A Seditious Affair

I just adored this book and I'm still thinking about it weeks later. The way these two characters listened to and accepted each other was just so heartwarming. Silas allowed Dom to explore his sexuality without shame and in safety. In return, Dom treated Silas like an equal and saw the man beneath the gruff, lower-class exterior. This dynamic wouldn't have worked without Dom engaging with Silas' arguments and refusing to ask Silas to change his beliefs, even if they couldn't agree.

My favorite line comes from Silas trying to reconcile his feelings for Dom, a privileged gentleman offering to make his life better, with his allegiance to his community and the fight for progress:
"Everybody's cold out there, Tory. Everybody. And if you think show more it's enough for me that you make one man warm, you've not listed to a f-ing word I've said" show less

“Heaven preserve me from a man of principle.”

We fling about ‘favorite’ and as such it loses meaning. No judgement, no guilt even, but I have a lot of favorites. Who is my favorite band? What is my favorite season? I need some context, then perhaps I can answer.

Favorite romance is even a bit harder, and I think for a lot of good reasons

I’ve read some books this year. I have read and reread a lot of favorites. Some could easily win / intertwine/ challenge this book. The thing about that is, there aren’t many--maybe a handful--that I love for everything it is. Is this my favorite couple? I don’t know. I don't even know if it's my fave KJC couple. Is it my favorite hero? I don’t think so. Is it my favorite setting? show more Perhaps. Does it have my favorite cast of supporting characters--I think I can actually say yes to that.

This book, in the end, is about the recipe for me. I like butter, but butter is not my favorite. Salt is great, but what it really does is enhance flavors...and you get it.

Now that I’ve exposed you all to that painfully long explanation of how this book is very clearly a favorite of mine, how can I explain a book that gives me so much to say it leaves me speechless yet again? Things like “Come to bed with me, you blasted radical. Bring me your revolution.” make me melt to my very core. How, honestly, does this opposites attract-IN POLITICS-come off so uncompromising, yet promising--so beautiful, yet raw? I don’t have to know. I just know that it does. It does. Silas and Dom are two principled men from the opposite sides of the--well everything--the stakes are never low.
”I want to make you give up your principles almost as much as I should like to give up mine. I’m afraid for you every day. I want you to be safe. I want you warm and fed. I want a thousand things for you that you won’t take from me.”

“I can’t.”

“I know you can’t accept a damned thing except for the trivial matters of my heart, my soul, and my moral certainty. You’ve helped yourself to those quite freely.”

Silas and Dom can succeed because of their regard for the other and their willingness to...talk. Yep, there’s a lot of conversation...but it's really not at the expense of action.

“There is no fine gentleman for me.. I had the finest gentleman in the land once and I didn’t want him. I want my firebrand. And I want no after.”

This book has one of the best ex-subplots of all time (I challenge you to find one better!). It’s done with such precision, such care and such respect, I honestly can’t say I’ve ever encountered anything like it in fiction. The hurt and wrong from the past--Richard’s refusal of Dominic’s needs--is also based on a place of intense love. Richard and Dominic’s honest and raw conversations and continuing love for each other did the exact opposite of what novels that so prominently feature an ex-lover do, they strengthen and give life to Silas and Dominic’s love.

”Your werewolf is...devoted."

I could say more of the secondary characters, but that is one of the things that was most important and moving to me about this book.

Silas and Dom have no faux philosophical conversations. In fact, every conversation in this book is between people with deep understanding being deeply challenged in their beliefs. And the conversations are so pointed and effective, it’s easy to understand both sides.

”Everybody’s cold out there, Tory. Everybody. And if you think it’s enough for me that you make one man warm, you’ve not listened to a fucking word I’ve said.”

None of this, though, can hold a candle to the intense acts of love performed by all the “Society” characters. What’s more? This book easily has two of the best love declarations. I will not quote it. But I will reread it a lot-as I have since I first read this book.

