Sarah Granger (1)

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A French musket ball to the leg takes Captain Hugh Fanshawe from the battlefield and leaves him enduring long, quiet days compiling paperwork at Horse Guards headquarters. He knows his lameness makes him the object of pity and distaste at the stifling social engagements he dutifully escorts his mother and sister to, but everything in his orderly life changes when Colonel Theo Lindsay arrives.

Theo is everything Hugh is not. He’s a man of physical show more perfection and an enjoyable companion, and their friendship deepens into love. But when the army suspects there’s a French spy at Horse Guards, Hugh discovers nothing is as it seems, and the paper he shuffles daily could save his lover’s life.

I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FROM THE GOODREADS M/M GIFT EXCHANGE. THANKS!

My Review: A steamless spy drama set in an underused Napoleonic Wars setting, with a lovely little gay romance on top of it. The men who fall in love aren't in rut, they're in a more Heyeresque kind of connection. The author uses on-page euphemism, as opposed to more old-fashioned "the fire flickered and died," to gloss over the physicality of sexual activity. Even a visit to a molly-house is...social, not exclusively sexual. He meets Theo there, yet does not connect this to Theo's later act of seeking him out at the workplace they share.

It is the kind of story I enjoy, set in what feels like a reasonably accurate Regency re-creation. I didn't point and laugh at the...heightened...Heyerlike language, which is a feat. Trying to make champagne with Thompson seedless grapes is usually how the imitators come across; Author Granger, not so much. The spirited exchanges are there to keep me entertained while thinking "shouldn't they be fucking?"

If you're not interested in the steamier side of a story, this one will keep you busy with Hugh's idolizing of Theo as a dashing, omnicompetent godlike beauty. With his serious self-image problems. With his wounded-warrior syndrome. There is a lot to be recovering from after being crippled by a war wound, and by a lifetime of being told you're wrong just for existing.

Add in some amusing family shenanigans (his younger sister keeps Hugh and his mother on the hop, steering her away from trouble), and there was enough oddness with his friend Emily and her ambiguously intentioned attention to him to keep subplots going.

What there is not is the always desirable HEA, because that was not on offer in 1810s England. If Hugh and Thheo transgress bounds of propriety in their attention to each other, they face dreadful consequences. This results in HFN endings being the best one can hope for in this milieu...if that's a deal-breaker, be alert for it now.

A good historical story without sexual content beyond social bounds. show less

The first half of this book seemed to do a great job of introducing us to Hugh and Theo and building a relationship between. The second half though, where the turns of the plot started picking up, felt a bit rushed and forced—plot for the sake of plot, rather than anything else. Not bad as mindless bedtime reading.

Wonderful and authentic to the time period. I felt fully immersed in 19th century Britain, loved the speech and mannerisms of the characters, and although I figured out what was going on well before the reveal, it didn't hinder my enjoyment at all.

Brilliantly done. Highly recommended if you like (circa) Regency era novels.

Even though I played while I was growing up, I’ve never been a real tennis fan. Something about having objects hurling toward me at great speed put me off the sport. Granger, however, makes tennis sound fun and exciting while game after game are couched in a gentle romance.

Since he was a teen drooling over his contemporary male tennis champions, Ryan Betancourt has had a crush on super-player Josh Andrews. Now one of the newest members of the pro tennis circuit, Ryan is disappointed when show more Josh and his retinue of father and trainers passes him by without acknowledgement after Ryan says hello. Ryan quickly learns that Josh isn’t stuck up, but is in his pregame zone, getting ready to take on another competitor. It’s only one of many lessons Ryan must lean now that he’s competing in the big leagues.

Fortunately, when he and Josh connect, the sex is everything Ryan always imagined it would be. That Josh and he would fall in love is icing on the cake. But all is not happiness and light in the pro ranks. Chase Mitchell, once Josh’s lover, isn’t going down without a fight both on and off the court. It’s a good thing Ryan and Josh have their personal and public fans like fellow tennis player Elena, cook Tommy, and both Ryan’s and Josh’s parents to cheer them when they win and pick them up, dust them off, and support them when they lose.

Read the rest of my review at AAR: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=9552 show less