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galleytrot's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
READ: Mar 2023
FORMAT: Digital
BRIEF SUMMARY:
In this historical fiction/romance set in 1800s England, Valentine (the Duke of Malvern) feels he’s upholding his father’s wishes by asking Arabella for her hand in marriage. When it turns out she’s not as thrilled by the idea as he’d anticipated, her twin brother Bonny drags Valentine along on a chase from Surrey to Dover in an attempt to intercept the runaway fiancée on her flight to the Americas. The twins are both far more of a handful than Valentine ever could have imagined, and Bonny opens Valentine's eyes to a world he had no idea was even possible.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 4 / 5⭐
Boy, what an adventure. This book’s got everything: carriage chases; daring escapes; duels; kidnappings; torrid affairs; battles of wit; bees galore; a pair of devoted fanfiction authors; and, a rather surprising amount of peach feasting.
I’ve got to hand it to Valentine. For all that he is quick to lose his temper and is doing his best to live a quiet, comfortable life out of the eye of scrutiny and controversy, he sure does stick to it when I would have turned away and washed my hands of the entire situation. Before Bonny could even get him out of the house, the twins had completely exhausted my social meter and left me thinking, “Nope, time to go home.” I lost count of how many events in their grand adventure I though would be the straw to break the camel’s back. But they just kept on going.
This book is an absolute cartoon of a historical fiction. Nearly every character is a caricature, all of them over-the-top. Most are theatrical and thriving on the adventure. A small handful are just along for the ride. Peggy might be the only sane character. I like Peggy.
TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.5 / 5⭐
I’ll be honest, I’m more inclined to categorize this ‘historical fiction’ as a fantasy instead. Hall notes at the beginning of the book that linguistic liberties are taken, and just about everyone in the book is queer. This is not an exaggeration. Valentine leaves his comfortable world that operates precisely as one would expect a gray-and-drab-1800’s-England to operate, and he stumbles into this explosive, colorful, high-octane alternate reality that shakes the foundation of everything he thought he knew to be true.
I’ll be honest, I’m more inclined to categorize this ‘historical fiction’ as a fantasy instead. Hall notes at the beginning of the book that linguistic liberties are taken, and just about everyone in the book is queer. This is not an exaggeration. Valentine leaves his comfortable world that operates precisely as one would expect a gray-and-drab-1800’s-England to operate, and he stumbles into this explosive, colorful, high-octane alternate reality that shakes the foundation of everything he thought he knew to be true.
This book was both exhausting and frustrating to my poor little comfortable, introverted mind. I didn’t dislike it, but I did need to take a lot of breathers. My own patience was tested too many times. A DNF was never on the table (this book is still fun, for all the characters were tedious) but there were points where I wished it was. Repetition was used a number of times for comical purposes, and it mostly hit, but there was one scene in particular where I had to skip dialogue more times than I ought to have because of the repetitive content.
I’ve read a fair number of Hall’s books now and I have adored just about all of them. This one might be the one I liked the least, and it’s still not even close to terrible; at least, not compared to some of the other authors I’ve been reading recently. Something unusual I did encounter here was the occasional typo or grammatical error, and a number of clunky dialogue choices unrelated to the inclusion of modern phrasings. From what I can recall, most of Hall’s works I’ve encountered have been extremely well-put-together, so it was a bit of a surprise – enough for me to take note.
FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 3.75 / 5⭐
Read this book. It’s an experience, and it’s got a lot going for it. It’s far from perfect but it’s still a good time.
This book has representation for gays, lesbians, genderqueer or -fluid individuals, and demisexuals/demiromantics. Multiple badass women do badass things. There is at least one dark-skinned character described.
The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Misogyny and Death of parent
kaitlinnoodles's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Sexual content
Moderate: Gun violence and Gaslighting
Minor: Confinement, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
breadbees's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Classism
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Outing, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol
purplepenning's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
When Alexis Hall describes his book as "a big gay regency romp about a overly dramatic beautiful rainbow sunshine unicorn + a overly dramatic demisexual grumpy duke, going on a cross-country chase" and adds that the unofficial subtitle is "Dude, Where's My Curricle?" and it's the "campiest and silliest and most fun thing" he's ever written — believe him.
The grumpy/sunshine combo is gold. I disagree with reviewers who felt Bonny Mr. Sunshine was overly mean to His Grace Valentine Grumpy Pants, but he was certainly in an unenviable position between his best friend and sister, His Grace, and his own, you know, precarious existence. And while a zero to 100 relationship for a demisexual main character doesn't quite work for me, I also disagree that His Grace was "just fine the way he was, oh em gee, just leave him alone already." He was not quietly content — he was miserably unaware and misguided and headed for further misery. Most of the side characters are great, though the satirized gothic heroine sister is just grating. And the plot is, well, a careening mess that's somewhat too driven by the bullying sexism of the day, anachronistic overcorrections, and aro understandings clashing with gothic dramatics, but mostly it's just a vehicle for fun shenanigans in the countryside. It's all undeniably over the top, British, queer, chaotic, funny, annoying, graphic, and sometimes genuinely touching and lovely.
The grumpy/sunshine combo is gold. I disagree with reviewers who felt Bonny Mr. Sunshine was overly mean to His Grace Valentine Grumpy Pants, but he was certainly in an unenviable position between his best friend and sister, His Grace, and his own, you know, precarious existence. And while a zero to 100 relationship for a demisexual main character doesn't quite work for me, I also disagree that His Grace was "just fine the way he was, oh em gee, just leave him alone already." He was not quietly content — he was miserably unaware and misguided and headed for further misery. Most of the side characters are great, though the satirized gothic heroine sister is just grating. And the plot is, well, a careening mess that's somewhat too driven by the bullying sexism of the day, anachronistic overcorrections, and aro understandings clashing with gothic dramatics, but mostly it's just a vehicle for fun shenanigans in the countryside. It's all undeniably over the top, British, queer, chaotic, funny, annoying, graphic, and sometimes genuinely touching and lovely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Sexism, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Classism
There are also a couple of key scenes (very sweet) that feature bees, and some brief talk/imaginings of spiders