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You can leave it at the altar, it will make you out a liar
I hurt too much to sleep and the fever kept coming and going, so I read Courtney Milan's Unraveled (2011).
I am not sure I'm in the best place to read romance novels right now. I was upset at several points in this one by positive developments in the plot. That said: well-written PTSD, well-negotiated fantasy, questions of justice, reponsibility, and law that I think I last saw around Gaudy Night (1935) and Busman's Honeymoon (1937), emotional complexity also comparable to Sayers or Megan Whalen Turner, some extremely funny lines, and there are enough ways in which the central relationship reminded me of the most idtastic bits of Girl of the Port (1930) minus the racist douchecanoeing that I may feel oddly better about the movie. I actively like both of the protagonists, which is less unusual than it used to be, but enough still that I make a note of it. It is not the second sex scene's fault that I was distracted by wondering about the historical accuracy of its sexual terminology. (I think a lot of this book's diction is not especially 1843. I just went with it.) Richard Dalrymple is a disaster zone of a human being and I unsurprisingly love him. I suppose I should read the first two books in the set.
I am not sure I'm in the best place to read romance novels right now. I was upset at several points in this one by positive developments in the plot. That said: well-written PTSD, well-negotiated fantasy, questions of justice, reponsibility, and law that I think I last saw around Gaudy Night (1935) and Busman's Honeymoon (1937), emotional complexity also comparable to Sayers or Megan Whalen Turner, some extremely funny lines, and there are enough ways in which the central relationship reminded me of the most idtastic bits of Girl of the Port (1930) minus the racist douchecanoeing that I may feel oddly better about the movie. I actively like both of the protagonists, which is less unusual than it used to be, but enough still that I make a note of it. It is not the second sex scene's fault that I was distracted by wondering about the historical accuracy of its sexual terminology. (I think a lot of this book's diction is not especially 1843. I just went with it.) Richard Dalrymple is a disaster zone of a human being and I unsurprisingly love him. I suppose I should read the first two books in the set.
no subject
Nothing that occurred in Unraveled struck me as historically implausible, except perhaps for the slightly wishful criminal-legal arrangements of the ending, but some of the ways in which people thought and talked about what they did kept flicking at me—I hadn't realized how accustomed I have become to narratives that match their setting with their language. I don't mean that Milan needed to write like Georgette Heyer, who had her own issues with historical accuracy, but a closer register than the one she chose would have smoothed a lot of small things for me. I know the past can sound startlingly modern, but it should never sound interchangeable. That said, I wasn't sure if I would like the novel and I surprisingly did. I am looking at others.
I much prefer her contemporaries, where her wit and strong modern voice are pluses, not negatives.
I tend not to be as interested in contemporary fiction as in historical, romance or no, but people have been recommending Trade Me and Hold Me, so I may give them a try. Data point registered!