![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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
I had a peculiar reaction to The Countess Conspiracy: I liked the setup, I liked Violet, I liked Sebastian, I would have done better with the science if Violet had not discovered chromosomes in 1867 (since in our history the Boveris and Walter Sutton didn't get around to it until 1902–03, and I had not realized until then that these books were not supposed to be taking place in our world), and I had a great deal of investment in Violet and Sebastian being incredibly good for one another's self-image and healing and none whatsoever in the two of them winding up together in bed, which is why I am not the audience for romance novels, because protagonists in this genre always have to. Oh, well.
no subject
Hah, I don't remember the science at all!
I suspect that the modern-day series is going to be doing unexpected genre things, in terms of worldbuilding, and I'm really not sure how that's going to go...
no subject
Is it near-future, or contemporary with slight divergences, or what?
no subject
Contemporary, but I think it might be heading in a speculative fiction direction, plot-wise. Or something. I honestly don't know and I'm not sure when we might find out.
no subject
Her historicals are definitely and consciously veering into alternate history - once the chromosome gets discovered earlier and in England, that's going to change the pace of technological change. So while she does meddle with history, she is fully aware of the consequences of doing so...
no subject
Okay, that makes me want to read them. Go know.
Her historicals are definitely and consciously veering into alternate history - once the chromosome gets discovered earlier and in England, that's going to change the pace of technological change.
Are her historicals in continuity with her contemporaries, then, and the latter just looked like our present in the absence of obvious markers to the contrary?
So while she does meddle with history, she is fully aware of the consequences of doing so...
That's good to know. It was not possible to tell from Unraveled or The Countess Conspiracy that it was part of a pattern as opposed to a convenient infelicity.
Thank you!
no subject
Certainly, Milan heavily implied in her afternote to Once Upon a Marquess that she was plotting some fairly drastic changes to the political timeline, and we already know that women got the vote in 1895 in Free's universe.
(PS: The fic is here: http://www.courtneymilan.com/adammeetsfree.php - but there really isn't much point reading it until you've met Adam, at least. Free, I understand you know a little already...)
no subject
Does that mean that the Cyclone series is developing time travel?
no subject
(Incidentally, there will definitely be some queer romances happening in the Cyclone series.)
no subject
Good!
(I finished Unraveled wanting a book for Richard, but given Milan's own statements on the matter and the fact it's been six years now, I suspect that ship has sailed.)
no subject
The Lerner story is the only hetero romance in the lot, with a Jewish couple, the female half of whom ran away to join the army dressed as a man, and it does some really interesting things with negotiating relationships and religion and patriotism.
The Milan story is a biracial romance between a Black former slave and a white Englishman who never shuts up. It contains some very alarming cheese (the food, not the style), and is ridiculously funny, but also packs an emotional punch where it needs to.
The Cole story didn't grab me, but was a lesbian romance with two black women as heroines.
So that's a nice variety pack of interesting authors doing interesting things for you.
no subject
Yes! It's been recommended; I haven't gotten around to tracking it down yet. (People have mentioned the cheese.)
Do you like Alyssa Cole generally?
no subject
The cheese is DELICIOUS.
no subject