A review by lezreadalot
The Gentleman's Book of Vices by Jess Everlee

4.0

No one would ever look at Charlie like that again. He knew it. Who else could? Circumstance had shaped them for each other, each chipped and bent in just the right spots for the other to fit perfectly.

A historical m/m romance about horny books and the men who write and read them. Except it's only like 40% about that. This is like the third book in a couple of weeks to make me unexpectedly tear up out of nowhere; either I'm just in a maudlin baby-ish mood or the books are hitting emotionally harder than I expected them to. This was so so cute! I felt middling to fair about it for most of the book, but towards the end I really really liked and sympathised with and felt for the characters. There were a few too many neat things that slotted in together perfectly at the end, but I'm not the type to care about that if the characters/romance have won me over sufficiently. 

And they did! Charlie is an accountant and fop who needs to get married to settle his debts; Miles is a bookstore owner and anonymous pornography writer. Charlie is a huge fan of Miles, but they don't get off to the best start. Their road to romance from there was so sweet? I love romances that are about artist/admirer relationships, and this had a really interesting hook for me, when Miles realises that one of his favourite passages that he's ever written is one of Charlie's most beloved and reread passages of the book. I love connections like that; a thing they have in common before even meeting. Miles' books sound genuinely fun and stupid and trashy in the good way, and the connection that it provided for them was lovely? It helped that the powerplay etc was right up my alley. And I love when a romance really manages to convey that these two specific people are specifically good for one another, in all facets of life. I wasn't the biggest fan of the pacing of this; it did that thing where they had some significant scenes, and then we sorta stone-skimmed over the water of the next few weeks. Still, I enjoyed what we saw of them, and how they grew their relationship. I adored Charlie's friendship with Alma, and the little family at the club was super cute. This isn't the first queer historical with a plot like this, and I kinda thought I knew where it was headed, so I was glad/surprised to see it took a few turns I wasn't expecting to get there. Some components of the ending were easy to see coming, but eh, I didn't mind.

Listened to the audiobook as read by Tonny Hawthorne, and it was excellent! Or at least, I really liked his voice for the prose and the main characters. Everything else... eh. Most of his male side characters were too gruff/exaggerated, and his female characters were pitchy and a bit grating to listen to. But the main voices are great, so that's what's important. This was just really cute, and managed to make me care about these guys in a pretty short amount of time. I'll definitely read Noah's romance, and I hope Joey gets one too; I loved her.

Anyone could write a scandal. Reginald Cox made his readers weep over it.