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Another historical romance novel by Courtney Milan, an author who's one of the few on my will-always-read list. And as usual I loved it! This is the second in her Wedgeford series, set in a village in England with a high percentage of Chinese residents in the 19th century.
Naomi is a young woman who grew up in Wedgeford her whole life, and feels stifled and small but is determined to find ways to do the things she wants to do. Kai is the son of a habitual con man who had tricked Wedgeford's residents out of much of their money when Kai was a young child before disappearing, and now Kai is returning with his own agenda. Because of reasons, they pretend to be engaged to each other!
I loved both main characters so much, and their relationship with each other and with the other people in their lives. Both of them are deeply affected by being raised by the parents they had, and the environments they grew up in, but in very different ways from each other, and both have to learn how to how to update their perspectives on some aspects of it. And there are also many other people who have been important to them in various ways, whether they've been able to see it or not!
I also loved how much passion they both had for the things they do in their lives. I think this is one of the things I love about Milan's romances -- how much and how deeply her characters always care about the things that are of importance to them. they have passions and obsessions that they throw themselves wholeheartedly into. For Naomi it's taking an ambulance course (a multi-day first aid course, to learn how to deal with medical emergencies before the professionals are able to get there), and for Kai it's pottery.
I wanted more about the ambulance class than the book actually ended up giving me, which was disappointing, but I remember seeing Milan write somewhere online about how much of what would have been taught in a class like that in that era was bunk or an outright dangerous bad idea, so she didn't want to focus on that. Which is suuuuper fair!
But we get to hear lots of Kai's opinions about pottery and I loved every bit of it. You cannot get this guy to shut up about his pottery opinions once he gets going and he feels so strongly about it and it's GREAT. In the author's note Milan talks about how she ended up learning how to do pottery herself in the process of researching this book and you can tell how much Milan knows about the kinds of opinions a really good potter might have, including some more idiosyncratic ones. I'm endlessly charmed by it all.
But also it's a book about learning what it is to be seen by someone who sees you as who you truly are, and loved for it, and learning how to trust, both trusting others and trusting yourself, and that's beautiful too.
I do feel like the conclusion of the book was a bit rushed in the pacing which made it feel anticlimactic instead of satisfying. Always frustrating in a book that I otherwise love! But overall it was still a great read, which involved multiple squeaks of delight as I made my way through it.
Also I want to note that there's secondary character ace rep in this book which is very good :)
Note: I received a free ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Naomi is a young woman who grew up in Wedgeford her whole life, and feels stifled and small but is determined to find ways to do the things she wants to do. Kai is the son of a habitual con man who had tricked Wedgeford's residents out of much of their money when Kai was a young child before disappearing, and now Kai is returning with his own agenda. Because of reasons, they pretend to be engaged to each other!
I loved both main characters so much, and their relationship with each other and with the other people in their lives. Both of them are deeply affected by being raised by the parents they had, and the environments they grew up in, but in very different ways from each other, and both have to learn how to how to update their perspectives on some aspects of it. And there are also many other people who have been important to them in various ways, whether they've been able to see it or not!
I also loved how much passion they both had for the things they do in their lives. I think this is one of the things I love about Milan's romances -- how much and how deeply her characters always care about the things that are of importance to them. they have passions and obsessions that they throw themselves wholeheartedly into. For Naomi it's taking an ambulance course (a multi-day first aid course, to learn how to deal with medical emergencies before the professionals are able to get there), and for Kai it's pottery.
I wanted more about the ambulance class than the book actually ended up giving me, which was disappointing, but I remember seeing Milan write somewhere online about how much of what would have been taught in a class like that in that era was bunk or an outright dangerous bad idea, so she didn't want to focus on that. Which is suuuuper fair!
But we get to hear lots of Kai's opinions about pottery and I loved every bit of it. You cannot get this guy to shut up about his pottery opinions once he gets going and he feels so strongly about it and it's GREAT. In the author's note Milan talks about how she ended up learning how to do pottery herself in the process of researching this book and you can tell how much Milan knows about the kinds of opinions a really good potter might have, including some more idiosyncratic ones. I'm endlessly charmed by it all.
But also it's a book about learning what it is to be seen by someone who sees you as who you truly are, and loved for it, and learning how to trust, both trusting others and trusting yourself, and that's beautiful too.
cut for some spoilers
Like the first Wedgeford book, this is another one that doesn't have the traditional romance novel beat of the climax where everything seems to be falling apart and the romantic leads break up or are separated or mistrust each other or accuse each other of something, and again you can see how the book COULD have gone that route and deliberately was written not to, and I like it so much. It's so much less stressful a read! There are still tough things they have to deal with in their relationship before getting to the happy ending, but it never feels manufactured, or like there's an idiot ball being passed around to make the plot work.I do feel like the conclusion of the book was a bit rushed in the pacing which made it feel anticlimactic instead of satisfying. Always frustrating in a book that I otherwise love! But overall it was still a great read, which involved multiple squeaks of delight as I made my way through it.
Also I want to note that there's secondary character ace rep in this book which is very good :)
Note: I received a free ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.
