2x romance

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Olivia Waite. Widely recced and justifiably so, this was truly lovely (and hot). Science and art and being part of a larger world of women and I loved the progression of their relationship. The science is not as good as the science in Countess Conspiracy but it had some good moments.

The Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian. Interestingly enough, another lady scientist, this time in a secondary het couple, although she didn't get to science very much. Maybe suffered from reading it back to back with the previous - I didn't love either dude the way I loved both ladies in Lady's Guide, and their relationship seemed to jump really fast from getting to know each other into love - but still a very enjoyable historical.

(I was intrigued that Ruin didn't do the work-partnership queer historical HEA thing, which got me thinking again about other possible patterns for queer historicals. I'd be fascinated if anyone has any recs that center around co-parenting as the final partnership - I've read some bad baby-centric het, but the occasional one I like (I used to read a lot of LaVyrle Spencer back in the day, ahem), and while I'd guess the queer-romance market has less enthusiasm for parenting plots than the het market, less doesn't necessarily mean zero, and heck knows plenty of real-life queer parents exist.)

Elatsoe

Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger, 2020 YA. I've enjoyed her short fiction and was excited to read her debut novel and was not disappointed. In broadest outline this is A Teen Solves A Mystery but that does not capture how good the character work and worldbuilding details are. I don't want to spoil anything but there is one thing in particular that was so brilliant it made the book for me right there. I enjoyed reading a YA protag who had a good relationship with their parents, and I liked the handling of her asexuality (and, hey, as a bonus, if you get annoyed by YA romance plots, guess what there isn't). I guess it's premature to claim it will win at least one of the Lodestar and Norton without having read much other 2020 YA, but it's going to be on all the ballots. BTW if you find yourself needing to talk about it out loud, Elatsoe is "eh-lat-so-ay" (eh-LAT-so-ay, specifically, I found a video, although the text makes sure to tell us it's four syllables, which I always appreciate.)

Spoilers about details: ( Read more... )

(Animal harm content: there's a ghost dog, which has already died by the start of the story.)

Proper English

Proper English, KJ Charles. Think of England was one of my favorite romance novels of recent years (discussed here). This is a prequel about how an established secondary couple in that one got together, and, like the first one, a country house mystery, this time with less action and more deduction. I was a little disappointed by how little action there is - if you establish your protagonist as a sharpshooter, I have to say I expect the climax to involve a feat of sharp shooting - but the romance was great. I really liked both women and their relationship. Plans to eventually read Charles' entire back catalog remain in place.