sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
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.

cut for some spoilersLike 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.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
This is a very ambitious book which is handling some honestly challenging themes, within the structure of a historical romance novel. Is it perfect? No. Do I love it very, very much regardless? YES INDEED.

The story: Grayson Hunter, a Black man who runs an international telegraph company, wants to get China connected to a transpacific telegraph line. Amelia Smith, a Chinese-born woman who has been raised in a white missionary family to be as English as possible, is very excited at the possibility of figuring out a sensible way of encoding Chinese writing into a system transmissible by telegraph. Together, they support each other in facing difficult family history and in building up each other's confidence in their own worthiness!

My biggest complaint is that this book is trying to handle a lot of emotional arcs at once, and thus doesn't have the space to give all of them as much attention as I would want. I understand the problem: people are complicated and have a lot going on, and a novel does have a certain expectation of length limits, so it's hard to squish everything in and some concessions must be made. Plus it's a romance novel and if there's too much focus on all the various non-romance-related things, it......doesn't exactly fit the genre anymore.

Major Emotions Things it's doing:
- Grayson's relationship with his living family
- Grayson's war-related trauma due to three of his brothers dying
- Grayson's inability to let himself be happy
- Grayson's experiences as a Black man in racist social contexts
- Grayson and Amelia's relationship
- Amelia's relationship with the white woman who raised her, and her white adoptive brother
- Amelia's relationship with her Chinese family
- Amelia developing confidence in herself and her abilities
- Amelia developing friendships with other Chinese women, and what that means for her
- Amelia learning that accepting accommodations for the way her brain works differently than other people's isn't a bad thing or something to be embarrassed about
- Benedict growing up and discovering who he's becoming

And uh honestly that's probably not all. It's a lot!!! And all of it goes into making these characters wonderfully complete people, and it's great and I don't want ANY of these things cut, but some of these just fly by, or happen mostly off-screen, because there's always more to get to. And there's like....plot and things happening as well, it's not all people having feelings! I don't have an answer to how to solve this, but I do wish there had been a little more room to explore all the things the book wove in.

Anyway. I adore that this is a book where both people involved in the romance arc grow and are made stronger in their absences from each other. This is a story involving a lot of travel, and a lot of work, and when Amelia and Grayson are on different sides of the world they maintain what connection they can, and the knowledge of the other person's support allows them to blossom into their best selves, even when they aren't physically together. Partnerships can look like lots of different things depending on the needs of the people involved, and sometimes that means long interstices of time apart, with the expectation of more in the future, and it doesn't mean they love each other any less or that their relationship doesn't work. It always makes me happy to see portrayals of non-traditional ways of living out a relationship.

One of the other things I want to say is that this book directly addresses some of the darker parts of anti-Asian racism that occurred during this era of history. Courtney Milan talks in her end notes about how she turned down the knob on racism in general while writing this novel, as compared to what history was really like, but even with the knob turned down this is.....hoo boy. Guess what I'm trying to say here is that although this is a romance novel with its guaranteed happy ever after, it goes to some dark places, and the things that happened will continue to have a huge effect on these characters for the rest of their lives. It is not exactly escapist literature, as romance novels are sometimes assumed to be. Of course, all those historical romances out there about the rich white heterosexual english upper crust only get to be escapist for a certain subset of people, and I really love how Milan is more and more dedicated in her oeuvre to smashing through that wall of silence like kool-aid man, all like, "HELLO GUESS WHO ELSE HAS ALWAYS EXISTED IN HISTORY AND DESERVES TO FIND LOVE AND HAPPINESS."

(Disclosure: I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book goes on sale April 20, and is available for preorder now.)
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
Courtney Milan's newest romance novel!!!! So exciting!

Milan said on twitter at some point that when she was writing this book, she put into it all the things that made her happy, and you know, as a strategy for writing a highly enjoyable book I think this really really worked.

It is a historical romance set in England featuring Chinese protagonists (because yes, there HAVE in fact been people of colour in England for a long, long, long time!), and Milan drew some inspiration for them from her own family story.

Chloe is working class and lives with her father, and they are working on creating and selling a sauce in order to a) make money, b) get revenge on the white assholes who stole a previous sauce recipe from her dad, and c) be proud of how delicious the sauce her father can make is. Jeremy is a mixed-race duke who's been in large part raised by his racist white aunt, and happens to own nearly the entire village where Chloe lives.

