Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by kathleen_in_oslo
The Last Kiss by Sally Malcolm
4.0
A lovely, quiet story about two men trying to navigate new lives for themselves - separately and together - in the aftermath of World War I, when they leave the frontlines behind and return to the stultifying, classist, regressive and repressive rules and expectations they no longer can accept. Harry and Ash are both likeable, sweet characters, and the bond between them is superbly done.
I ended up 4 instead of 5-starring it because it was a bit heavy-handed on the "damn this unjust world" but, for all the lamenting, there was very little follow-through until (SPOILER) the perfect solution for all their problems fell into their laps: namely that Ash will have a marriage of convenience with his friend Olive, who is both uninterested in (more accurately, self-professedly repulsed by) sexual intimacy, AND extremely rich but unable to access her fortune until she marries. This same device (marriage of convenience with rich woman who is awesome and who has a mutually respectful friendship with the male MC but who also actively does not want an intimate or sexual relationship with him) was used in another book I just read, so it's been on my mind a bit. And I have mixed feelings: I am partly grateful for the author kindly serving us this narrative convenience, because it allows the reader to have complete emotional investment in Harry and Ash without feeling at all bad for Olive or feeling like she got a raw deal. BUT I feel like the solution of "he has a beard but it's not a bad thing because she doesn't want intimacy or sex" is kind of, I don't know, un-ideal? Like, I am absolutely on-board for ace representation in romance, but I'm not sure that's actually what's going on here. It feels more like a cheat or shortcut than a fully-considered, potentially emotionally laden relationship between two complicated adults whose interests align. This is maybe unfair, but I can't help compare it to KJ Charles's Will Darling series (which is amazing and highly, highly recommended), where Phoebe would have been Kim's marriage of convenience, where each had their own reasons for doing it, but where both parties also had a fully developed love interest/ story of their own that was accepted and embraced because of the way their friendship was and the way they loved each other. And - accepting that this is perhaps an unduly harsh reading - it feels like Olive isn't really written as ace (again - she is actively repulsed by sex, and I know I'm on shaky ground here but I don't read this as considered ace representation), so much as there is this sense that she NEEDS to be so for plot purposes so as to avoid readers getting the squicks about her being taken advantage of. And getting back to the point of much lamenting, not much follow through - I feel like the emotional pay off is less when the perfect solution just lands in the character's laps, without them actually have to sacrifice anything to change this world they are so rightfully lamenting.
Now I sound really negative, but I stand by the 4-star rating -- it really is a lovely, emotionally affecting story. I just wish that authors could trust us readers more to be able to deal with the complexities of human relationships outside the main romance, instead of plumping for the "don't feel bad for the woman because she hates sex" solution.
CW: graphic descriptions of battle wounds, deaths; PTSD
I ended up 4 instead of 5-starring it because it was a bit heavy-handed on the "damn this unjust world" but, for all the lamenting, there was very little follow-through until (SPOILER) the perfect solution for all their problems fell into their laps: namely that Ash will have a marriage of convenience with his friend Olive, who is both uninterested in (more accurately, self-professedly repulsed by) sexual intimacy, AND extremely rich but unable to access her fortune until she marries. This same device (marriage of convenience with rich woman who is awesome and who has a mutually respectful friendship with the male MC but who also actively does not want an intimate or sexual relationship with him) was used in another book I just read, so it's been on my mind a bit. And I have mixed feelings: I am partly grateful for the author kindly serving us this narrative convenience, because it allows the reader to have complete emotional investment in Harry and Ash without feeling at all bad for Olive or feeling like she got a raw deal. BUT I feel like the solution of "he has a beard but it's not a bad thing because she doesn't want intimacy or sex" is kind of, I don't know, un-ideal? Like, I am absolutely on-board for ace representation in romance, but I'm not sure that's actually what's going on here. It feels more like a cheat or shortcut than a fully-considered, potentially emotionally laden relationship between two complicated adults whose interests align. This is maybe unfair, but I can't help compare it to KJ Charles's Will Darling series (which is amazing and highly, highly recommended), where Phoebe would have been Kim's marriage of convenience, where each had their own reasons for doing it, but where both parties also had a fully developed love interest/ story of their own that was accepted and embraced because of the way their friendship was and the way they loved each other. And - accepting that this is perhaps an unduly harsh reading - it feels like Olive isn't really written as ace (again - she is actively repulsed by sex, and I know I'm on shaky ground here but I don't read this as considered ace representation), so much as there is this sense that she NEEDS to be so for plot purposes so as to avoid readers getting the squicks about her being taken advantage of. And getting back to the point of much lamenting, not much follow through - I feel like the emotional pay off is less when the perfect solution just lands in the character's laps, without them actually have to sacrifice anything to change this world they are so rightfully lamenting.
Now I sound really negative, but I stand by the 4-star rating -- it really is a lovely, emotionally affecting story. I just wish that authors could trust us readers more to be able to deal with the complexities of human relationships outside the main romance, instead of plumping for the "don't feel bad for the woman because she hates sex" solution.
CW: graphic descriptions of battle wounds, deaths; PTSD