Mischief & Matchmaking series (Don't Want You Like a Best Friend; You're the Problem, It's You) by Emma R. Alban
Gwen has a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.
It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl and she’d rather be anywhere but here.
Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband, possibly ever. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl, from whom she’s gotten all her flair, fun, and less-than-proper party games.
“Let’s get them together,” she says.
It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. Let them get married instead.
“It’ll be easy” she says.
There’s just…one, teeny, tiny problem. Their parents kind of seem to hate each other.
But no worries. Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little twenty-year-old heartbreak. How hard can parent-trapping widowed ex-lovers be?
Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.
Beth’s not mature enough for this…
Now Gwen must face the prospect of sharing Beth with someone else, forever. And Beth must reckon with the fact that she’s caught feelings, hard, and they’re definitely not for her potential fiancé.
That’s the trouble with matchmaking: sometimes you accidentally fall in love with your best friend in the process.
Eleventh Hour by Elin Gregory (The Carstairs Affairs #1)
Endorsement from submitter: "Spies! Crossdressing! Drama! Action! Romance! The only way these historical spies can capture the villains is to pose as a married couple next door - only they dont have any lady agents available… Men must wear dress to save the country!"
Borrowed from the Secret Intelligence Service cipher department to assist Briers Allerdale - a field agent returning to 1920s London with news of a dangerous anarchist plot - Miles Siward moves into a 'couples only' boarding house, posing as Allerdale’s 'wife'. Miles relishes the opportunity to allow his alter ego, Millie, to spread her wings but if Miles wants the other agent’s respect he can never betray how much he enjoys being Millie nor how attractive he finds Allerdale.
Pursuing a ruthless enemy who wants to throw Europe back into the horrors of the Great War, Briers and Miles are helped and hindered by nosy landladies, water board officials, suave gentlemen representing foreign powers and their own increasing attraction to each other.
Will they catch their quarry? Will they find love? Could they hope for both?
December Book Reviews: Eleventh Hour by Elin Gregory
I picked up this book because author KJ Charles had posted an intriguing review of it. In Eleventh Hour, British Secret Service agent Allerdale is assigned to a new case monitoring European anarchists. Only this time, he has a partner—the pretty linguist Miles Siward, who is to pose as his wife.
I found this book to be a charming queer romance with an excellent balance between the spy drama and the romantic plotline. I liked Miles Siward especially, and I think his gender was written well. He's not a trans woman, but the crossdressing isn't waved off as haha man in a dress either—it's emphasized that being Millie occasionally is an important part of his identity. Put him down as genderqueer, maybe. However, I thought Gregory falls short a little bit in the political element. The plot is a clear throwback to James Bond style spy vs spy maneuvers, the great game of Europe, etc. However, Miles and Allerdale don't have much in the way of political thoughts, and the bad guys are vaguely handwaved Romanian communist who want to blow up England for undefined reasons. I just don't think it's possible to write effective plots about countries at war with each other without at least some ideological underpinning. It's not really possible to have apolitical spying.
Overall, an entertaining hidden gem of a historical queer romance novel. Recommended if you enjoyed KJ Charles' Think of England.
These are more mystery than romance, but the romance subplot is pretty significant. These share vibes with Cat Sebastian’s Page and Sommers books, as well as the Will Darling books by KJ Charles. They take place post WWI, and the two main characters are intelligence agents. I love her world building, and the chemistry between the characters.
Elin Gregory is a Welsh author, and I’d recommend all of her stories.
HEY FELLAS, how about some of that good good 1920s gay spy stuff with fake undercover marriage, crossdressing, a sweet linguist with a bold lady persona and a 6ft something professional undercover spy who is such an enormous dingus he calls an actual tiny baby 'Old Man'???
4/5: Good solid pirate book, with a little something on the side … ;) For a good part of the book it really feels like a really nice and solid pirate story with good setting of the scene and the historical context. I felt that Kit's conflict between honor & duty vs. freedom and love was elegantly done and fit snuggly into the narrative without being too overbearing. A little more background and description of Griffin would have been nice to give it a bit more color. And the ending would have deserved a few more pages, lovely as it was. But I would totally recommend it as an autumn/winter feel...
For October, I decided to challenge myself to draw as many couples from some of my favourite romances as possible, and I surprised myself by finishing 18 whole paintings! I will post them in three batches, but you can see them all on my twitter here! This is part 2 out of 3!
Here’s the books these arts from from, in order:
On a Lee Shore by Elin Gregory
Rebel by Beverly Jenkins
The Pursuit of… by Courtney Milan
True Pretenses by Rose Lerner
The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
