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recycledwarlock's review against another edition
5.0
this is, without a doubt, the most romantic book i have ever read in my entire life. these two invented love, they invented pining, they invented romance, they invented happily ever after. i'm never getting over this book, i can tell already. holy moly.
claire2024's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
allihoag123's review against another edition
4.0
i wanted to like this so bad, and in many ways i really did. i genuinely loved the story and the characters and the twist on the typical regency romance. however, i unfortunately found myself somewhat taken out of the story by the author’s mix of jane austen-y and modern rom-com language. this may have been more jarring because i was listening to the audiobook (and i didn't love the narrator in general), but i did feel like it ruined the experience for me a bit—definitely would give alexis hall another read though!
hotfry's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.0
strong start, dragged in the middle, last 75 pages had me going ?????? book couldve cut at least 150 pages
loved the main character was trans, found the supporting characters lovable. wanted more romance tbh
loved the main character was trans, found the supporting characters lovable. wanted more romance tbh
melinasreads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
thosemeddlingkids's review against another edition
I'll start by stating this book was fine, if not super long. There wasn't any extremely harmful stereotypes or language included in the story that I could find. (Correct me if i'm wrong.) I also want to throw out that i'm not a binary trans person, but am also not a cis person, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
I'll start with what I appreciated in this book. I found that a traditionally published romance that features a trans heroine is awesome. Including a trans heroine into mainstream historical romance is great. I adored the narrator, Kay Eluvian, throughout the book. All my stars for this book goes to Kay exclusively. I also thought the sex scene in this was executed thoughtfully and well. I appreciated the choices made to flip the assumptions of who does what. I REALLY liked that when Viola came out or was recognized by her assigned at birth gender, there was no transphobia. Love a queer romance that doesn't have hate as the plot. However, I also love a romance that doesn't focus on queer pain (this one unfortunately fixated on it at times.) I appreciated the choice to not speculate on Viola's body, which tends to be something cis people in the world like to be nosy and invasive about to trans people's bodies. All good things.
Now, the reason's why this book didn't work (for me.)
For how long of a book this is (480+ pages), nothing really happens in it, especially between Viola and Justin. Sure, AJH managed to talk circles around Viola's "past" self and "present" self, and talked around her being trans in a way that barely scratched the surface level and leaned more into tokenism rather than creating a complex character. (Which is also frustrating, since we know he's capable of writing dynamic characters - see the Spires series.) I know that Viola is trans, Viola has a defining past event that allowed her to stop pretending to be her assigned at birth gender. I know that she likes to cross stitch, and that she has feelings for her friend, Justin. That's it. For how much talking these two did, and for how much internal dialogue was provided, nothing was said.
The parts of this romance that were exciting and entertaining were the sister's coming out and debutante drama. I found the little card/coin trick game more exciting than half of the conversations we had to muddle through between V and J. What's also sad is that this book is so long, the entire sister's side plot was unnecessary. So everything I liked could have been cut out.
While I applaud the approach for writing a sex scene that flipped the narrative on who does what, I have to ask - why was there no foreplay? Is this to mirror how cishet MF HR's are super focused on penetration? We were talked at about the gentle clavicle caresses and chest touches for what feels like hours, only for both to be ready for penetration? For how much unnecessary dialogue that was included in this story, I would have hoped for a bit more explored sex scene.
I also can't speak on the experiences and feelings of a binary trans person. I can only bring in my experiences as a nonbinary person. Seeing the large black and white labeling of Viola's "past" self and "present" self was new for me to read about. I didn't have the experience of one big event (literally killing one's assumed gender) and then have the freedom to be myself. There was a lot more stumbling and nuance to gender, unlearning ingrained thoughts, and playing around (stumbling) with it. This goes back to my issue with Viola not being a complex character. We know in very black and white terms that Viola is Viola, and had to hide herself before she was assumed dead in the war. AJH talked the reader to death on past V and present V, but there wasn't any actual exploration or experiences shed (besides her not knowing how to ride side saddle and knowing how to shave.) That felt like a missed opportunity, and also like AJH was playing it safe in writing Viola. (Which is fine - just knowing that for his cis MM romances, those characters have depth. Knowing there could have been better character's is what's frustrating to see.)
It also makes me a bit sad that this is the trans rep a lot of folks that don't read queer romances are going to stick with as the trans experience(TM). This surface level, one dimensional character. Seeing the position AJH is in as a very successful and influential writer (even though he begs to differ on every occasion), and reading this very bland and basic attempt at a trans character, rubs me the wrong way. There are so many trans authors out there begging for the recognition and audience that AJH has, and seeing the constant "no i'm not a big author, i'm so small and have no influence" is really frustrating. Especially when this book is going to be raved about by the masses, and when every queer romance list features one of his books. I would love to see a trans romance author get the same applauds and recognition that AJH does.
I have other smaller nitpicks, but think i've spent enough time on a book that clearly wasn't marketed to me, so i'll stop here. Again, this book is fine, but felt like a missed opportunity to bring nuance and complexity to a trans character. Trans folks are more than their transness, and I was definitely missing that aspect in the story.
