Spoilers for A Lady for a Duke in this review.
Alexis Hall writes joyous Regency romances about people across the gender and sexuality spectrum. (See my review of his Something Fabulous here.) His characters are fully realized, complex people who you want to hug, be friends with, or shake sense into, sometimes all at once. Some of their back stories -- and some of Hall's plots -- are familiar, but he does them so much better than most writers that they seem utterly fresh and new.
The heroine in A Lady for a Duke is Viola. She is what today we would know as a transgender woman, but there was no such concept in Regency England. Viola grew up understanding that she was a woman but not knowing what to do with that. Before the action of the novel she followed her best friend, our hero Gracewood, in enlisting in the military. Wounded and left for dead at the Battle of Waterloo, she was rescued by a French couple, one of whom was transgender. Viola realized that such a life was possible. She transitioned and returned home to her brother, who had taken her place as heir, and sister-in-law, Louise, who are a wonderful and hilarious and kind and loving couple. (I can't even begin to describe how good Hall's characterizations are, even of relatively minor characters.)
While Viola was at war with Gracewood, Louise had taken Gracewood's younger sister Mira under her wing. Two years after the Battle of Waterloo, Mira writes Louise that Gracewood is in despair. Against her better judgment, Viola agrees to accompany Louise to Gracewood's country manor. There she finds Gracewood dealing with a painful leg injury, addicted to laudanum, and suffering what we would call PTSD as a result of his time in the army, his belief that Viola (who he knew as Marleigh) died in battle, and his abusive upbringing.
Louise convinces Viola not to reveal her identity to Gracewood, concerned that doing so would push him over the edge. Viola grows close to him -- it's not as squicky as it sounds, as Louise's concerns are well-founded -- and helps him begin to come out of his dark place. They fall for each other, and at the moment they are about to kiss Gracewood recognizes Viola as his old friend. Naturally his first reaction is fury that Viola had let him believe for two years that she was dead, but he quickly comes to understand a bit about the emotional and other complications of her transition.
They are still held apart because Viola's post-transition role is as Louise's paid companion. Gracewood is a duke and dukes marrying companions is not the done thing. This is a romance, I don't need to tell you how this is resolved. (If I have any complaints about the book, is that their relationship veered a little towards incesty, since the two of them had spent their childhood as best friends.)
PTSD of soldiers who served in the Napoleonic wars is a common theme in Regency romances, but Hall wrote it better than anyone I have read (even if Gracewood's overcoming his addiction was a little too easy). And, here's the biggest compliment I can give to a Regency romance writer: A Lady for a Duke had a kidnapping plot, and it made perfect sense and I didn't hate it.
Why do I have a crush on Hall? I mean, this book was great but so are other books and I don't tend to fall for the authors. My crush began with the reading group discussion questions Hall wrote for a Lady for a Duke. His questions are funny and deep and humble. My favorite: "If you were going to go to a Regency costume party, which monster you be dressed as? Why?" (This question sort of makes sense in the context of the book, but also, come on, it's hilarious.)
Then I checked out his website (as I do whenever I write a review), and, swoon. Best FAQ page ever. My favorite: Q: Can we be friends? Answer:
This is going to sound rude but … um. No. I’m not saying that you’re not a great person, and that I wouldn’t like you, because you probably are and I probably would, but parasocial relationships are a thing, and they’re a thing that can be quite harmful in both directions, so I have a pretty strong policy of just not going there. I do hope you understand.
It’s really important to me that readers feel safe to interact with me and play in my spaces, and given the complicated power dynamics between writers and readers the last thing I would ever want to do is exploit anyone or make them perform emotional labour for me.
So, I will keep my crush to myself.
(Sidenote: According to his website bio, Hall uses he/she/them pronouns, but the About the Author blurb in A Lady for a Duke uses he, so that's what I'm using here.)
Bonus review:
Something Spectacular follows the adventures of Peggy, who was a minor character in Something Fabulous. Like Something Fabulous, this book is warmhearted and boisterous and emotionally resonant and just a lot of fun.
Minor spoilers ahead:
Peggy is gender fluid in Regency England. She is in love with Belle, the twin sister of Bonny, one of the main characters from Something Fabulous. She is also best friends with both twins, who are, shall we say, overly dramatic and incredibly selfish. She has to extricate herself, to an extent, from them when she falls in love with Orfeo, an opera singer who is a castrato and who identifies as what we would call nonbinary today. Orfeo needs to travel their own journey to get free from the emotional and financial constraints that entangle them. There is heartbreak along the way for both Peggy and Orfeo and a very, very happy ending (in both senses of the word).
A few notes on this book: My favorite part was when Peggy's flaky parents showed up for her because they realized she was sad. I literally cried.
Also, this book is sometimes hilarious. Like this passage:
Peggy stole a glance at Orfeo . . . . She didn't want to put any sort of word to it; she just knew that she desired Orfeo, was interested by them, and -- above all -- that she liked them. Liked them in a way that made her believe herself genuinely capable of heroism. . . . Something truly valiant. Like a knight upon the jousting field, her lover's colours a bright promise upon the end of her lance. . . .
"All right then." Peggy straightened her spine and pushed back her shoulders. She could do this. She could do this for Orfeo. "Take us to the poetry salon."
Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
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