Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Devil Comes Courting

Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan

5 reviews

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was a SLOW BURN, but the payoff was well worth it! Again, Milan's intricate and original premise - a biracial and Black man engineering a telegraph line to cross the Pacific needs someone to develop a telegraphic code for Chinese - is brilliant. I was fascinated to learn more about how telegraph lines were laid (particularly across oceans) and how codes were developed and used by operators. And the level of detail! Milan walks us through how our female main character, a Chinese woman raised by an American missionary, develops a useable code that conveys the complexity and dimensionality of Chinese characters in a very one-dimensional code. Honestly, for 75% of the book, I was far more interested in this plot than in the romance, as the main characters are so often in different countries, or even continents.

What ultimately makes the romance work is the unique twist on epistolary, as our main characters develop a way to send coded telegrams while he's at sea. I loved the use of these codes to develop their confidence in each other, and then eventually to deepen their physical and emotional intimacy.

I would consider this workplace romance - kind of - and friends to lovers - kind of. Ultimately, it's the bridging of two people who have a LOT of personal reflection and growth they need to accomplish before they can truly commit to each other. I was so satisfied with each of their storylines, as they navigate their own traumatic pasts and uncertain futures.

As we saw in book two, we again see both characters navigating complex code switching, and we get an excoriating examination of transracial "adoption" during this time - a commentary that has a lot of relevance today, too.

This is a slow-paced story in every respect, with around a year elapsing in the storyline, frequent time jumps, and significant distance - geographically and emotionally - between MCs. The writing is stunning (no surprise for Milan readers) and I cried messily through the last 10%. I will also note that for a book where the romance was largely secondary for the first 75% this HEATS UP at the end, and I loved it!

Content Warnings

heydebigale's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An epistolary romance told through telegraphs and code?! Amazing. Iconic. I loved it!!

Amelia is a Chinese woman who was taken in (as a 6 year old) by British missionaries during the Taiping Rebellion.

Grayson is a telegraph company owner who is attempting to connect the telegraph line from China to San Francisco.

Grayson hires Amelia to come up with a way to encode Chinese characters for the telegraph system. The two build a friendship and then fall in love through telegraphs and it is SO sweet. This book was incredibly unique because many romance novels have the two characters together for most of the book. This book spans a few years and the two MCs are only together for a fraction of that time.

It’s amazing how so many of the issues folks dealt with in the 19th century are still a problem today. Sustainable technology and adoption are both focused on in this book and both are so relevant today.

I love all of Courtney Milan’s books but this one is particularly special. Highly highly recommend.

Notes: primarily takes place in Fuzhou & Shanghai, China. Also on Grayson’s ship in the pacific. Amelia is Chinese raised by British missionaries and Grayson is a Black American.

Content Warnings