Review of fabulous romance Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall

 

Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall is a very sweet romance set in Regency England.  Note I'm carefully not saying it's a Regency romance, as it does not follow the tropes of the genre.  Less a paint by numbers story that mixes and matches characters in specific life situations (unexpected virgin crosses wits with billionaire smuggler; or scarred hero can't resist working class girl with naturally refined taste) and more of a comedy of manners.  But, like traditional Regency romances, this tale resides in a fantasy of 19th century England. 

Hero number 1, Valentine, is the mirror world hot, insanely rich but disdainful duke (based on Jane Austen's Darcy in Pride and Prejudice).  Yes, he is all those things, but he is also miserable in a hopeless way that is too dark for even the  Napoleonic war veterans suffering from PTSD that inhabit some Regency romances.  

The book opens with Valentine making a half-hearted effort to follow through on an engagement set up for him decades ago by his late father, to his younger next door neighbor Arabella.  There are several problems with this scheme.  One is that Arabella is so overwrought at the thought of marrying Valentine that she runs away.  

Hero number 2 is Bonny, Arabella's very swishy twin brother.  Bonny does not have an equivalent in your typical Regency romance.  His archetype may appear as a very minor character now and again -- a fun uncle or a servant who is the magical gay who talks sense into the hero. 

All kinds of hijinks ensue when Bonny talks Valentine into pursuing Arabella, to prevent her from abandoning Bonny.  Valentine learns that there is such a thing as gay men, and that he is one.  He learns that Arabella is bisexual and that her lover Peggy is genderfluid, and that the sweet ladies whose door he happens to knock on when he is in need of help are lesbians, and that his annoying acquaintance who he keeps bumping into is gay, as is every stable boy and blacksmith he ever meets.  His mother, who appears at the end of the book, is the only straight character, but she subversively enjoys much, much younger men.  

In short, this book is set in a Regency England where everyone is fucking everyone, and poor Valentine is the only one doesn't know it.  Luckily, in this England there does not appear to be any sodomy laws, or accidental pregnancies, or anything that would prevent every single day from being a giant, joyous gay pride parade.  It's impossible not to smile at the thought.