Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan

Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure

by Courtney Milan

Mrs. Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew.

Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of nine and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.

Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.

If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.

Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences.

Reviewed by celinenyx on

5 of 5 stars

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It was almost like being on holiday - a holiday where she lived in her own rooms and tormented men for fun and profit.

That. Was. Epic.

One cranky widow and a shy spinster team up to make the life of a deflated balloon of a human being miserable. It's unapologetic, it's angry, and incredibly touching.

"Oh, for God's sake. Forty-nine is extremely young. If forty-nine is not you, that would make me old, and I am not old. I have reached the age of maturity to which all humans must particularly aspire; to dismiss this pinnacle of perfection as old age is to demean all of humankind."

Was it realistic? Hell no. Did I read all of it with a giant smile on my face? YES.

We need more old lady sapphic stories.

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Trigger warnings: mention of domestic abuse, mention of rape/sexual assault. Some threat on-page, but never escalates.

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  • 19 July, 2019: Reviewed
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