A review by bonnieg
Joss and the Countess by S.M. LaViolette, Minerva Spencer

5.0

My second book from S.M Violette (who also writes as Minerva Spencer) and I loved it even more than the first. LaViolette gives us romantic beautiful stories that bring home the ways the powerful create and reinforce a system where gender and social class leave those not in the elite at the mercy of those who are part of the ruling class. I particularly loved how LaViolette made clear that this power dynamic lives outside of economic success, that money helps navigate the system but never allows one to ascend to power. Those structural barriers get lost much of the time when inequality is discussed. I also loved the clear discussion of how choosing to cede power (in this case in sexual play) is 100% different from having power seized. Rape and sexual submission are diametrically opposed to one another, and LaViolette does a wonderful job of illustrating that fact. I love a book that is both sexy and substantial, arousing and affirming, prurient and pedagogically sound, erotic and economically correct - stop me before I alliterate again! This one is quite likely to make my 2024 romance best-of list.

One quibble -- the audio narrator, Ella Lynch, has a lovely voice until she tries to do an American accent (the FMC is supposed to be from NYC.) In addition to falling in and out of the accent, the accent itself is terrible. It is like she thinks Americans speak like Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (she gets that accent wrong too, but it sure sounds like that is what she is going for.) We don't. None of us do. It is sometimes painful and always grating to listen to.