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Dec. 29th, 2018 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSpeaking of queer romance, I was reminded yesterday that I have been meaning for some time now to write up Jeannelle M. Ferreira's The Covert Captain: Or, A Marriage of Equals, which is that rarest and most prized of beasts, LESBIAN REGENCY ROMANCE. Have I ever before read a good one (outside of fanfic?) I can't remember having done so!
The premise: Captain Nathaniel Fleming comes home from Waterloo to spend a holiday with his commanding officer and best friend, Major Sherbourne, and soon falls for Sherbourne's spinster sister Harriet. But of course Captain Fleming has A SECRET and from the genre categorization I bet you can all guess what it is!
The expected complications ensue, as well as some unexpected complications, but all turns out well -- including, to my great relief, Captain Fleming's ride-or-die friendship with Major Sherbourne, which honestly stressed me out WAY more than the romance did. I was fairly sure everything was going to end fine with Harriet, but the war flashbacks developing Fleming and Sherbourne's backstory were some of the most compelling parts of the book and it was very important to me that they ended up OK!
I will note that the style is quite distinct from what one generally sees in romance novels these days -- much more lyrical and elliptical, much less time in the characters' heads -- which may be a bug or a feature depending on your tastes.
Also, gender stuff is always complicated when writing about historical eras that don't have the same range of language available to encompass different queer identities that we do now, but iirc the authorial word is that this is a Book About People Who Today Would Probably Self-Identify As Lesbians and that Books About People Who Today Would Probably Self-Identify As Trans Or Genderqueer are likely to come in future.
The premise: Captain Nathaniel Fleming comes home from Waterloo to spend a holiday with his commanding officer and best friend, Major Sherbourne, and soon falls for Sherbourne's spinster sister Harriet. But of course Captain Fleming has A SECRET and from the genre categorization I bet you can all guess what it is!
The expected complications ensue, as well as some unexpected complications, but all turns out well -- including, to my great relief, Captain Fleming's ride-or-die friendship with Major Sherbourne, which honestly stressed me out WAY more than the romance did. I was fairly sure everything was going to end fine with Harriet, but the war flashbacks developing Fleming and Sherbourne's backstory were some of the most compelling parts of the book and it was very important to me that they ended up OK!
I will note that the style is quite distinct from what one generally sees in romance novels these days -- much more lyrical and elliptical, much less time in the characters' heads -- which may be a bug or a feature depending on your tastes.
Also, gender stuff is always complicated when writing about historical eras that don't have the same range of language available to encompass different queer identities that we do now, but iirc the authorial word is that this is a Book About People Who Today Would Probably Self-Identify As Lesbians and that Books About People Who Today Would Probably Self-Identify As Trans Or Genderqueer are likely to come in future.
