KJ Charles’ newest historic romance, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, is greatest described as a queer model of “Poldark.” It’s an adventurous cross-class love story set within the marshy hinterlands of England’s County Kent, because the Napoleonic Wars rage within the background.
The action-packed and intrigue-filled plot begins with a union of digital opposites. Gareth Inglis, a gently bred regulation clerk, and Joss Doomsday, a charismatic nation smuggler, have little in frequent. But for one blissful week, they’re simply “Kent” and “London,” aliases signifying their respective dwelling turfs.Their idyllic affair abruptly ends when Joss is named again dwelling to take care of pressing household enterprise and Gareth, who’s skilled greater than his share of rejection, assumes this “family business” is only a well mannered brushoff.
That would have been the tip, if not for one inconvenient reality: London-raised Gareth really hails from Romney Marsh, the identical patch of Kentish land as his working-class ex-lover. And when his estranged father dies, Gareth inherits his title, nation dwelling and tasks.
Just like that, Joss and Gareth’s no-strings tryst turns sophisticated as they discover themselves not solely in shut proximity but additionally on reverse sides of the regulation. Joss is in cost of his household’s unlawful however well-established and regionally revered smuggling operation. And Gareth, now an influential native landowner by advantage of his inheritance, has a half-sister who’s romantically hooked up to a zealous income officer, enemy primary in Romney Marsh, the place even judges and gentry purchase their items from Joss’ household.
The varied monetary and internecine quarrels are convincingly rendered and the supporting characters and setting finely textured, however it’s the tenderness and steam that emanate from Gareth and Joss that actually give the story its spark. Their relationship is deeply passionate, and so they have a stunning approach of speaking even after they don’t have the language to articulate their emotions. Charles superbly describes precisely what every man goes by means of emotionally, even when no phrases are exchanged: “They kissed their way past the hurt and the loneliness, kissed themselves back together . . .”
Fans of Charles’ Society of Gentlemen sequence and new readers alike will adore this complicated and emotional historic romance.
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