And one of the excellent things upon reread, is you catch more...for me this time, I noticed so much more Cyprian. And what kind of valet he is…needless to say, I'll be jumping right to #3. show less

This book slayed me. It was so much better that I could’ve expected, even after the awesomeness that was its prequel. So intense and tightly-plotted that it barely let me breathe, damnit. I complained about too much politics in the first book — guess what, this one positively dripped with it, and I freaking LOVED it. Yep, you read that correctly, KJ Charles made me care about 19th-century politics. That’s some magical shit right there.

As to Dominic and Silas’s relationship… It was PER-FECT. So much conflict and tension between these two, but all it did was make their story even better. Aaahhh!!! The character development here was so good I can’t even. Both of them were completely different men at the end of the book. And the show more sex, oh my god. Historical amateur D/s smut at its best!!!



I’ve died and gone to pervy heaven.

Highly recommend this series to all historical romance fans. It doesn’t get much better. show less

“I kneel for two reasons only, and the other one is prayer. It’s not how I am, not usually.”

ASSDKNGJJGFORKJCJGROKWESTANGORKKKGJGJ!!!!!!

#Dead, Deader, Deadest!



Warning! Some quotes ahead! Proceed with caution.

5 stars

Gushing! Gushing! And more Gushing!

Gaaaah!

Just read this beautiful quote....

“I must. I have been coming to love you for a long time, you damned seditious brute, as I almost found the courage to tell you earlier. Wednesday by Wednesday, week by week, I have loved you.” He ran his hands gently down Silas’s sides, to his hips. “I know the burden this puts on you, and that it is a crackbrained, dangerous way to go on, but I also know what it is to lay my life waste. I will not do it again.”

Ok! You read it, right? show more Did you feel it? The rush! The stomach churning and all that jazz, lovey, dovey stuff. BECAUSE, i felt it!



Silas and Dom’s story did things to my body, my soul and my whole entire being. The connection between these two is mind blowing, the chemistry is just! WOW! WOW! I was in book heaven while reading this one. I am currently still basking in book heaven.

Silas broke my little peanut heart. I love him. His character is well written and i felt like i was with his in the 1800s, going through every struggle he was going through, trying his best to fight for what he believes in, in turn that leaves him at a vulnerable position and sometimes lonely because not so many people share his beliefs.

Silas had little enough Yuletide spirit. He had nobody to share Christmas with, for one thing, with Harry gone to be a gentleman. He’d never made a fuss about the day, but Harry, with that irrepressible joy of his, had put up greenery and candles too, when the extravagance could be justified, and usually found something decent to make a meal. Silas, atheist to the core, had grumbled about waste and foolish superstition, but now there was no Harry after six years, and the prospect of a cheerless, lonely Christmas was bleak.



Dominic gaah! This guy, i wanted to smack him and hug him at the same time. Another MC well written to a point you can’t help fall in love with the Tory. Throughout the book his character growth is evident. I love him. I love him and Silas together.

Dominic had paced around Richard’s room like a caged animal the day before, going over and over the same ground—What do I do? What do I do?—until finally Richard had said, “Do you trust him?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a simple question. Do you believe that he is, as you have said, a good man with different opinions? Not a murderer, not a Bonapartist, not a traitor?”
“Yes. I do.”



Did i mention the writing is soooooooo goooood? If i didn’t, then here it is. The writing is excellent, It flows from page to page, we have conflicts, believable conflicts without crossing the drama llama line. I was not even bothered with the politics stuff because it blended with the story; it was part of the story.

The sex scenes left me undone. Damn! Hot! Hot! Hot! The chemistry between the Tory and the Brute is on fire. These two complement each other. Silas knows what Dom wants in the bedroom and he gives it to him good, while enjoying himself too. Dom knows that Silas is the only man who can fulfil his sexual needs. These two make the sheets explode and set the beds on fire. GAAAH!