I love Chloe, I love Jeremy, I love Chloe's dad, and I love EVERY BIT of the dynamics between each duo amongst the three of them. The romance between Chloe and Jeremy is DELIGHTFUL, the family feels between Chloe and her dad are AMAZING (and I love that the importance of this relationship and its dynamics get proper narrative attention!), and the way Chloe's dad chooses to approach interactions with Jeremy is just. Yup. I love it all.

Chloe is a determined, organized, and capable sort of person, very goal-oriented, very bad at accepting help because she feels she ought to be able to do it all. Jeremy is a kind-hearted jokester who loves teasing Chloe but only if Chloe's enjoying it too. Both of their personalities are in part formed by their past life experiences, but it doesn't make either of them any less who they are. And Jeremy likes that Chloe is intimidating! Chloe likes that Jeremy teases her! They both know each other so well, and they both like each other for the realities of who they are, and it's so charming to watch them enjoying each other's selves.

I also love the whole village where Chloe lives. It's a wonderfully multicultural village, with many other Chinese inhabitants beyond just the Fongs, and so it's a place where Chloe and Jeremy can both feel comfortable and at home because they're not being constantly othered by white people. The village has its difficult people, as any community does, but as a whole it's just a friendly, welcoming, supportive place, and it's great. I do wish we'd seen a bit more of Chloe's friendship with Naomi though!

Chloe and Jeremy each have their own emotional arcs to go through, of course, before they can reach their happily ever after, and I love them both.

Ok getting into some spoilers now! )

(Disclosure: I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. The book goes on sale September 22, and is available for preorder now!)
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This is a historical f/f romance novella set tangentially in Milan's "Worth Saga" series. One of the two lead characters, Mrs Martin, shows up briefly in a previous book in the series as a minor character, but this book stands on its own.

Featured: Mrs Bertrice Martin, an elderly widow who is entirely out of patience with men and has no more fucks to give but also nothing left to live for, and Miss Violetta Beauchamp, an impoverished "surplus woman" who's recently been let go of her boarding-house-manager position after 50 years and is desperate to get a bit of money so that she has something to live on. They are united in their desire to get back at Bertrice's Terrible Nephew who is a tenant in arrears at the boarding house in question.

This book is extremely good for an extremely specific mood, and that mood is "MEN ARE THE WORST." It is not a subtle book. But you know, sometimes you don't need subtle! Read more... )
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This last week I read seven romance novels in a row without noting down any kind of detailed thoughts about any of them to write proper posts about, because it was That Kind Of Week. I'll come back and finish tidying some of my backlogged book thoughts for posting later but figured I might as well just throw these up since I won't be able to make proper posts of them.

1. After The Wedding, by Courtney Milan - a reread of a truly excellent one, still adore it, still deeply want to know everything about Theresa's story following this novel because I care wayyyy too much about Theresa.

2. Briarley, by Aster Glenn Gray - a m/m retelling of Beauty and the Beast which was absolutely lovely and I approved of just about every choice the author made in how to adapt the original story.

3. Sweet Disorder, by Rose Lerner (Lively St Lemeston #1) - small-town politics involving a young widow being encouraged to remarry for voting reasons but she has her own personal stuff going on too, liked it a lot.

4. True Pretenses, by Rose Lerner (Lively St Lemeston #2) - a reread, still totally delightful, love everything about it.

5. Listen to the Moon, by Rose Lerner (Lively St Lemeston #3) - really interesting marriage-of-convenience story about a valet-turned-butler and a maid, really wish I'd had the wherewithal to write down more detailed thoughts about this one because it super deserves it, very much worth the read.

6. A Taste of Honey, by Rose Lerner (Lively St Lemeston #4) - sweet and cute but it didn't really speak to me.

7. The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery - an old favourite comfort-read which I don't allow myself to reread too often anymore for fear of wearing out the story in my mind but the situation was deserving of a reread and it hit the spot as it always does.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
I AM SO HAPPY. THIS BOOK IS SO GOOOOD.

This is the second book in the Worth Saga, and when I read the first one a year and a half ago I adored it and was deeply impatient for the next one in the series and it is here and everything I could have hoped for!

This book contains all of the things I most love about Courtney Milan's writing: characters who seem like people, thoughtfulness on topics of oppression and privilege and so forth, a sense of humour, important friend and family relationships, and a whole pile of feels.

