(no subject)

[skygiants]

When I posted about K.J. Charles' Society of Gentlemen series last year, various people told me that I ought to try the Sins of the Cities series instead for a Less Overwhelmingly Aristocratic Good Time, and they were quite correct!

Sins of the Cities is a satisfyingly tightly-plotted trilogy in which a group of gay Victorian pals get entangled in CONSPIRACY and MURDER and also, of course, finding various sorts of true love over the course of the three books:

An Unseen Attraction, in which lodging-house owner Clem's very sweet romance with his taxidermist lodger Rowley is unfortunately interrupted by the murdered corpse on their doorstep and the machinations of Clem's very shady brother. I liked this a lot, especially because the shape of it is quite different from most romance novels -- the protagonists have known and liked each other for a long time and are ready to start their romance at the time the book begins, so the arc of the story is not a meet-cute-will-they-won't-they, but about two people earnestly trying to make a relationship work while weathering various external stressors, such as, indeed, murder. To me it also seemed like Charles did a pretty solid job writing mixed-race autistic Clem, though obviously I am not super qualified to comment.

An Unnatural Vice -- the complete opposite of An Unseen Attraction, a beautiful concoction of high-drama tropes flambé. RIGHTEOUSLY ANGRY JOURNALIST NATHANIEL is DETERMINED to expose SEXY PSYCHIC JUSTIN as the FRAUD he IS! Then the murder and conspiracies happen and Nathan and Justin are forced! to live together! for SEVERAL SEXY MONTHS!! Yes, OK, Charles, you had me at "Justin has but a single moral and it goes towards protecting his tiny con artist moppet apprentices."

An Unsuitable Heir, in which one-armed Polish private eye Mark hunts down a pair of genderfluid trapeze artist twins to give them a legacy they do not want, falling for one of the twins in the process. I enjoyed this, but it's definitely the one that worked least well for me and PERHAPS COINCIDENTALLY is also the one that involved the most Aristocracy Stuff; also, I respect Charles' effort to write a nonbinary protagonist in Victorian England who does not have access to the terminology or gender theory, but it felt a bit to me like Charles was so determined to model a Supportive And Understanding Love Interest that Mark didn't get much of a chance to develop as a co-protagonist himself. YMMV, though!

I don't want to say too much about the how the plots interlock, because spoilers, but I do enjoy how the protagonists in Charles' various series tend to be very present and engaged in each other's lives, and also how the events that she writes have ripple effects that impact various people in different ways; this happens in Society of Gentlemen too but I think works better here. (I also enjoy how very nerdy she allows herself to get with Victorian sensationalist literature jokes.)

Comments

[sovay]

I liked this a lot, especially because the shape of it is quite different from most romance novels -- the protagonists have known and liked each other for a long time and are ready to start their romance at the time the book begins, so the arc of the story is not a meet-cute-will-they-won't-they, but about two people earnestly trying to make a relationship work while weathering various external stressors, such as, indeed, murder.

That sounds really charming. Also, taxidermy.

also, I respect Charles' effort to write a nonbinary protagonist in Victorian England who does not have access to the terminology or gender theory, but it felt a bit to me like Charles was so determined to model a Supportive And Understanding Love Interest that Mark didn't get much of a chance to develop as a co-protagonist himself.

That's disappointing. I am otherwise here for one-armed Polish private eyes. Like a lot.

[skygiants]

I ALSO was very excited for the one-armed Polish private eye (with an anarchist mom backstory!) from his appearances in previous books and was sad to find his main arc was not quite as satisfying as I wanted it to be! Still an exceptionally good character concept, though.

[loligo]

I kept hoping his mom would make an appearance in the third book! An Unnatural Vice was by far my favorite in this series.

(I am finally going to have to read Prisoner of Zenda so that I can read her Zenda homage, because it is now literally the last work of hers I haven't read. Not that I've been avoiding PoZ for any reason... I just never got around to it!)

[skygiants]

(I think the Zenda one remains my favorite! But I also have a great fondness for Zenda the original, so I'm biased.)

[sovay]

(with an anarchist mom backstory!)

Does his mom have her own book?!

[skygiants]

Charles is CONSTANTLY writing anarchist mom backstories and NEVER giving them their own books and it's DEEPLY FRUSTRATING.

[kore]

I really liked the first one, LOVED the second one, and altho I liked the last one too it was the one that didn't work for me, yeah, pretty much for these reasons.

[skygiants]

I appreciate that Charles sets challenges for herself and that she is sensitive to the potential impact of those challenges! I do not always think she is always one hundred percent able to maintain story/character integrity while doing so, but hey, that's how one grows as a writer.

[evewithanapple]

An Unseen Attraction is one of my favourite Charles - which surprised me, because the Goodreads reviews are mostly "ehh, it's okay, I guess." But I love it so much! Especially Clem, who reads really strongly to me as autistic, but autistic in a way that a lot of writers don't necessarily get. (More emphasis on social difficulties that wasn't just "oh, they're always blurting out things at inappropriate times.") An Unnatural Vice is also good fun. I haven't read An Unsuitable Heir yet, although I'm already kind of spoiled for how it ends, because the characters (including Justin's con artist moppet apprentice) turn up in Any Old Diamonds, which is set twentyish years later.

The Society of Gentlemen books are her weakest, I think - which makes sense, because they were also her first. If I'd picked them up to start with, I might not have ended up reading the rest of her stuff. Fortunately, I started at the end and worked backwards.

[skygiants]

Yeah, what I like about Clem's autism is that it's very identifiable, but also feels very individual and not at all paint-by-numbers. I didn't realize that Any Old Diamonds was a sequel!

The Society of Gentlemen books also feel much more ... like, for many romance novel authors, it sort of feels like they have to write their Very Genre Books and get them out of the way to draw a readership before they start pushing the boundaries a little more, and the Society of Gentlemen are definitely Those Books. Though I'm always going to be very fond of Silas.

[evewithanapple]

It's a bit of a backdoor sequel - Greta and Susan both show up (Susan in a much larger role - iirc, she's going to be the protagonist of the next book in that series, which I think is also going to be Charles' first het romance) and Justin and Nathaniel get referenced a couple of times, but it's mostly in the background. I read Any Old Diamonds before I read any of the Sins of the Cities books, so the significance of Susan being there went RIGHT over my head until she walked into the room with a gun and announced - well, you'll find out when you read it.

[chestnut_pod]

An Unseen Attraction really is just so sweet, and

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<i>An Unseen Attraction</i> really is just so sweet, and <An Unnatural Vice</i> is good rollicking fun! Premium high-octane racecar fuel tropiness, and yet original enough to actually feel delightedly surprised in places.

Of all of them, <i>An Unsuitable Heir</i> was the best for me in terms of pure wish-fulfillment, which I think it models to the hilt and was reason enough for me to buy the book post-library vetting. It's not often I come across romance novels that make me relate in any meaningful way to the characters (beyond the very superficial or very universal), and so it was a nice surprise for me to find something there, even as I realize that the plotting (even of the emotional arcs, perhaps) wasn't all it could have been.

Anyway, #MoreBalustradeSex2k19.

[skygiants]

It's definitely lovely wish-fulfillment! K.J. Charles is really good at that and I'm glad it exists even though for me the ones that get really wish-fulfillment-y are generally the ones that hold me less in terms of plot/character arc.