Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - An Unsuitable Heir

AN UNSUITABLE HEIR follows Pen, the newly discovered heir to the fortune so contested in AN UNNATURAL VICE, and Mark, the one-armed investigator who has been trying to keep his friends and new acquaintances from getting killed as they attract the ire of the high and mighty.

Closing out the trilogy, AN UNSUITABLE HEIR expertly weaves together the remaining story threads left open from AN UNNATURAL VICE. Pen and Greta are twins, trapeze artists, and most commonly known as the "Flying Starlings", present since the beginning of the series. The timeline overlaps between scenes are artfully done, giving new context and perspective to the exact same events by showing them through a different character’s perspective. Even reading the whole trilogy in two days, the repetitions of some scenes felt poignant and fresh at the same time. The trilogy as a whole (and this book in particular) have many discussion of class, privilege, and the ways that bigotries have similar echoes, even when shaped to hit different targets. Pen is some variety of genderqueer by modern standards, the historical setting means he doesn’t have access to that specific language. Pen's pronouns are the best he can get as both "she" and "it" are wholly unsuitable, and "he" works well enough when necessary. Mark is generally described as one armed, with one full arm and another that ends in a stump at the elbow. It’s a congenital limb difference, not something he lost, and he and Penn have several long conversations about the weight of social expectations and the dissonance that’s caused when other people are upset that their bodies are not what was assumed.

I love AN UNSUITABLE HEIR as an end of the trilogy. There’s genuine tension in what Pen will choose, hemmed in by inheritance laws, the desire to do what’s best for his sister, and the need to be himself. Mark is caught between promises already made, and his growing attraction to Pen and care for Pen's wellbeing.

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madscientistcat's review

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.25

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wardenred's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

He wanted to live in a world where people didn’t make a great stupid fuss about what other people wore or who they kissed, and he wasn’t sure how that made him the unreasonable one.

I remember absolutely loving this book the first time I read it, in big part because I think it was the first romance with a nonbinary/genderfluid I've ever laid my hands on. That alone was incredibly exciting and made me overlook any possible flaws of the story.

This time around, well, I still really enjoyed the genderfluid representation and how it was handled, but I was less invested in the romance from some early-ish point on. I didn't really feel like the two characters really clicked together. Yes, Mark was accepting and understanding, outside of the moments where he believed that the ways of the world simply wouldn't let Pen be fully himself (using the pronoun Pen uses). Yes, they laughed about ducks in bed together. Yes, they shared a bunch of sweet moments. But I just... I don't know. I feel like from both sides the general vibe was more... a very understandable relief at being accepted as is? The characters felt so different—not to the point of being incompatible, but different enough that I struggled to ship them. Don't get me wrong, I have my share of favorite "opposites attract" love stories (the previous book in this very series is one!), but I love the sort of opposites who have something really, really similar at their core. I don't know, I guess this part is a little hard to put into words.

Anyway, I appreciated the sensitivity of the genderqueerness and the disability rep, I loved the sibling bond between Pen and Greta, and I adored the appearances of all the past books' characters, especially Justin Lazarus, who is a delight and a treasure. Especially in that one scene about, you know, the terrible accident. The act of divine providence. You know the one. Speaking of: the last beats of the overarching mystery are really exciting, and the awful aristocratic society is suitably awful. Maybe I should finally get around to reading A Society of Gentlemen, because I want more awful aristocrats and some good people trying to get by around them, and I also continue to be on a K.J. Charles kick.

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