Scan barcode
A review by falulatonks
After the Wedding by Courtney Milan
5.0
4 stars on the romance, but 5 for everything surrounding it that knocked it all up a notch - as almost always with Milan, I guess. But man, I loved this - it starts a little slow, but I couldn't stop reading it after I hit Chapter 4 or so.
I really loved Camilla; as miserable as parts of her backstory were, and as much as you could see certain parts of it shaping her, you could see the exact aspects of her character that kept her afloat. I really loved Adrian, and how good and loving and trusting he is, and how his emotional clumsiness can lead him to both good and bad. And I adored them together - the honesty, the push and pull, the fact that the climax of their romance had her ask things of him in a way I don't always see in romances!
I felt myself being weighed down by the plot in places, in that I was asked to keep track of things I wasn't really interested in pursuing, but the little spirals that the story took me down were wonderful and detailed in a really careful, loving way. I especially dug the way Milan drew attention to these little support structures that exist outside of white, high-ranking men - the women, the artists, the workers. It's also really cool to see the choice being made to start within peerage but for each character to shift further and further out, especially because the dynamics and navigation of class presents themselves really clearly in this specific story, with this specific family. (The other great historical romance writer I can think of who writes about romances outside of the norm is Rose Lerner!!)
Finally, and the most important, most score-defining thing thing: I get so snippy about books in romance series that linger around characters that aren't the two leads, but every bit of time spent with the other Worth siblings in this was gutting to me. What I loved most, I think(, and maybe what made the difference to me from other family series), is how readily Milan framed points of friction between them - there is really difficult, stubborn love here, for sure, but underneath that they also don't always like one another much, and I...love it? The closest I was brought to tears in this was actually across three scenes, all sibling-focused, and they were all super messy and I felt awful for all of them for getting one another so wrong. They all try so hard, but so badly, and so loathsomely! I LOVED IT.
Anyway, I just clicked through to see the covers of the other books in this series and I know who's going where and whom is going to be what and I'm so fucking excited. Back to the thing about centring on London society and then kind of unspooling from it - I really love how boundary-less you can tell the rest of the series will be. It feels like the whole world is ready to be trampled around in by these characters I really like already. I'm so excited!
I really loved Camilla; as miserable as parts of her backstory were, and as much as you could see certain parts of it shaping her, you could see the exact aspects of her character that kept her afloat. I really loved Adrian, and how good and loving and trusting he is, and how his emotional clumsiness can lead him to both good and bad. And I adored them together - the honesty, the push and pull, the fact that the climax of their romance had her ask things of him in a way I don't always see in romances!
I felt myself being weighed down by the plot in places, in that I was asked to keep track of things I wasn't really interested in pursuing, but the little spirals that the story took me down were wonderful and detailed in a really careful, loving way. I especially dug the way Milan drew attention to these little support structures that exist outside of white, high-ranking men - the women, the artists, the workers. It's also really cool to see the choice being made to start within peerage but for each character to shift further and further out, especially because the dynamics and navigation of class presents themselves really clearly in this specific story, with this specific family. (The other great historical romance writer I can think of who writes about romances outside of the norm is Rose Lerner!!)
Finally, and the most important, most score-defining thing thing: I get so snippy about books in romance series that linger around characters that aren't the two leads, but every bit of time spent with the other Worth siblings in this was gutting to me. What I loved most, I think(, and maybe what made the difference to me from other family series), is how readily Milan framed points of friction between them - there is really difficult, stubborn love here, for sure, but underneath that they also don't always like one another much, and I...love it? The closest I was brought to tears in this was actually across three scenes, all sibling-focused, and they were all super messy and I felt awful for all of them for getting one another so wrong. They all try so hard, but so badly, and so loathsomely! I LOVED IT.
Anyway, I just clicked through to see the covers of the other books in this series and I know who's going where and whom is going to be what and I'm so fucking excited. Back to the thing about centring on London society and then kind of unspooling from it - I really love how boundary-less you can tell the rest of the series will be. It feels like the whole world is ready to be trampled around in by these characters I really like already. I'm so excited!