She can’t live up to her own potential so she ends up living down to people’s expectations, therefore proving them true.

Pat’s love interest, Fenella, for example - her storyline is all about her frustration and heartbreak with how often her personality is misread by everyone with whom she interacts. It’s cool to see women talking about “issues” in a book that combines two genres in which one doesn’t usually expect deep philosophy - fluffy romance and country-house murder mystery.īut it is a book with deep bits, small ones that are easy to swallow. The leading lady, Pat, has never been married and likes to go hunting with the men in her social sphere (specifically, “shooting”, which is birds.) There’s an awesome conversation between some of the female characters about vegetarian objections to hunting (in the person of the book’s Indian character, Miss Singh) vs. objections from a meat eater who is merely squeamish about where her food ultimately comes from, vs. But if anyone else needs convincing, here are some more details. I can think of no more convincing way to start my review/endorsement of KJ Charles’ new book Proper English than these words I added to a reblog of an aesthetic post on Tumblr: “I just read this yesterday! Folks, y’all know there’s an Edwardian lesbian romance that is also a country house murder mystery where the lesbians solve it and live happily ever after, right? Well, now you do.” Plus, the love interest is a beautiful, not-thin woman who is just described as voluptuous and pretty with no disclaimers.įor some of you, that’s all you’ll need and you’ve already one-clicked it or requested it at your library.

Think of England by K.J. Charles