A big thank you to the friends who discussed in with me on this one, and for the conversations had regarding the book, content, and overall impressions.
And a HUMONGOUS thank you to Kay Eluvian for carrying this audiobook narration through. I wouldn't have finished without the excellent narration.
I'll start with what I appreciated in this book. I found that a traditionally published romance that features a trans heroine is awesome. Including a trans heroine into mainstream historical romance is great. I adored the narrator, Kay Eluvian, throughout the book. All my stars for this book goes to Kay exclusively. I also thought the sex scene in this was executed thoughtfully and well. I appreciated the choices made to flip the assumptions of who does what. I REALLY liked that when Viola came out or was recognized by her assigned at birth gender, there was no transphobia. Love a queer romance that doesn't have hate as the plot. However, I also love a romance that doesn't focus on queer pain (this one unfortunately fixated on it at times.) I appreciated the choice to not speculate on Viola's body, which tends to be something cis people in the world like to be nosy and invasive about to trans people's bodies. All good things.
Now, the reason's why this book didn't work (for me.)
For how long of a book this is (480+ pages), nothing really happens in it, especially between Viola and Justin. Sure, AJH managed to talk circles around Viola's "past" self and "present" self, and talked around her being trans in a way that barely scratched the surface level and leaned more into tokenism rather than creating a complex character. (Which is also frustrating, since we know he's capable of writing dynamic characters - see the Spires series.) I know that Viola is trans, Viola has a defining past event that allowed her to stop pretending to be her assigned at birth gender. I know that she likes to cross stitch, and that she has feelings for her friend, Justin. That's it. For how much talking these two did, and for how much internal dialogue was provided, nothing was said.
The parts of this romance that were exciting and entertaining were the sister's coming out and debutante drama. I found the little card/coin trick game more exciting than half of the conversations we had to muddle through between V and J. What's also sad is that this book is so long, the entire sister's side plot was unnecessary. So everything I liked could have been cut out.
While I applaud the approach for writing a sex scene that flipped the narrative on who does what, I have to ask - why was there no foreplay? Is this to mirror how cishet MF HR's are super focused on penetration? We were talked at about the gentle clavicle caresses and chest touches for what feels like hours, only for both to be ready for penetration? For how much unnecessary dialogue that was included in this story, I would have hoped for a bit more explored sex scene.
I also can't speak on the experiences and feelings of a binary trans person. I can only bring in my experiences as a nonbinary person. Seeing the large black and white labeling of Viola's "past" self and "present" self was new for me to read about. I didn't have the experience of one big event (literally killing one's assumed gender) and then have the freedom to be myself. There was a lot more stumbling and nuance to gender, unlearning ingrained thoughts, and playing around (stumbling) with it. This goes back to my issue with Viola not being a complex character. We know in very black and white terms that Viola is Viola, and had to hide herself before she was assumed dead in the war. AJH talked the reader to death on past V and present V, but there wasn't any actual exploration or experiences shed (besides her not knowing how to ride side saddle and knowing how to shave.) That felt like a missed opportunity, and also like AJH was playing it safe in writing Viola. (Which is fine - just knowing that for his cis MM romances, those characters have depth. Knowing there could have been better character's is what's frustrating to see.)
It also makes me a bit sad that this is the trans rep a lot of folks that don't read queer romances are going to stick with as the trans experience(TM). This surface level, one dimensional character. Seeing the position AJH is in as a very successful and influential writer (even though he begs to differ on every occasion), and reading this very bland and basic attempt at a trans character, rubs me the wrong way. There are so many trans authors out there begging for the recognition and audience that AJH has, and seeing the constant "no i'm not a big author, i'm so small and have no influence" is really frustrating. Especially when this book is going to be raved about by the masses, and when every queer romance list features one of his books. I would love to see a trans romance author get the same applauds and recognition that AJH does.
I have other smaller nitpicks, but think i've spent enough time on a book that clearly wasn't marketed to me, so i'll stop here. Again, this book is fine, but felt like a missed opportunity to bring nuance and complexity to a trans character. Trans folks are more than their transness, and I was definitely missing that aspect in the story.
A big thank you to the friends who discussed in with me on this one, and for the conversations had regarding the book, content, and overall impressions.
And a HUMONGOUS thank you to Kay Eluvian for carrying this audiobook narration through. I wouldn't have finished without the excellent narration.
literallymya's review against another edition
4.0
transgender heroine in a historical romance yay! I thought the first 1/4 of the book was the best (love the angst) but still enjoyed it throughout. it is a bit long, though.
foliageandfiction's review against another edition
4.0
3.75 stars, 2 spice
Everything about the romance in this book was delightful. Viola and Gracewood's circumstances were pulling at my heartstrings from the very beginning. They were best friends from childhood into adulthood, until Viola was presumed dead at waterloo. Gracewood was left mourning his closest friend and Viola barely surviving decided that now was the time to become who she truly always was.
Circumstances bring them back together and we get to watch their relationship blossom until the inevitable happens. I thought the book made their romance beautiful and believable. We do also get a couple explicit sex scenes, which were done really well. They had great chemistry and the way they challenged each other's minds was perfect.
