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A review by kentcryptid
To Charm a Bluestocking by Renée Dahlia
2.0
To Charm a Bluestocking has an appealing premise: it's 1887 and Josephine Tobinbury is about to complete her studies as one of the first women to graduate in medicine from the Municipal University of Amsterdam. In order to protect herself from the attentions of the villainous Professor van Percy she writes to her father and asks him to provide her with a fake beau. Complications arise when her 'fiancé' arrives and proves to be less biddable than she had imagined.
Bluestocking is written in an appealingly breathless, full-tilt style that carries the reader along and doesn't encourage the paying of too much attention to the plot. The author obviously has a love for her subject matter, explaining in the afterword that the inspiration came from her own great grandmother who was an early 20th-century medical graduate. The book includes some interesting particulars about pioneering women doctors, historical events in Amsterdam, and 19th-century medical techniques.
However, the same attention to detail hasn't been paid to 1880s social mores or language. It's a convention in some historical romance writing to disregard any attempt to make dialogue sound historically accurate, perhaps with the idea that readers will connect more with characters who sound like they're from the modern day USA rather than the historical period in question. It's a stylistic choice I always question because there's nothing that throws me out of a story set in 1887 faster than writing like - to quote some examples from To Charm a Bluestocking - "Don't stress. They are just scared that we will show them up"; "Your father asked you to do market research for him?; and "The whole place had a good vibe."
Josephine is an appealingly practical heroine who is just the person to have around if you've been caught in a towering inferno or had your nose broken by an evil-doer. Speaking of which, Professor van Percy is a rather fun Black Hat of a villain, fond of making theatrical speeches and at one point literally twirling his moustache.
The hero, Nicolas, is something of a nonentity, although I did enjoy his pride in Josephine's achievements and support for her medical career. The two of them fall in insta-love and don't have much chemistry while clothed, but there's one enjoyably sensual sex scene. There are also a couple of would-be erotic scenes which are horribly unsexy, including Nicolas being weirdly aroused by Josephine eating a sandwich.
There's also a very painful scene where the pair have sex in a moving carriage while she has a recently broken nose and he has a broken ankle. This is presented as pleasurable for the characters but just sounds horrific.
On the whole, this is a quick and moderately entertaining read, but something of a waste of an excellent premise.
Bluestocking is written in an appealingly breathless, full-tilt style that carries the reader along and doesn't encourage the paying of too much attention to the plot. The author obviously has a love for her subject matter, explaining in the afterword that the inspiration came from her own great grandmother who was an early 20th-century medical graduate. The book includes some interesting particulars about pioneering women doctors, historical events in Amsterdam, and 19th-century medical techniques.
However, the same attention to detail hasn't been paid to 1880s social mores or language. It's a convention in some historical romance writing to disregard any attempt to make dialogue sound historically accurate, perhaps with the idea that readers will connect more with characters who sound like they're from the modern day USA rather than the historical period in question. It's a stylistic choice I always question because there's nothing that throws me out of a story set in 1887 faster than writing like - to quote some examples from To Charm a Bluestocking - "Don't stress. They are just scared that we will show them up"; "Your father asked you to do market research for him?; and "The whole place had a good vibe."
Josephine is an appealingly practical heroine who is just the person to have around if you've been caught in a towering inferno or had your nose broken by an evil-doer. Speaking of which, Professor van Percy is a rather fun Black Hat of a villain, fond of making theatrical speeches and at one point literally twirling his moustache.
The hero, Nicolas, is something of a nonentity, although I did enjoy his pride in Josephine's achievements and support for her medical career. The two of them fall in insta-love and don't have much chemistry while clothed, but there's one enjoyably sensual sex scene. There are also a couple of would-be erotic scenes which are horribly unsexy, including Nicolas being weirdly aroused by Josephine eating a sandwich.
The sound of her masticating filled the room and it took all his effort to look away from her lips as they worked on her food. It was not much of a stretch to imagine her mouth on him.
There's also a very painful scene where the pair have sex in a moving carriage while she has a recently broken nose and he has a broken ankle. This is presented as pleasurable for the characters but just sounds horrific.
On the whole, this is a quick and moderately entertaining read, but something of a waste of an excellent premise.