage of romance to non-romance plot points to the nth degree :) And this hits it perfectly. (Partially because a lot of the non-romance stuff on Aubrey's side is really still romance since it pertains to his other romantic relationship!)
The polyamory aspect had me hesitating to try this one because I am so sensitive to any emotional imbalances between the different parts of these relationships — this is just so outside my reality, it can be hard for me to enjoy — but this one was just fantastic. And again, REALISTIC. Even as a relatively powerful Earl, there's only so much Rupert and Henrietta can realistically do to include Aubrey in their lives. This is just not something that people would accept or look the other way about, especially in a time when you literally get arrested for being gay.
Aubrey's background with the Hernedales is revealed slowly, but we get to see all the nuances play out, and it all just makes so much sense in the end. And as long as the three of them have been together and as much as they love each other, there's just only so much time Aubrey can spend with them as the technical, legal, societal "outsider" of the relationship, even if he's not the third wheel by any means in their hearts.
The way all the relationships fit together just makes so much sense as a product of that time in history and the constraints it would place on each one, but also in that way polyamory stories have to work for me personally, in that it all feels like how it was meant to be.
The whole thing is just so impressive with all the fascinating nuances she works in while also being, first and foremost, immensely enjoyable.
Note: You do have to have a little tolerance for the f part of an mmf sex scene, but I think there's just one in the whole book, and the languaging really avoids the common pitfalls. I am currently in a phase where I can't do mf sex scenes, but this one did not bother me at all. I don't know how to explain it, but even though Henrietta is a huge part of the story and very much an equal part of that threesome, this is very much an m/m romance.