Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
The writing is witty, and [the] chemistry is irresistible, but it’s Hall’s insights about trust and self-worth that set the story apart. This is a triumph’– Publishers Weekly on Boyfriend Material Justinian de Vere, duke of Gracewood is a complete mess. He is scarred, both physically and mentally, by the war he's fought in alongside his oldest friend. He is in pain not only from his injured leg, but the loss of his best friend on that battlefield pushes him into the hands of alcohol and narcotics. He's suffering from severe PTSD while trying to fulfill his duty thrust upon him by the name he carries. He is constantly torn between following his heart and fulfilling his legacy, exactly as his strict father would have wanted. A trans heroine. A grieving Duke. Two old friends. A moving and beautiful historical romance. Alexis Hall has outdone himself!
My favorite thing about this book is that it has just taken modern manners on how to treat a trans person, and plopped it down in Regency England. No long-winded justification for respect, just RESPECT. No outing, no microaggressions, no villainous transphobic rant, just...respect. This story is going to stay with me for a long time, and I want many more books like this, with fearless trans protagonists getting the happily ever afters they so deserve. Thanks Forever Books for the review copy! This book is out 5/24 and I can’t wait for everyone else to fall in love with Viola, Gracewood, and their epic romance. Following the Battle of Waterloo, Viola Carroll abandoned her previous identity, as well as her aristocratic title, to finally embrace life as a trans woman. Allowing the world to believe she had been killed in action, Viola took on the role of companion to her sister-in-law, Lady Louise Marleigh. The Duke of Gracewood is in mourning for his lost best friend. He blames himself for the loss, the war, and for his disability returning from the warfront. Gracewood is slipping into an opium dependency and a depression with no light in sight. Things are dire. Simply the best writer I’ve come across in years’– Laura Kinsale, New York Times bestselling authorWhen his younger sister Miranda sends a letter to Viola’s benefactor and sister-in-law Lady Marleigh hinting at Gracewood’s struggles, she decides that the younger Gracewood needs to be rescued. Lady Marleigh, knowing Viola’s history with the duke, decides she knows just the thing to help Gracewood and Miranda: she and Viola will visit. If anyone can cheer him up, it will be Viola, right? What follows is an emotional reunion as Viola sees the impact her “death” had on the man she once loved. She struggles with how much of herself to share with a shattered Gracewood as he tries to understand why he finds himself drawn to the mysterious and vaguely familiar lady’s companion. Eagerly looking forward to more fresh stories in the historical romance canon to join this one on the shelves. I love you. I have, in some form, for as long as I’ve known you. You are my joy and my truth and my heart and my dreams. You are the best of me.” I listened to an audiobook which was Narrated by Kay Eluvian. What a wonderful performance. From depression to joy and every emotion in-between, plus young children to adults, the vocalizing is clear, gripping and engulfing. I did speed this up to 1.5 for conversational comfort. Hall adds some levity with flirtatious banter between his main couple, moments when readers can see the dark cloud hovering over Gracewood become a little lighter. There’s also a robust and interesting cast of side characters, which could mean (fingers crossed) A Lady for a Duke is but the first book in a series.
Viola is thrust into Gracewood's world once more. Reluctantly, she befriends the duke and she is both relieved and disappointed that he doesn't recognize her immediately. Their chemistry is so raw and natural, it's absolutely hypnotic. The bond they've had before is still so strong, giving birth to the most delicious period of longing I have ever read. The angst and pain are practically seeping through the words, it's so heartbreaking but yet so beautiful to witness. Gracewood's acceptance and love is so pure that you can't possibly not fall in love with him. The writing was too romantic, uff, I was blushing so so much - just so sensual with even the briefest of affections of a beautiful slow-burn romance that was fighting between want and need and warring with itself against society norms and Viola's fear and reluctance was so very true and honest. Gracewood's candor was so precious, that basically said 'damn the world, damn what people think, it's you I want - as you are'. 🥲 This is wish-fulfilment, and why not? Why not have nice things? While the book begins with Viola stewing in her fears of rejection, should her old friend Justin, Duke of Gracewood, recognize her, once that recognition is made, the drama isn't that she transitioned, it's that she let him think she was dead. And then further drama as the two try to carve out a place for themselves which takes into account the expectations of a Duke (that is, continuing the family line) and also the expectations of a lady's maid (to not be disgraced by an affair).I think what makes this romance so incredibly striking is the fact that being together allows both Gracewood and Viola to process their grief, and they’re both grieving completely different things. Viola is grieving both the person she was wrongfully raised to be along with the womanhood she was never fully invited into or allowed to embrace. Gracewood, on the other hand, is not only coming to terms with the fact that he was grieving someone who was never actually lost, but he’s also grieving the past version of himself that was stronger, more independent, and more able-bodied—because that's how he's been taught to define his masculinity and because the world has conditioned him to place value in those things. Delightful trans historical romance, written very specifically to not centre the conflict on the heroine's transness. It starts off quite angsty anyway as the hero is deeply traumatised by his war experiences as well as his bereavement, and there's a meaty clash between Gracewood's entirely justified anger that he was let believe his only friend was dead, and Viola's equally justified reasons for restarting her life. (I really appreciate romances that face head on that sometimes there isn't a single right course of action, and that people's rights and needs sometimes come into direct conflict.)
Related:
Great Deal 
New Comment