Silas ran a finger along Dominic’s length. “Heaven in Hell’s despair.You’re mine, understand? Mine to the bone.”
“Yes.” Too true, hopelessly true.
“I own you, Tory. Nobody else. No lackwit gentry-fuckster who doesn’t know how to treat you right.” His hand was around Dominic’s prick, fingers just touching, making him wait. Dominic’s fingers were clenched on empty air. “Like it’s a hardship to have those pretty eyes pleading. Like I wouldn’t want that pretty mouth telling me I’m the master here. Christ, the way you give it up to me. I own you.”



ANNNNNDDD! Yap! Dead, Deader, Deadest!

What i am gushing about is! Everything in this book worked for me. DOUBLE GAAAH!

Richard! You are still in my boot camp.

Thank you so much Elena, Moony, Rosa and Teal for the awesome buddy read. Yay! I finally read this book thanks to you. show less

My faith in KJ Charles is fully restored after the somewhat disappointing A Fashionable Indulgence. The love story between Dominic and Silas is passionate, angsty, occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious, and basically everything I look for in a good romance novel. Frankly, I could only read a few chapters of the book at a time because the feels were so incredibly strong and often painful. The D/s theme made me a little uncomfortable but it was such an important part of the dynamic between the two MCs that I don't see how KJ Charles could have skipped it. And it's obvious that the emotional attachment between them (based largely on a shared love of books *sigh*) is just as important as the physical side.

I expressed my discomfort with show more Indulgence, which seemed to celebrate upper class excess while paying lip service to the working class concerns. A Seditious Affair, however, goes all in, portraying two men - Tory and Brute - on the front lines of opposite sides of the struggle. While I'll always sympathize strongly with the oppressed party, Charles does a credible job of presenting Dominic's aristocratic views in a way that don't detract from his appeal. Plus by the end of the book, both men realize that the issue isn't completely black and white.

Along with the beautifully kinky star-crossed love story, Charles also incorporates a full arc about the transformation of Dominic's relationship with his former lover and best friend Richard, which emotionally frees up Richard to be featured in Society of Gentlemen book #3, due in April (so far away!).

There are so many great KJ Charles books that it's hard to rank them, but I'd put A Seditious Affair right up there with Think of England as one of her absolute best.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for honest review. show less

It's been a year since Silas and Dominic first began hooking up, though neither knows the other's name or circumstances. Their affair is purely transactional, and it began when Dominic sought an anonymous partner to realize a kink that definitely posed challenges in 1819 London. Regrettably, as their private lives suddenly collide in political opposition, the honeymoon might well be over.

This book landed in my TBR pile at the beginning of 2018, and now I really wish I could remember how (thought it was BookPage, but couldn't find a reference to it in that publication). The story was a bit different from what I was expecting initially, but I was super interested in learning how the author would handle both the nature of their show more relationship and the resolution of the conflict given the era. It was great — delicious writing AND educational to boot! It seems this is the second in a series, so maybe I'll check out the first installment as well. show less

Another Edwardian gay romance with recurring characters, overlapping in time period with A Fashionable Indulgence. Silas is a publisher of seditiously democratic pamphlets, and also the dom of a Tory whose name he doesn’t know but with whom he has excellent political discussions after the sex. He’s understanding about the Tory’s need for pain—much more so than of his political opinions—and wishes for a fuller relationship with the man. Except then the man turns out to be part of His Majesty’s Government dedicated to extirpating sedition. Duty and passion collide! While the characters are in difficult positions, I thought Silas had a very good point when he (among others) noted that the Tory’s sexual practices broke the show more very law he purported to believe must be rigorously upheld. Dominic’s self-hatred was focused mostly on his need for pain, not his internalized homophobia as such—Charles seems very careful to avoid that in main characters, leaving the sexual (and racial) slurs for others. Silas even fumbles his way into requiring the use of safewords, without learning it from any community. It is interesting that even this little pocket of they’re-all-gay fantasy gentleman can’t exist without classism, which many of her main characters do partake in even as others in the narrative rebuke them for it. If you want an Edwardian romance, even an idealized one, that seems to be the price. show less