Rating: 4.5 stars
For most of her life, Viola Carroll was forced to live a lie. Then she went off to the Napoleonic wars, with her best friend and constant companion Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, and because of a horrible accident where she was presumed dead by everyone who knew her, she decided to just let most people assume her former self was indeed dead (so her title and estates could pass to her brother), making it possible for her to finally live as her true self. For the past two years, she has been living with her brother and his family, acting as her sister-in-law, Lady Marleigh's companion. Then her sister-in-law gets a letter from Miranda, Gracewood's younger sister, and it's clear that neither she nor he are doing well. Stuck by herself in a big, lonely castle in Northumberland, Miranda is about to go all "Gothic heroine", according to Lady Marleigh, and something needs to be done.
Viola isn't exactly thrilled about the idea of being out among other people than her family, and is absolutely terrified of facing Gracewood again. Lady Marleigh doesn't suffer fools, however, and since she is literally Viola's employer, Viola has to reluctantly agree to accompany her. When they arrive at his imposing castle, Gracewood is clearly so drunk and/or drugged that he thinks they are ghosts and actually fires a gun at them (thankfully, due to the inebriation, he's a terrible shot, so no one is injured). His dreadful state makes Viola see that he can't possibly be left to moulder, grieve, and destroy not only the rest of his own life but most likely that of Miranda too, as she refuses to leave her brother.
Gracewood has a badly healed leg injury, so can't move about without a cane. He has severe PTSD and survivor's guilt because he lived and his best friend died. He's been dulling both his physical and emotional pain with alcohol and laudanum and generally withdrawn so much that most of his servants have quit and the only one left who cares for him is his teenage sister Miranda, who was clearly always an original and unconventional individual but is now becoming decidedly peculiar. Lady Marleigh wants to take her to London and make sure she has a season, but Miranda won't leave her brother, so Lady Marleigh needs to get Gracewood to a state where his sister can see she doesn't have to stay constantly by his side. So Viola starts to try to nurse Gracewood back to health, and the chemistry between them is palpable, even before Viola reluctantly tells him the truth about who she is.
Gracewood doesn't take the news about Viola well at first, and she is heartbroken and goes back to her family. His main objections are really very selfish, and he feels betrayed because he's been grieving for years and feels guilty for dragging Viola to war in the first place, and now it turns out that Viola has been alive this whole time and never let him know (oh, and she lied to him throughout their entire friendship). Obviously, because he'd be a terrible romance hero otherwise, Gracewood comes to his senses, realises that he's being an ass, and he needs to apologise to Viola. He also acknowledges that Lady Marleigh is absolutely right, his sister cannot be left to wither away in some Northumbrian castle, she deserves a season and to meet possible suitors. He quits laudanum cold turkey, packs up his sister and takes her to London. Then he seeks out Viola and performs a most satisfactory grovel.
Once he stops being butthurt, Gracewood basically doesn't want to waste another second away from Viola. He wants to make her his wife, but Viola refuses him. She has always loved him, first as a friend and then romantically, even before she allowed herself to admit the truth to herself, but she doesn't feel she could ever marry someone, and certainly not become a duchess. Now Gracewood not only has to prove himself a worthy brother to Miranda, but persuade his best friend that they should spend the rest of their lives together, society's opinions be damned.
Alexis Hall is a very talented writer. Not all of his books work for me, but when he's on form, his books are a delight. Something Fabulous, a previous novel of his is also set in the Regency period, but that book can most accurately be described as a romp, and the setting is more fantastic, with no negative consequences for the queer characters ever having to be dealt with. This book is a much darker story, with a lot more angst, but Hall has stated that he wanted to write a book with a trans heroine, without her transness being the main issue. That certainly applies to this book.
My main gripe with this book, and the reason I don't feel I can give it a full five stars, is a subplot involving Gracewood's sister Miranda, and some shenanigans involving her in the final third of the book. There's an abduction plot to be unraveled and it all felt needlessly melodramatic and tacked on, not really contributing much to the rest of the plot. Without it, the book would have been pretty much perfect.
Judging a book by its cover: I think this cover is so pretty, and the cover models are really selling the devotion and affection between the protagonists. I was very happy when I discovered that the cover model portraying Viola is a trans woman. Her name is Violet - almost the same as the character she portrays.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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