Adrian is a well off person of colour who just wants to help people and have his family acknowledged by his white uncle and have a partner he truly loves. Camilla is a white woman of noble heritage who thinks she's been rejected by her family, has definitely been rejected by lots of other people, and just wants to have someone in her life long-term. They are now a TEAM in the job of GETTING UN-MARRIED because they've been forced at gunpoint to marry each other.

Read more... )

(Disclosure: I received a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. The book is currently available for preorder and will go on sale on April 24. And in case you can't tell from my review I RECOMMEND IT.)
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
YES HELLO what a good book. This is a romance novella collection, consisting of three novellas set during the American revolutionary war and with Alexander Hamilton as a minor character in some way in all of them. But I don't care about Hamilton here. What I care about is that this is a collection of romance stories that are about people who have complicated relationships with the ideals of the American revolution because the kind of people they are aren't fully supported by those ideals: Jewish people, women, people of colour, queer people. But who find happiness and their own freedom nonetheless! IT'S GREAT.

Of the three stories I only personally found myself emotionally engaged with two of them, but all three are definitely well done and a worthwhile read.

Read more... )
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Okay so I spent a few days in June reading a bunch of Courtney Milan. Apparently she's a "betcha can't eat read just one" kind of author for me. I read ten. Most were rereads, which I don't have anything new to say about, but this time I did get around to reading a few books of hers that I hadn't read in November when I last did this. Namely: the Carhart series, the first romances that Courtney Milan ever published! This was back when she was being conventionally published by Harlequin instead of being a self-published author.

This Wicked Gift, by Courtney Milan (Carhart #0.5)

cut for discussion of rape )


Proof By Seduction, by Courtney Milan (Carhart #1)

And so I continue with the Carhart series despite the extremely inauspicious beginnings. This one, well, at least it didn't have a rapist main character? I still didn't love it though. I dunno, I didn't write down my thoughts soon enough after having read it so I don't remember all the reasons. But it doesn't have the things I like about later Courtney Milan (such as strong female friendships and interesting families) and also doesn't have a romance that I enjoyed reading about. And the leading man was pretty uninteresting to me, and the leading woman kept making baffling life choices.


Trial By Desire, by Courtney Milan (Carhart #2)

The Carhart series continues to improve! This one was actually mostly enjoyable. I liked the leading woman's mission in life, and I enjoyed the nature of the romance being one of having to develop a relationship between a husband and wife who don't really know each other and have been on different continents for years. But although this is closer to the Courtney Milan I know and love, this book just didn't get me excited the way her later books do.
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
For starters, I LOVED it. It's the first in a projected fairly long series, and in some respects you can really see that she's working to set up a lot of things for future storylines to lead from. But it works!

cut for spoilers )
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
Next up in my Great Courtney Milan Readthrough of November (....yes I am very behind in posting) is the Turner Series! Which I found pretttty uneven in my enjoyment of. I strongly disliked a major aspect of one of the three books, and adored the other two books.

Not even mentioned here: the side novella Unlocked, which I disliked enough that I didn't bother finishing.

Unveiled, by Courtney Milan )

Unraveled, by Courtney Milan )

Unclaimed, by Courtney Milan )
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
First: shoutout to [personal profile] china_shop for recommending Courtney Milan's historicals to me last year and giving me spoilers for Duchess War and Heiress Effect - it was helpful to have a sense of what to expect from these books before I'd read enough to get a handle on Courtney Milan's trustworthiness as an author!

So this is the first half or so of the Brothers Sinister series, read slightly out of order because my hold on the Heiress Effect took too long to come in. (The Heiress Effect will be in my next post about the Brothers Sinister, which will be after the Turner trilogy and also some more Tamora Pierce.)


The Duchess War )

A Kiss for Midwinter )

The Governess Affair )

The Countess Conspiracy )
sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
And so we embark on the period where for approximately a month straight I read almost nothing but lots and lots of Courtney Milan and Tamora Pierce.

The following two are the first Courtney Milan books I have ever read. They are the beginning of her new contemporary romance series. I don't know why I started with these instead of her copious quantities of historical fiction, given my general preference for reading stories about the 19th c over the 21st c, but I did! And clearly it worked because it inspired me to keep reading her books. Courtney Milan writes really compelling romance novels, I must say.


Trade Me, by Courtney Milan

Read more... )


Hold Me, by Courtney Milan

Read more... )

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