hrjones's review
5.0
I've long had a peculiar love for Regency romances (ask me about my complete collection of Georgette Heyer). Every time I've gotten wind of a Regency featuring a romance between women, I've done my best to track it down. Some have been very enjoyable, some have been adequate, some have been disappointing. But I now have a reigning favorite in this admittedly small genre: Jeannelle M. Ferreira's The Covert Captain: Or, a Marriage of Equals. Captain Nathaniel Fleming--once Eleanor--has returned from the Napoleonic wars shaken and emotionally damaged, a state she shares with her comrade and commanding officer Major Sherbourne. What she has never shared is the secret of her true gender. Fleming has long known her attraction to women, but when the woman in question is Major Sherbourne's spinster sister, there are some hard decisions to make and even harder consequences to deal with.
The Covert Captain has a strong command of its historic era, including how the varieties of sexual orientation were understood and treated at the time. The writing is rich, immersive, and solid. But where the book truly caught my heart is in the complex layerings of the plot. This isn't a simple, straightforward girl-meets-girl-disguised-as-boy story. The experiences of Captain Flemming and Major Sherbourne during the war are detailed (through flashbacks) in a realistic and incisive way that roots the motivations and reflexes of the characters and provides one set of both obstacles and resolutions to the romance. There are multiple hazards to Captain Flemming's decision to reach for love, not simply Harriet's reaction to the somewhat belated disclosure of her secret. And Harriet has secrets of her own to unravel.
I loved how their relationship progressed from shy friendship to dawning desire to misunderstanding to commitment and beyond it to a devotion that out-lasted all barriers. There is plenty of time for the reader to believe in their attraction and to watch them struggle past all the social and economic realities of the setting. I also enjoyed how the text gave us just the lightest taste of their erotic relationship without taking detours for extended sex scenes that would have felt out of place in this genre.
I'm trying very hard here to come up with logical and dispassionate explanations for why I love this book, but when it comes down to it, I have fallen deeply, madly, passionately in love with the story in a way that I would never consider believable if that love were between two fictional characters on the page. I've grown too used to being patient either with lackluster writing, or with an absense of queer characters, or with genres I'm not really into in order to get two-out-of-three in my reading. The Covert Captain does not require me to make any compromises in my love. That's a rare thing, but I dream of it becoming ordinary.
The Covert Captain has a strong command of its historic era, including how the varieties of sexual orientation were understood and treated at the time. The writing is rich, immersive, and solid. But where the book truly caught my heart is in the complex layerings of the plot. This isn't a simple, straightforward girl-meets-girl-disguised-as-boy story. The experiences of Captain Flemming and Major Sherbourne during the war are detailed (through flashbacks) in a realistic and incisive way that roots the motivations and reflexes of the characters and provides one set of both obstacles and resolutions to the romance. There are multiple hazards to Captain Flemming's decision to reach for love, not simply Harriet's reaction to the somewhat belated disclosure of her secret. And Harriet has secrets of her own to unravel.
I loved how their relationship progressed from shy friendship to dawning desire to misunderstanding to commitment and beyond it to a devotion that out-lasted all barriers. There is plenty of time for the reader to believe in their attraction and to watch them struggle past all the social and economic realities of the setting. I also enjoyed how the text gave us just the lightest taste of their erotic relationship without taking detours for extended sex scenes that would have felt out of place in this genre.
I'm trying very hard here to come up with logical and dispassionate explanations for why I love this book, but when it comes down to it, I have fallen deeply, madly, passionately in love with the story in a way that I would never consider believable if that love were between two fictional characters on the page. I've grown too used to being patient either with lackluster writing, or with an absense of queer characters, or with genres I'm not really into in order to get two-out-of-three in my reading. The Covert Captain does not require me to make any compromises in my love. That's a rare thing, but I dream of it becoming ordinary.
kjanie's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
This was a short and sweet story. I was a little bit shocked at the writing at the beginning, it’s very much what you’d expect from a classic novel rather than a contemporary one. But I’m such a softie for Jane Austen so once I got used to it, I fell into the story and the setting.
netgyrl's review
4.0
3.5 ⚔️ - Gallant Capt Nathaniel Flemming, or Nora to those close enough to know her Christian name, won me over.
I agree 100% with everyone who says it takes a bit to get into this book because the language patterns and vocabulary are very much "of the time". I even contemplated just skipping it, however, it really does put you back there and once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the book. I do love me some Pride and Prejudice, and, Gentleman Jack, is, like, my favorite TV show of all time*, so I think this book works for me on those counts as well. So if something like that sounds good to you, you should give this one a try when you are in the mood for some Sapphic regency romance.
* I have watched the complete series 3x and I NEVER REWATCH TV shows. Ever.
I agree 100% with everyone who says it takes a bit to get into this book because the language patterns and vocabulary are very much "of the time". I even contemplated just skipping it, however, it really does put you back there and once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the book. I do love me some Pride and Prejudice, and, Gentleman Jack, is, like, my favorite TV show of all time*, so I think this book works for me on those counts as well. So if something like that sounds good to you, you should give this one a try when you are in the mood for some Sapphic regency romance.
* I have watched the complete series 3x and I NEVER REWATCH TV shows. Ever.
annaswan's review
2.0
Engaging characters, but there were some odd continuity errors, and the scene changes were awkward.
penwalla's review
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
notaflippinmermaid's review
3.0
Hard to follow, jumps from scene to scene with no background, just straight (heh) into the dialogue. But it still had me emotional over Captain Fleming and Harry at the end, so it was a touching story.
kentcryptid's review
5.0
This f/f Regency was a wonderfully unexpected delight. Fantastic period detail, great characters and dialogue, a lovely sense of a wider queer culture outside of just the main couple, and massively exciting Peninsular War flashbacks.
anachronistique's review
3.0
I really enjoyed what was there, but I feel like this was only about half the novel it should have been - transitions were incredibly choppy, plot points were introduced out of nowhere and then resolved very quickly, and I felt like we had very little idea of what was actually going on in anyone's head. I don't know how much of that is a stylistic choice of the author's choosing to just give us very light description but I wish this had delved a little deeper and taken more time.
deannabanana17's review
5.0
Adorable historical romance with a queer twist and also a horse crazy main character so basically everything I always wanted and never got out of required readings.
wreathedinviolets's review
3.0
While the concept of this book (f/f regency romance? Yes please) snagged my attention, the actual story fell short. The plot is disjointed and the scenes were confusing at times. There would just be lines of dialogue with no tags or indication who was speaking, or abrupt scene changes without a clear marker or separation. I also felt that "Nathaniel" should have been written as trans instead of the typical "woman dressing up as a man" trope. From how Nathaniel treats her "disguise" and the way she seems to regard her masculinity as an intrinsic part of her being, it seems cheap not to address even any kind of gender spectrum in a book who's romance and conflicts rely on gender and the way we perceive someone who doesn't conform.