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fffridayThat Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston
This is an alternate-history take on a regency romance, set in an alternate Canada (both Toronto and lake country Up North) where the British Empire is still a going concern but kinder and gentler. Oh, and people (usually) choose who to marry partly based on a supercomputer that scans their genetic information.
Margaret is the Crown Princess of the British Empire; she has to find someone who's a good genetic match for her to marry, but before that, she's in Canada anonymously, enjoying a summer of freedom. Helena Marcus is making her debut, but pretty sure that afterwards she's going to marry her childhood sweetheart August Callaghan, heir to his father's shipping empire. They hit it off marvelously, and pretty soon Margaret's coming Up North with Helena and August for the summer, where sparks fly between Margaret and Helena.
Some things that stood out for me about this book:
(1) You know how a while ago there were a glut of dystopian romances where the supercomputer chooses your Perfect Match, and they completely failed to account for the fact that queer people exist? I'm not sure that I completely buy how influential the Computer is - I get why it's important for Margaret to choose a good genetic match, but everybody else? - but it feels like Johnston read all those books and said "Hey, do you not GET all the possibilities you're missing?" And not in the obvious way of "queer person oppressed by the all-powerful supercomputer" but (attempting to avoid spoilers here) "supercomputer actually helps open up previously undiscovered possibilities" - one of the main characters has a genetic issue that isn't what she was expecting.
(2) It's adorably tropey while handling every one of its tropes in an unexpected way. Love triangles? Well, yes, but kinder gentler love triangles with a minimum of jealousy and people behaving badly. People falling in love under disguised identities! Multiple layers of assumed identities! "Oh no we have to share a bed!" Love and duty!
(3) The love scenes are fairly chaste and fade-to-black but they also manage to be hot.
(4) I love how seriously Johnston takes duty and responsibility, in this and her other books. It's not "the System is bad, let's take the system down," but "let's figure out how we can work within the System and still get what we want."
(5) It takes affirmative consent seriously without being preachy or heavy-handed.
It's an incredibly sweet and surprising book. And very Canadian, which gets a bonus point from me.
This is an alternate-history take on a regency romance, set in an alternate Canada (both Toronto and lake country Up North) where the British Empire is still a going concern but kinder and gentler. Oh, and people (usually) choose who to marry partly based on a supercomputer that scans their genetic information.
Margaret is the Crown Princess of the British Empire; she has to find someone who's a good genetic match for her to marry, but before that, she's in Canada anonymously, enjoying a summer of freedom. Helena Marcus is making her debut, but pretty sure that afterwards she's going to marry her childhood sweetheart August Callaghan, heir to his father's shipping empire. They hit it off marvelously, and pretty soon Margaret's coming Up North with Helena and August for the summer, where sparks fly between Margaret and Helena.
Some things that stood out for me about this book:
(1) You know how a while ago there were a glut of dystopian romances where the supercomputer chooses your Perfect Match, and they completely failed to account for the fact that queer people exist? I'm not sure that I completely buy how influential the Computer is - I get why it's important for Margaret to choose a good genetic match, but everybody else? - but it feels like Johnston read all those books and said "Hey, do you not GET all the possibilities you're missing?" And not in the obvious way of "queer person oppressed by the all-powerful supercomputer" but (attempting to avoid spoilers here) "supercomputer actually helps open up previously undiscovered possibilities" - one of the main characters has a genetic issue that isn't what she was expecting.
(2) It's adorably tropey while handling every one of its tropes in an unexpected way. Love triangles? Well, yes, but kinder gentler love triangles with a minimum of jealousy and people behaving badly. People falling in love under disguised identities! Multiple layers of assumed identities! "Oh no we have to share a bed!" Love and duty!
(3) The love scenes are fairly chaste and fade-to-black but they also manage to be hot.
(4) I love how seriously Johnston takes duty and responsibility, in this and her other books. It's not "the System is bad, let's take the system down," but "let's figure out how we can work within the System and still get what we want."
(5) It takes affirmative consent seriously without being preachy or heavy-handed.
It's an incredibly sweet and surprising book. And very Canadian, which gets a bonus point from me.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 02:38 pm (UTC)(Also I am amused because I bought this Johnston's Star Wars book about Ahsoka for my 12yo this Christmas - this is not quite the same thing!)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-28 08:51 pm (UTC)