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galleytrot's review against another edition
- 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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Classism, and Sexism
Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Outing, War, Alcohol, Cursing, Biphobia, and Pregnancy
Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault
magicshop's review against another edition
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
craftyhilary's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
tense
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? Yes
5.0
What an intense and tender novel. A thoughtful exploration of the many ways we can love others, the challenges of societal expectations and rules, and the difficulties of differences in social class.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
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