I did feel it was a bit too long, there was a little too much 'will they' 'won't they'. And unfortunately the whole 3rd act really knocked down my rating. The whole incident felt out of the blue, and cheesy compared to the rest of the book. And the 3rd act issue wasn't even a focus on our main couple.
Though epilogue was precious and I love how it all wrapped up.
Everything about the romance in this book was delightful. Viola and Gracewood's circumstances were pulling at my heartstrings from the very beginning. They were best friends from childhood into adulthood, until Viola was presumed dead at waterloo. Gracewood was left mourning his closest friend and Viola barely surviving decided that now was the time to become who she truly always was.
Circumstances bring them back together and we get to watch their relationship blossom until the inevitable happens. I thought the book made their romance beautiful and believable. We do also get a couple explicit sex scenes, which were done really well. They had great chemistry and the way they challenged each other's minds was perfect.
I did feel it was a bit too long, there was a little too much 'will they' 'won't they'. And unfortunately the whole 3rd act really knocked down my rating. The whole incident felt out of the blue, and cheesy compared to the rest of the book. And the 3rd act issue wasn't even a focus on our main couple.
Though epilogue was precious and I love how it all wrapped up.
athena21's review against another edition
4.0
Recently, I read Most Ardently and I very much did not enjoy it. While trawling other 1-star reviews, I stumbled upon one which simply read, "Read A Lady for a Duke instead". Easily convinced by random reviews from people I do not know, and having reached the half-way point on War & Peace and thus looking for something light to break it up, I embarked on this book. From the beginning, I knew both that I enjoyed it much more than Most Ardently, and that I was completely hooked. This ended up being one of my classic 2-day reads, and it was difficult to put it down to go to sleep. This has somewhat of a similar concept to my beloathed Most Ardently, with a few notable differences; it's not a retelling of an already existing book, the main conflict is not centred on one of the main characters being trans, and Hall actually knows how to write books. Viola is a fantastic main character, and Gracewood her perfect match, and I just loved every scene with the two of them together. They are very similar and yet very different - both of them escaping the past in different ways, completely changed by their experiences in France and at Waterloo, and hoping for a future they don't quite believe they'll ever be worthy of. From their first meeting, the banter is completely perfect, and you can see why they fit together so well. Hall does a fantastic job at making it extremely believable that they're childhood bestfriends, not leaning on this past to create the illusion of chemistry, but having such good chemistry you believe they were bestfriends. It creates this fantastic depth to their current relationship, the contrast of familiarity with not quite knowing each other's present selves was so perfect. It's a book with quite a lot of heavy topics - Viola is trans in a time where that is extremely difficult to explain to people and live your life, both are affected by being soldiers at war, and Gracewood is dealing with both PTSD in a time that does not know what that is yet, and mobility issues and chronic pain from an injury he sustained during the war. However, this is still a beautiful and comforting read. Other than characters who are obviously cast as villains, each character is interesting, well-developed and different, many of them being a little different than you might expect a character to be a in a period book, which I really liked. They are kind and compassionate, and all try their best to support each other, even if they are not always successful. I liked that the barriers in Viola and Gracewood's relationship are mostly societal - they are dealing with the complexity of Regency gender roles, as well as class differences now that Viola has given up her title and is considered a lady's maid. They are cognizant of the difficulty of their relationship, and each ultimately decide that it's worth it. It has more of the spirit of Pride & Prejudice than some retellings I've read recently, with each of the two main characters helping the other to become a better person, and question their beliefs. Without seeming to try to hard, Hall wrote a story about very accepting people, that is still very period-accurate; there were few if any moments that stood out to me as obviously inaccurate. I promise this will be the final complain on Most Ardently, but that had a fairly serious issue of feeling like female characters were sidelined or only existed to support the male main characters' story (despite it being based on a heavily female-oriented book) - A Lady for a Duke centres female characters in the narrative - not just Viola, but supporting characters like Lady Marleigh, Miranda, and Lady Lillimere. In this way, it both feels like a whole and complete book filled with real characters, but also can face head-on issues of period-accurate sexism and misogyny by having characters that experience it in different ways, but are also not beaten down by it, and instead do their best to work within the cards they are dealt. My only complaint is the ending of the book - I do not agree with other reviews that said the middle section of the book dragged on (I thought it was fantastic, and left a lot of space for emotional intimacy to develop) - but the ending of the book was very rushed. For a book mostly about people getting over insecurities, being truthful, and understanding their true selves, a random plot about kidnapping appearing with like 50 pages left was very odd. I mean, at least it wasn't a third-act break-up, but it was still confusing. It was a cool opportunity to see Viola do powerful stuff, and for Gracewood to show how he's gotten over his toxic masculinity a bit, but it still felt like that could've been explored in a different way, as this felt like an insert from a different book. That being said, Hall mentioned at the end of the book that this was "sequelbait", so I am very hopeful for a sequel, as I liked this book so much. After the crazy ending, I loved the epilogue, which enhanced all the themes of the main book itself. It really was very beautiful, and I'm so happy for all the characters in the book. I can definitely see myself re-reading this!
lularene's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5