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A review by nenya_kanadka
Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger
4.0
Genevieve Lefoux, dandy lesbian French inventor, was my favourite secondary character in the Soulless books, and I always wanted More Stuff with her. Plus I was disappointed that her chemistry with Alexia never went anywhere. So I was completely delighted to see that she now has her own book. (Sometimes searching "steampunk lesbians" on Kobo turns up something good.)
The romance is told from the point of view of Imogene Hale, a young working-class woman who hires on as a maid in a vampire hive as a way to escape pressures to get married. She isn't into dudes and she thinks there must be something wrong with her. And then she meets brilliant, eccentric, gay-as-hell Genevieve, and sparks strike. But Genevieve's heart was broken so thoroughly in the past that she's sworn never to love again--and convinces herself that Imogene can't possibly truly want her. Plus, there's vampire politics. And math secrets.
I could probably have handled slightly less angst with this one (Genevieve's "but I can't give you my heart, so we can't" was dragged out about twice as long as I liked), but I loved how gay, gay, gay it was. Sometimes I just need to see my faves fall in love like I do. Oh, and the Alexia situation that bugged me in the first paragraph of my review got a good resolution here: we find out that Alexia is actually bisexual, it's just that she fell in love with a man before she met Genevieve. If that had been the only f/f queerness in this series, I would still have been disgruntled, because I hate it when female bisexuality is brought up as a side note on the way to an m/f endgame (which is about 95% of the time in fiction). But Genevieve and Imogene made up for that wonderfully.
Plus they're both huge nerds. And Genevieve wears amazing suits. Yep. I liked this one.
The romance is told from the point of view of Imogene Hale, a young working-class woman who hires on as a maid in a vampire hive as a way to escape pressures to get married. She isn't into dudes and she thinks there must be something wrong with her. And then she meets brilliant, eccentric, gay-as-hell Genevieve, and sparks strike. But Genevieve's heart was broken so thoroughly in the past that she's sworn never to love again--and convinces herself that Imogene can't possibly truly want her. Plus, there's vampire politics. And math secrets.
I could probably have handled slightly less angst with this one (Genevieve's "but I can't give you my heart, so we can't" was dragged out about twice as long as I liked), but I loved how gay, gay, gay it was. Sometimes I just need to see my faves fall in love like I do. Oh, and the Alexia situation that bugged me in the first paragraph of my review got a good resolution here: we find out that Alexia is actually bisexual, it's just that she fell in love with a man before she met Genevieve. If that had been the only f/f queerness in this series, I would still have been disgruntled, because I hate it when female bisexuality is brought up as a side note on the way to an m/f endgame (which is about 95% of the time in fiction). But Genevieve and Imogene made up for that wonderfully.
Plus they're both huge nerds. And Genevieve wears amazing suits. Yep. I liked this one.