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Reading: Proper English
Nov. 16th, 2019 03:52 pmI've been meaning to try one of K.J. Charles's books for years, as so many of my friends love her, and when I read that Proper English was f/f, rather than m/m as I think most of her books are, I thought I'd give it a try. (Not that I have anything against m/m, but I particularly like f/f.)
Proper English is a historical lesbian country-house murder mystery, and it's every bit as delightful as that sounds. When Pat Merton and her brother Bill are invited to a shooting party with their old friend Jimmy Yoxall, she's expecting a peaceful few weeks of healthy outdoor pursuits and not having to make pleasant small-talk with other women, but on arrival she finds that the party is much larger than she'd expected and includes Jimmy's new fiancée, Fenella Carruth. Despite intially dismissing Fen as a featherhead, Pat finds herself becoming closer to the other woman, but this is not a happy country-house party and when one of the guests is found murdered there's no shortage of suspects.
I thought this was frothy and charming and perfect comfort reading. It felt a bit like a grown-up version of Robin Stevens's Wells and Wong mysteries (with a definite emphasis on the grown-up as there are some definitely explicit sex scenes), and I'm definitely going to read more K.J. Charles. (I gather this is a prequel to her Think of England, in which Pat and Fen are minor characters, and have already bought that.)
Proper English is a historical lesbian country-house murder mystery, and it's every bit as delightful as that sounds. When Pat Merton and her brother Bill are invited to a shooting party with their old friend Jimmy Yoxall, she's expecting a peaceful few weeks of healthy outdoor pursuits and not having to make pleasant small-talk with other women, but on arrival she finds that the party is much larger than she'd expected and includes Jimmy's new fiancée, Fenella Carruth. Despite intially dismissing Fen as a featherhead, Pat finds herself becoming closer to the other woman, but this is not a happy country-house party and when one of the guests is found murdered there's no shortage of suspects.
I thought this was frothy and charming and perfect comfort reading. It felt a bit like a grown-up version of Robin Stevens's Wells and Wong mysteries (with a definite emphasis on the grown-up as there are some definitely explicit sex scenes), and I'm definitely going to read more K.J. Charles. (I gather this is a prequel to her Think of England, in which Pat and Fen are minor characters, and have already bought that.)
