K Patrick

A timeless, atmospheric, and sensual romance novel, Mrs S follows a newly appointed matron and her love affair with the headmaster's wife—a woman twice her age and as graceful and feminine as our main character is awkward and masculine. I adored this novel's prose and setting and truly felt the cloying claustrophobia of the campus alongside the subtle intensity of their relationship. Beautiful, precise, and somewhat haunting, Mrs S is a perfect lesbian literary romance to read in a show more forgotten cemetery in the sun. show less

Loved this! I vote for Gillian Anderson to play Mrs S if there is ever a movie!

With its suppressed yearning, erotic tension and search for the “self”, the book is essentially a lengthy prose poem that spoke to me on many levels.

In K Patrick’s debut novel Mrs S, we become entangled in a haze of longing that stretches out across a stifling summer, humid with anticipation.

Set in a dusty boarding school for girls in rural England, Mrs S follows the central character, a butch young show more Australian employed by the school as a Matron. This protagonist, who is never named, falls into a libidinous affair with the headmaster’s wife, the titular Mrs S, bringing with it the contemporary sex writing I have been waiting for – finally, some urgent lesbian fucking. show less

Not my usual read but always nice to step into the unknown and embrace a story and a situation very unfamiliar to me. An unknown Australian lesbian is working as a matron in an exclusive English boarding school for girls. Mrs S (we only ever know her initial) is the headmistress and oversees the operation of the school helped by Mr S. We very soon become aware of the matron’s sexual orientation as she becomes obsessed with the elegant Mrs S who surprisingly returns this affection. There is show more an unwritten sense of sexual tension and when ignited explodes in the pages of the book. I felt that these scenes were well expressed and not overtly sexual written in a way that kept the readers attention whilst slowly building to a somewhat predictable climax (no pun intended). Many thanks to netgalley for an advance ARC in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written. show less

Forbidden love, boarding school, England - should be right up my alley, but I had a very hard time with this book. First, the writing was very irritating: no quotation marks, so the flow was interrupted by stopping to try to figure out who was speaking; and short, terse, but not particularly well -written sentences. It seemed very pretentious, like a new writer trying to be different. Second, there seemed to be no foundation for the passionate affair - our narrator is obsessed with every show more little detail of the headmaster's wife (Mrs. S), and suddenly Mrs. S reciprocates - no building of dramatic tension, no real character development.
I'd say don't waste your time trying to make it through. show less