#Im gonna talk about book 2 next

[earl-grey-love]

🌻 - @nonesenseships

new ask game send me a 🌻 and ill just tell you whatever the fuck i want

Hi, Red! Thank you for the ask 💕 I know its late but I've been busy. I hope thats okay!

I'm gonna talk abt one of books I just read. They're in a series and they are about queer men in 1870s london. The books take turns focusing on individuals from a group of friends who frequent a safe social club for lgbtq+ people at the time, their love lives and a mystery that surrounds them. They're written by KJ Charles.

The first book is "An Unseen Attraction", which sounds way hornier than it was. The book focused around the romance between Clem, a boarding house keeper, and Rowley, a taxidermist who lives in the boarding house. They've been friends for several months, with both men being on the quiet, nonconfrontational side. Naturally they harbour a crush on each other which they don't express because well, its victorian times! It's a classic friends to lovers tale. And I loved it!

(Minor Spoilers) Both characters were understandable and endearing. The more I learnt about them, the better I liked them. Clem was well-written as a neurodivergent character. While no specific condition was attributed to him, he is clearly described as ND. He has sensory issues, difficulty understanding social cues and a tendency to take things literally. This helps him to unravel the overarching mystery down the line. While he tends to be a bit naïve when it comes to trusting people, he doesn't fall into any nasty infantalizing tropes. He is a mature and capable man like any other. He just struggles with things. Also, he's half Indian, so the book does touch on period typical racism.

All around I love Clem. He's an amazing character and I enjoyed reading from his perspective the most. The gentle sweetness to him is absolutely golden. His character development and his side of the romance was beautiful too.

Rowley was written with equal care. He was a contrast to Clem with his more grounded personality. He's reserved but more socially equipped than Clem, which makes them an excellent partnership. They balance each other out. Despite being more equipped, he's got far fewer friends and trusts less. This is due to his backstory, which I won't spoil, and gives his character some interesting depth. His profession is beautifully written too. I find taxidermy super gross but the way it was covered in the book was enjoyable.

(NSFW) So ofc the book does include spicy scenes. The way it builds up tension was amazing. It had me excited for the upcoming scenes right away with the teasing way it was hinted at early on. However, these scenes are not the focus and there are few of them. They are tasteful when they happen though and include plenty of character development. They aren't sex for sex sake. The dynamic between the two in bed was surprising too, and worked incredibly well. There were relatively mild (imo) sub/dom themes that were a pleasure to read (NSFW ends)

The mystery plot was a surprise. But a welcome one. We all know I love a good mystery. Unfortunately, it was predictable for me, and I was about two steps ahead of the characters for most of the way. I pen this down to me really loving mystery solving and my understanding of law/crime tho. It was still satisfying and fun to read! The suspenseful scenes really did instill anxiety. I was afraid all the way up to the conclusion!

Overall, I rate it 10/10. I can't fault it for anything. It was the perfect pace, length and execution. The only downside is the mystery wasn't fully concluded at the end, but this is because the book is part of a series. The plot continues on from other characters' perspectives. This gives it interesting depth!

The one thing I didn't like is more of a gripe with the audiobook than the book itself. There's a transgender woman who for some reason is given a notably deeper, more masculine voice than any male character. Which is 🤨 a choice. She is written respectfully in the text though.