Victoria Dahl, One Week As Lovers - I. Loved. This. Book! Set in the Victorian era, Nick, our hero, is a charming, titled fortune-hunter (I'd have loved the book for that already - how often do we have a fortune hunter hero?) who discovers that the heiress he is engaged to hates him and is sleeping with another, but he cannot afford to cancel the wedding. Instead, to clear his head, he travels to his remote Yorkshire estate, one he hasn't been to since he was 15. It is there he runs into our heroine, Cynthia, his childhood friend. Cynthia has faked suicide and hid in his empty house, in order to avoid marriage to a monster her family is trying to sell her to.
So, why did I love this book enough for it to get a separate post? It's an atmospheric Victorian that managed to keep my attention despite the stark setting and a very small cast of characters, but ultimately it's because I ended up borderline obsessed with Cynthia and Nick. Cynthia is a rare instanse of 'strong-willed and unconventional' done right - she is neither a raving lunatic nor a total bitch, the way too many romance authors tend to err, when they try to do strong willed and unconventional. She is the narrative driver of a lot of the story - it is her escape, her search for treasure, her wishes to be with Nick sexually - that drive the story. Not that Nick is a meek, put-upon hero. He is actually the main reason I love this book so. Dahl does something with a hero that I have rarely seen done in romances - under Nick's genuine charm and likeability lies a deeply broken person. But Dahl does the incredibly novel thing of giving her hero a horrific past and NOT turning him into the typical bitter/cold alpha that romance novels think goes with it. No, despite (or regardless) of his past, Nick is a genuinely nice, kind person who cares. People refer to him as 'easy' (as in easy-going and easy to please) and he views that easiness as a weakness and blames it for what happened in the past, but he never does suppress it.
In some ways, it's a gender roles reversal story - Cynthia the defiant and tough as nails, and Nick as a nice person capable of so much love.
It's just such a lovely lovely story. And it has the trope of slow healing through love (and sex) that I so adore in books, however little it might work in real life.
Plus, for once, a hero in debt in a period romance does something someone should have done 5000 books ago - he gets a job!!!! Bloody freaking finally.
So, why did I love this book enough for it to get a separate post? It's an atmospheric Victorian that managed to keep my attention despite the stark setting and a very small cast of characters, but ultimately it's because I ended up borderline obsessed with Cynthia and Nick. Cynthia is a rare instanse of 'strong-willed and unconventional' done right - she is neither a raving lunatic nor a total bitch, the way too many romance authors tend to err, when they try to do strong willed and unconventional. She is the narrative driver of a lot of the story - it is her escape, her search for treasure, her wishes to be with Nick sexually - that drive the story. Not that Nick is a meek, put-upon hero. He is actually the main reason I love this book so. Dahl does something with a hero that I have rarely seen done in romances - under Nick's genuine charm and likeability lies a deeply broken person. But Dahl does the incredibly novel thing of giving her hero a horrific past and NOT turning him into the typical bitter/cold alpha that romance novels think goes with it. No, despite (or regardless) of his past, Nick is a genuinely nice, kind person who cares. People refer to him as 'easy' (as in easy-going and easy to please) and he views that easiness as a weakness and blames it for what happened in the past, but he never does suppress it.
In some ways, it's a gender roles reversal story - Cynthia the defiant and tough as nails, and Nick as a nice person capable of so much love.
It's just such a lovely lovely story. And it has the trope of slow healing through love (and sex) that I so adore in books, however little it might work in real life.
Plus, for once, a hero in debt in a period romance does something someone should have done 5000 books ago - he gets a job!!!! Bloody freaking finally.
