The Duke at Hazard (Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune #2)

Title: The Duke at Hazard (Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune, #2)

Author: KJ Charles

Publisher: Orion

Release Date: July 18, 2024

Genre(s): M/M Historical

Page Count: 336

Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

Read book blurb here

"Vernon Fortescue Cassian George de Vere Crosse, the fourth Duke of Severn, the Earl of Harmsford, Baron Crosse of Wotton, and Baron Vere walked into an inn. They were all the same man." But without his titles, Cassian is nondescript and quiet and all too aware that his own family thinks he has "no more knowledge of the world than a baby, and no more force of character either, and it is no surprise that you cannot manage without a retinue." 

When a one-night stand in an inn results in Severn's ducal signet ring being stolen, Cass has to retrieve it and quickly. Enter Daizell Charnage, Eton's golden boy when Cassian and he attended, a "glowing, laughing young trickster" with charm and charisma to spare. He's been cast out of proper society, due to his parent's actions, "but he'd blackened his own reputation as thoroughly [...] in a slow steady slide out of the Polite World and into disreputability that he couldn't seem to stop." 

When they meet on the road, Cass hires Daizell to find his ring, and due to a scourge of One Bed Only nights at the inns along the way, they have time to explore a relationship that is so incredibly sweet at its core, until Daizell learns exactly who Cass is. But never fear, we get a glorious comeuppance and a well-deserved HEA. 

I must admit I had to adjust my expectations from KJ Charles' often razor sharp characters (see Lucien Vaudrey from the Magpie Lord series) to these two gentle characters but it was such a wonderful read. 5 stars.

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley,in exchange for an honest review.

Death in the Spires

Title: Death in the Spires

Author: KJ Charles

Publisher: Storm Publishing

Release Date: April 11, 2024

Genre(s): M/M Murder Mystery, Historical

Page Count: 273

Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

Read book blurb here

Jem, Nicky, Aaron, Hugh, Toby, Ella and Prue - The Seven Wonders, or at the start "Feynsham's set" - Toby's curated collection of fellow students who met their first year in Oxford, becoming fast friends, until Toby's murder in the spring of their third year, 1895. Ten years after, Jem loses his lowly clerk job because of a note sent to his employer: 

Jeremy Kite is a murderer. 

He killed Toby Feynsham. 

Ask him why. 

Following Toby's death, they never told the police what really happened earlier that horrid evening and they went on with their lives, with varying degrees of success. Jem, who fell perhaps the lowest in the aftermath, decides once and for all to uncover who murdered Toby ... and why. 

 KJ Charles gives us the world of Oxford seen in a hundred movies (The world was before them, a great sunlit path through pleasant meadows with a glittering city at its end ready for them to conquer.) - Hugh Grantesque boys in long robes on the quad, friends arm in arm walking down the hallowed paths, student theatricals, etc.: 

"They were facing south, looking over Front Quad and Broad Street and toward the main spread of Oxford, and the setting sun turned everything before him to glowing rose gold. The domes and spires rose like masts from the sea, like prayers to heaven, a glory of human brilliance in stone ..." 

But it's also a world where while there is love and friendship, there is more. "Ah, British friendship ... Tolerance as long as everyone knows his place, but God forbid your subjects should declare themselves your equals." As Nicky says "So: all of us could have, none of us would have, one of us did." And while we ponder Toby's murder, we are lead to ask if murder can ever be justified and if worse crimes have gone unpunished. 

It's all deep, heady stuff and KJ Charles shepherds us through the discoveries, the abject sadness, the philosophical and the practical, all the while giving us a small M/M romance (with absolutely no hint of a HFN or HEA). I found this book deeply moving, completely engrossing and 5+ stars and a Recommended Read if you have the heart for it. 

I received an ARC from the publisher, Storm Publishing, in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books, #1)

Title: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (The Doomsday Books #1)

Author: K.J. Charles

Publisher: Sourcebook Casablanca

Release Date: March 7, 2023

Genre(s): M/M Historical Romance, Mystery/Suspense

Page Count: Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

Read book blurb here 

With the exception of  Band Sinister, I have shamelessly adored every K.J. Charles book. And this book? Ooh, it's so good. After a thought-provoking quote by Adam Smith about smuggling ...

The smuggler; a person who, though no doubt highly blameable for violating the laws of his country, is frequently incapable of violating those of natural justice, and would have been, in every respect, an excellent citizen, had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature never meant to be so.

... we meet the MCs at the Three Ducks a week into a passionate connection after seeing each other across a crowded molly house room (isn't that how the song does?) But when Kent (an alias because of his Kentish heritage) tells London that he is going back home, with promises to return on a regular basis, London nastily shuts him down. 

