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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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?
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The cheese is DELICIOUS.