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A review by jackiehorne
An Unnatural Vice by KJ Charles
4.0
ARC via Netgalley
Another outstanding addition to Charles' SINS OF THE CITIES series, which focuses on working and lower middle class Victorian men caught up in a larger, series arc about a missing heir to an earldom.
Thirty-seven year old crusading journalist Nathaniel Roy, still grieving the death of his partner after five years, begins a series set on undermining the credibility of the London spiritualists who earn their keep by preying on the recently bereaved. His first target: Justin Lazarus, the "Seer of London." Lazarus isn't handsome, but Nathaniel finds him disturbingly compelling all the same ("Justin Lazarus was without question a disgraceful fraud, but as his lips move din silent prayer, Nathaniel could not help the thought that he looked like a glorious fuck. The bad kind, of course; the kind that left a man feeling dirt and ashamed and degraded in his own eyes. The kind Nathaniel had never had in practice, and wouldn't have admitted to imagining, but could see all too clearly. Bending the medium over his own table, holding him down. You want the furniture to move, Mr. Lazarus? That can be arranged." [Kindle Loc 202]). But even if The Seer is a fraud, he has a dangerous way of seeing into a person's vulnerabilities, even the jaded Nathaniel's.
After Lazarus escapes kidnappers intent on recovering information regarding the above-mentioned missing heir, he finds himself fleeing to Nathaniel's, despite the journalist's clear abhorrence of him. Desire sparks in spite of (or perhaps heightened because of) loathing, and the two engage in a hot tryst. But when they have to flee the city to escape the men in pursuit of Justin, the two gradually begin to understand the strong-willed human beings behind the privileged, righteous prig and the selfish gutter fraud spiritualist.
Hot hate-sex ("Letting a man bugger you didn't magically improve his character, any more than it had improved Nathaniel's mood") that gradually develops into cross-class understanding and respect; now that's a romance writing achievement that you don't see every day. But Charles pulls it all off with her trademark strong characterization, accurate historical grounding, and suspenseful storyline, making readers not just relate to, but care for, her prickly, unlikeable-at-first characters.
Another outstanding addition to Charles' SINS OF THE CITIES series, which focuses on working and lower middle class Victorian men caught up in a larger, series arc about a missing heir to an earldom.
Thirty-seven year old crusading journalist Nathaniel Roy, still grieving the death of his partner after five years, begins a series set on undermining the credibility of the London spiritualists who earn their keep by preying on the recently bereaved. His first target: Justin Lazarus, the "Seer of London." Lazarus isn't handsome, but Nathaniel finds him disturbingly compelling all the same ("Justin Lazarus was without question a disgraceful fraud, but as his lips move din silent prayer, Nathaniel could not help the thought that he looked like a glorious fuck. The bad kind, of course; the kind that left a man feeling dirt and ashamed and degraded in his own eyes. The kind Nathaniel had never had in practice, and wouldn't have admitted to imagining, but could see all too clearly. Bending the medium over his own table, holding him down. You want the furniture to move, Mr. Lazarus? That can be arranged." [Kindle Loc 202]). But even if The Seer is a fraud, he has a dangerous way of seeing into a person's vulnerabilities, even the jaded Nathaniel's.
After Lazarus escapes kidnappers intent on recovering information regarding the above-mentioned missing heir, he finds himself fleeing to Nathaniel's, despite the journalist's clear abhorrence of him. Desire sparks in spite of (or perhaps heightened because of) loathing, and the two engage in a hot tryst. But when they have to flee the city to escape the men in pursuit of Justin, the two gradually begin to understand the strong-willed human beings behind the privileged, righteous prig and the selfish gutter fraud spiritualist.
Hot hate-sex ("Letting a man bugger you didn't magically improve his character, any more than it had improved Nathaniel's mood") that gradually develops into cross-class understanding and respect; now that's a romance writing achievement that you don't see every day. But Charles pulls it all off with her trademark strong characterization, accurate historical grounding, and suspenseful storyline, making readers not just relate to, but care for, her prickly, unlikeable-at-first characters.