A review by bojangles
Provoked, by Joanna Chambers
3.0
You know? This was a pretty decent little read! Well written prose, interesting MMC, thoughtful and historically acurate background plot. Finished it in a day while I had covid, and it was perfect for my tired brain. Not total drivel and smut, had an interesting setting and story around the MMCs. For all the Victorian and early 20th century English romances I read, I have never in all my life read something set during the Scottish enlightenment! It opened my mind up for sure, and I’ll have to seek out more romances set in this era. I would recommend this to anyone who like historical MM romance and wants to read about a setting outside of London but still in the Western European homophobia era where the MMCs have to navigate that dimension of social pressure.
Now all that said, I absolutely squirmed, in a bad way, throughout this whole narrative about two things: 1) David’s relationship with alcohol, and 2) David and Murdo’s relationship to consent and desire.
1) Is David an alcoholic in denial? Or does he just drink a lot cause it’s the 1800s and whiskey is safer than water and also he’s stressed all the time from his admittedly stressful life? Who knows! But his chaotic relationship to binge drinking throughout the narrative made me weary to the point that I thought it would be a much more significant part of the climax of the story. It wasn’t. And it’s unclear to me if David is an alcoholic. But his relationship to alcohol certainly isn’t healthy and it’s something potential readers should be aware of.
2) Davy and Murdo’s relationship to consent. It’s clear that what Davy likes about Murdo is that he takes charge, and indulges what Davy really wants, deep down, in a forceful enough way that Davy doesn’t have to accept responsibility for wanting those things. It is also clear that both Davy and Murdo are fully aware of Davy’s self loathing and self deception and the pretence that Davy requires to actually let himself have sex with men. But. And yet. Also….I really did not like how underdeveloped such a problematic/emotionally dangerous sexual power dynamic ended up being. For a character as smart as Davy, who spends so much of the narrative thinking really hard about things, the idea that “letting” himself be overtaken by a man who ignores his no’s because they both “really” know what Davy is “actually” saying…
I dunno man. It made me uncomfy.
Now all that said, I absolutely squirmed, in a bad way, throughout this whole narrative about two things: 1) David’s relationship with alcohol, and 2) David and Murdo’s relationship to consent and desire.
1) Is David an alcoholic in denial? Or does he just drink a lot cause it’s the 1800s and whiskey is safer than water and also he’s stressed all the time from his admittedly stressful life? Who knows! But his chaotic relationship to binge drinking throughout the narrative made me weary to the point that I thought it would be a much more significant part of the climax of the story. It wasn’t. And it’s unclear to me if David is an alcoholic. But his relationship to alcohol certainly isn’t healthy and it’s something potential readers should be aware of.
2) Davy and Murdo’s relationship to consent. It’s clear that what Davy likes about Murdo is that he takes charge, and indulges what Davy really wants, deep down, in a forceful enough way that Davy doesn’t have to accept responsibility for wanting those things. It is also clear that both Davy and Murdo are fully aware of Davy’s self loathing and self deception and the pretence that Davy requires to actually let himself have sex with men. But. And yet. Also….I really did not like how underdeveloped such a problematic/emotionally dangerous sexual power dynamic ended up being. For a character as smart as Davy, who spends so much of the narrative thinking really hard about things, the idea that “letting” himself be overtaken by a man who ignores his no’s because they both “really” know what Davy is “actually” saying…
I dunno man. It made me uncomfy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism