Holding guns to each other's kneecaps and betraying each other to their abusive uncles is necessary enrichment for 19th century gays who've been stuck at sea for too long
A time twisting alternative history that asks whether it's worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you've ever loved. Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,” but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.
Setting: 19th-century England
Historical fiction, alternative history, mystery, time travel, adult
One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny (14th Century Oxfordshire #1)
Endorsement from submitter: "One Night in Hartswood takes the premise of "what if we were queer and ran away together" but they actually DO run away together. And it all goes well and no one gets shot with anything. A big gay medieval romantic romp about yearning and being bad at talking about your feelings."
Oxford 1360
When his sister’s betrothed vanishes the night before her politically arranged marriage, Raff Barden must track and return the elusive groom to restore his family’s honour. William de Foucart ― known to his friends as Penn ― had no choice but to abandon his fiancé, and with it his own earldom, when he fled the night before his enforced marriage. But ill-equipped to survive on the run he must trust the kindness of a stranger, Raff, to help him escape. Unaware their fates are already entwined, their unexpected bond deepens into a far more precious relationship, one that will test all that they hold dear. And when secrets are finally revealed, both men must decide what they will risk for the one they love…
Natasha Pulley girlies, Hymn to Dionysus. Her most grown up book to date. World building en pointe as usual. Not me, reading and thinking: "is this finally the book where all the characters don't talk like Natasha Pulley?"
Phaidros: no, it isn't. Stupid.
Still! Did I enjoy myself? Immensely. Is she growing as a writer? Yes. Did I fucking LOVE the Greek tragedy madness at the end with Agave and Pentheus? Also yes.
'And my—oh, my postcard.' His own voice sounded distant. It was amazing how fast you could accept something impossible. Or, maybe it was just Joe; everything in the world seemed pretty extraordinary to him, with no baseline memories about normal. 'Someone sent it to me from...your side. Maybe I'm from your side, really? That would explain a lot.'
'Maybe,' Kite said softly.
Something inside Joe woke up again.
The Kingdoms, Natasha Pulley, pg 104
Maybe, Joe! Maybe!! God this book hits SO MUCH HARDER the second time you read it.
I have a Probably Terrible idea about The Mars House. We know it's the same universe as Mori, right, because of January's phone? And January's mum had a vineyard in Cornwall. So I think that Merrick is maybe January's ancestor. Anyway it amuses me to think so.
Ok, so while I'm running with it, consider this a petition to invite Raphael to Mars. The thin air and the cold would be fine with him, he and Ariel would get along like a house on fire, he'd love the mountaintop, they both think in centuries.
He continued, “Do you remember that first night when we had gone out to get a drink together? ‘Hold out for the unpredictable,’ is what you said. And that after everything, things will find a way to work itself out in the end. And, and that…I—”
Kite stared at him, an arm’s length away under the artificial spotlight of the lamppost blanketing the two of them. There was a party going on somewhere from inside the building, blasting music and cheers that found a way to stumble outside of the walls.
“What are you trying to say?” Kite whispered, willing every nerve in his body to not touch the man. Joe looked delicate, kicked over with the burden of everything he could say, and Kite wanted to tell him, again, that everything will find a way to work itself out.
“I’m going about this all wrong,” Joe said with a finality, and took Kite’s cold face in his hands to kiss him.
Again and Again by hahafool
Commission for @veronicafitzosborne!!! thank you!!!
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