An Unseen Attraction

by Kj Charles

• ASIN: B01G0GD0E0
• Publish Date: 2017 (first published 16 May 2017)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 242
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

This is all Joce @squibblesreads' fault.  She had a video comparing this book to The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue.  I had recently read a m/m historical romance and found it pretty disappointing.  She said that Rowley and Clem were her favorite couple.  I decided to give this one a try.

This book was so good.  Clem runs a boarding house that his half brother owns.  He was born after an Earl raped an Indian nanny who accompanied his brother's family home to England.   Clem is seen as an embarrassment to his snobbish family and this is a way of keeping him out of sight.  The only condition of his employment is that he has to keep a drunken ex-vicar in the house no matter what.  Clem is a methodical person who needs to do one thing at a time.  Other people think that he is slow and clumsy because he gets flustered with too much stimuli.

Rowley is a taxidermist who takes lodgings at the house after setting up shop next door.  He prefers to be alone and can't handle other people's anger well after surviving an abusive childhood.  His quietness settles Clem.  The two of them gradually find enjoyment in each other's company.  They have a nightly cup of tea together.  They are just starting to acknowledge feelings for each other when there is a robbery attempt and then a murder.

This is when homosexuality was still banned in England.   There is a pub called the Jack and Knave that Clem frequents.  It is open only to approved people brought by known clients.  Inside the Jack, gay men and women are free to socialize openly.  Many of the characters in this series are regulars there.

This book does a very good job on the romance portion of the book.  There is sexual activity but it is loving and in context of a relationship.  A mystery is introduced in this book but is not fully resolved until the series is over.   It involves Clem's half-brother and then inheritance of the earldom.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[chymerra]

This book took a while for me to get into. I almost DNF’d it about 16% into the book because it just dragged and I was wondering when the romance was going to start. But, right after I made that decision, everything happened. The book went from being boring to being very interesting. I couldn’t read it fast enough!!

The storyline was pretty good. Clem is the bastard younger brother of an Earl. 8 years before, when the former Earl died, he made sure that his legitimate son and heir took care of Clem. And by that, the new Earl bought a lodging house and made Clem the proprietor of it. Clem liked his job and liked most of the people who lodged there. With the exception of Lugtrout, a pastor who has lived there indefinitely and is a drunk. Lugtrout is the otherwise black spot on Clem’s happy life.

If Lugtrout is a black spot on Clem’s life, then Rowley Green is a bright, bright yellow spot. Rowley is a taxidermist who owns the shop next to Clem’s boarding house. In the 8 months that he has lived at the lodging house, Clem and Rowley have become fast friends. They share a nightly tea and have really gotten to know each other. Clem, though, is very attracted to Rowley but is afraid to say or do anything.

This is Victorian England and male/male relationships are not only frowned on but can constitute in 10 years of jail time. So, Clem has to be very careful about who he approaches. Luckily, he found a club called the Jack and Knave that is for men of Clem’s inclination.

Luckily for him, Rowley is also very attracted to Clem and on what I guess you could call their first date, he told Clem that he was attracted to him and shortly afterwards, they had their first kiss. It was during that first kiss that Lugtrout started screaming that he had been robbed. After calming him down, Clem sends word to his brother about Mr. Lugtrout’s behavior….only to be told, in not so many words, “Deal with it”.

It is when Mr. Lugtrout is found murdered outside of the lodging house and then Rowley is attacked and his shop burned, is when the book picked up pace. From then on, it was Clem and Rowley trying to figure out why Lugtrout was killed, who attacked Rowley and who tried to burn down Rowley’s shop. All on top of keeping their relationship super secret.

The sex scenes weren’t anything remarkable and I actually kinda disconnected from them in most scenes. I don’t know why. Maybe because it had to be super secret and the doors had to be shut and locked before anything was done. The oppression of that time was awful.

While I say that the sex scenes weren’t remarkable, I did think that the romance between Clem and Rowley were. Both had overcome a lot in their life and both were willing to make their relationship work….not matter what. What I thought sucked is that they couldn’t let on that they were in love. The only safe place was the club.

Now what I thought was refreshing was the club that Clem belonged to. There was a trans woman who tended the bar and I have never, ever read a historical romance book that is LGBTQIA that had a trans woman featured. And I loved it. I hope that Phyllis (aka Phil) makes more of an appearance in the other books.

The whodunit storyline was pretty predictable but I do like that the author did throw in a couple of curveballs. The main one being at the end of the story which threw things up in the air on Clem’s end.

Speaking of the end of the book, the author did a great job wrapping up the storylines. But, like I said above, the curveball at the end threw me. And it left for a great opener for the next story.

How many stars will I give An Unseen Attraction: 3

Why: While I liked the story, I had an issue getting into it. The characters were really hard for me to connect to at first but once I did, I really enjoyed them. Besides the book getting off to a very slow start, there was also a lull in the middle of the book. The author was able to get back on track but the lull was for a couple of chapters (when Clem and Edmund met) and I was pretty certain that the book wouldn’t recover from it.

Will I reread: On the fence about rereading it.

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex and some mild violence

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**