But never fear, Kent and London meet again on Romney Marsh, located in Kent and with its proximity to the English Channel, a hotbed of smugglers since the 1600's. London's (Gareth) father unexpectedly dies, making him a baronet, Sir Gareth Inglis, master of Tench House. And eventually, Sir Gareth encounters Kent again - who possibly has the greatest name ever - Josiah Doomsday, the crown prince of the Dymchurch Doomsdays, a family of smugglers .... er, Free Traders, with a rich history in the Marsh. 

What ensues is an absolutely engrossing story of the life on the Marsh, how the Doomsday family takes care of those in need, how the ethics of smuggling are muddled at best, and how Josh and Gareth get past their minor problems ("Because you're a smuggler and I'm a baronet, You're Josh Doomsday and I'm outmarsh. I informed against your sister and you blackmailed me in public!) and become everything to each other. 

It's equal parts wildly romantic and terrifying, as various nefarious characters start attacking Gareth and his family, claiming they are owed something - something unnamed but they clearly believe Gareth knows what. The suspense ratchets up, the family intrigue continues, and everything resolves in a helluva dramatic ending, and I would gladly read another few hundred pages about Josh and Gareth.

So, I was overjoyed to learn that the second book in this series, A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel is in the works. 5 stars and I simply cannot wait to read more about Romney Marsh and its families and characters! 

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

Title: The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

Author: K.J. Charles

Publisher: KJC Books

Release Date: March 25, 2017

Genre(s): Historical Reimagining, AU, Paranormal

Page Count: 251

Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

Read book blurb here

The biggest mystery here is WHY, oh why, haven't I read this before now? Robert Caldwell, a London journalist circa late 1880's in a slightly alternate universe, relates tales of the cases that he and Simon Feximal have worked on over a 20-year period, which is (as the author states) a loving homage to the Victorian occult tradition. 

It's a rich menage of old Cornish tales, ghastly Welsh traditions, and a tosher's tale that gives you an awful insight into what had to be the worst Victorian-era job ever - sorting through the sewers' tunnels and nooks to forage for anything worth selling. The writing is stellar, as always, and really evokes an authentic setting:

" ... in the sweltering August of 1897. It was hot, we had not had rain in too long, and the city stank: of horse manure, of drains, of sweaty unwashed humanity, foul clothes, tanneries, workshops, smoke, filth of every description, dry stone, dust, and two thousand years of human habitation in which it had not burned to the ground nearly often enough."

Eewww. And it is also a love story in the midst of Victorian stoicism that grows into a found family and a life-time love. 5 stars all the way.

Slippery Creatures (The Will Darling Adventures #1)

Title: Slippery Creatures (The Will Darling Adventures #1) 

Author: KJ Charles 

Publisher: KJC Books 

Release Date: May 13, 2020 

Genre(s): Historical M/M Murder / Suspense 

Page Count: 265 

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5 

Read book blurb here

Oh, dear. I haven't stayed up most of the night reading a book for a long time .... except for last night when I picked up this book (after reading just a few chapters earlier and setting it down for some now-I-realize totally insane reason) and devoured it until 4:30 a.m.

Set in post WWI England, Will Darling is a soldier with a box ful of metals and little money. After scraping far too close to the dredges of society, he is unexpectedly saved by inheriting a dusty second-hand bookstore. Except there is a secret hidden somewhere in the stacks, and a nefarious criminal group, as well as the Home Office and any number of tangential characters determined to find it and who aren't particularly interested in playing nice with Will. 

And then there's Kit ... the second son of a Lord, with a penance for purple velvet dressing gowns, champagne and the finer skills of killing a man with a knife as well as scaling walls dressed to the nines in evening wear. Kit is a great character and KJ Charles slowly unpeels him enough to give us a glimpse into his mind, but leaves a shed-load more to unearth. 

There is also a heaping shed-load of sexual tension between Will and Kit (and more than a few wonderfully detailed sex scenes), and the author does a stellar job of sketching out the limits and dangers for men of a certain ilk in the 1920's. Kit's fiance, Phoebe, is delightfully open-minded, and the book ends with a HFN situation for the two men, but there is so much more to explore in this series and I.Can.Not.Wait. 

My only complaint about the book was that Will flies to conclusions immediately as to Kit's motives (and I can't say that he's not wrong .....) but after the third iteration, I grew a bit ...weary of the same theme. But in the grand scheme of things, and at the beginning of what looks to be a simply grand series, I'm okay - I'll live. 4.5 stars for Slippery Creatures.