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caz963 's review for:
To Sketch a Scandal
by Jess Everlee
B+ / 4.5 stars
To Sketch a Scandal is book four in Jess Everlee’s Lucky Lovers of London series, and returns readers to late Victorian London and the convivial safe space carefully carved out for the local queer community at the underground club, the Curious Fox. There are a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me, but I enjoyed the story overall; it’s cute, witty and kind of adorable, the leads are three-dimensional, their chemistry is delicious and I loved watching flirtatious barkeep Warren Bakshi falling head-over-heels despite his avowed aversion to romance and anything that lasts longer than one night.
Warren works at the club to earn enough money to support him and his mother, but he also loves the job and the casual fun that is one of its perks (as the notches on his bedpost there can attest!) They’re not rich, but he’s content and likes being useful; but everything changes when his long-lost brother, Harry, returns to England having amassed a fortune and gained a wife – arranges for them all to move in to a grand house in a better location and says that Warren doesn’t need to work any more. But for Warren, the Curious Fox is the only place he can really be himself – or at least, the outrageously flirty version of himself that he can safely present there – and he absolutely doesn’t want to give it up. But with their new-found wealth comes the expectation of being more engaged in ‘society’, and of undertaking more… dignified pursuits. Warren’s mother has, for a while, been trying to get him to do something with his artistic talent, and with Harry’s new wife and a new housekeeper now doing most of the household tasks Warren used to do, he realises that perhaps signing up for some art classes might not be the worst idea.
It’s largely thanks to the quick thinking of Inspector Matthew Shaw that the Curious Fox is still in business. We met him in [b:A Rulebook for Restless Rogues|61393443|A Rulebook for Restless Rogues (Lucky Lovers of London, #2)|Jess Everlee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1667486911l/61393443._SX50_.jpg|96821210] when he posed as valet to David Forrester, then the club’s manager, as part of an investigation into Lord Belleville, the nasty piece or work who owned the place and who was threatening to close it down. Matty is good at his job - but of late, he’s begun to feel more and more as though he’s walking a tightrope, and it’s exhausting. Inspector Barrows, who rescued him from the streets when Matty was just fifteen and has acted as a mentor to him - is about to retire, few of his colleagues respect him due to the nature of many of the cases he’s worked, and there are whispers about his sexuality which, if they become more than whispers, will not only spell the end of his career, but could also see him sentenced to two years hard labour. If all that wasn’t bad enough, he’s being passed over for promotion, and his latest assignment – to go undercover as an art student – requires him to display a degree of artistic ability he simply doesn’t have. The only bright spot in all of it is the gorgeous barkeep from the Fox, who, by complete coincidence, has signed up to take the same art class – but whose boss, concerned for the safety of his clientele, has warned him to stay away from Matty who, despite not intending to cause any trouble for the club or its patrons, poses too much of a risk to its security should he be seen there.
You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.
To Sketch a Scandal is book four in Jess Everlee’s Lucky Lovers of London series, and returns readers to late Victorian London and the convivial safe space carefully carved out for the local queer community at the underground club, the Curious Fox. There are a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me, but I enjoyed the story overall; it’s cute, witty and kind of adorable, the leads are three-dimensional, their chemistry is delicious and I loved watching flirtatious barkeep Warren Bakshi falling head-over-heels despite his avowed aversion to romance and anything that lasts longer than one night.
Warren works at the club to earn enough money to support him and his mother, but he also loves the job and the casual fun that is one of its perks (as the notches on his bedpost there can attest!) They’re not rich, but he’s content and likes being useful; but everything changes when his long-lost brother, Harry, returns to England having amassed a fortune and gained a wife – arranges for them all to move in to a grand house in a better location and says that Warren doesn’t need to work any more. But for Warren, the Curious Fox is the only place he can really be himself – or at least, the outrageously flirty version of himself that he can safely present there – and he absolutely doesn’t want to give it up. But with their new-found wealth comes the expectation of being more engaged in ‘society’, and of undertaking more… dignified pursuits. Warren’s mother has, for a while, been trying to get him to do something with his artistic talent, and with Harry’s new wife and a new housekeeper now doing most of the household tasks Warren used to do, he realises that perhaps signing up for some art classes might not be the worst idea.
It’s largely thanks to the quick thinking of Inspector Matthew Shaw that the Curious Fox is still in business. We met him in [b:A Rulebook for Restless Rogues|61393443|A Rulebook for Restless Rogues (Lucky Lovers of London, #2)|Jess Everlee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1667486911l/61393443._SX50_.jpg|96821210] when he posed as valet to David Forrester, then the club’s manager, as part of an investigation into Lord Belleville, the nasty piece or work who owned the place and who was threatening to close it down. Matty is good at his job - but of late, he’s begun to feel more and more as though he’s walking a tightrope, and it’s exhausting. Inspector Barrows, who rescued him from the streets when Matty was just fifteen and has acted as a mentor to him - is about to retire, few of his colleagues respect him due to the nature of many of the cases he’s worked, and there are whispers about his sexuality which, if they become more than whispers, will not only spell the end of his career, but could also see him sentenced to two years hard labour. If all that wasn’t bad enough, he’s being passed over for promotion, and his latest assignment – to go undercover as an art student – requires him to display a degree of artistic ability he simply doesn’t have. The only bright spot in all of it is the gorgeous barkeep from the Fox, who, by complete coincidence, has signed up to take the same art class – but whose boss, concerned for the safety of his clientele, has warned him to stay away from Matty who, despite not intending to cause any trouble for the club or its patrons, poses too much of a risk to its security should he be seen there.
You can read the rest of this review at All About Romance.