“For heaven’s sake”— Valentine tried, and failed, to keep the impatience from his voice —“if we lived life as though it were a novel, we’d spend all our time becoming embroiled in improbable adventures and spouting nonsense about filling our vast and empty souls with joyful aches.”
“Yes,” said Tarleton, “and?” [loc. 286]
Extremely funny and gleefully ahistorical Regency-ish M/M romance. Valentine, Duke of Malvern, has proposed to his childhood friend Arabella and been rebuffed. He is subsequently woken at four in the morning by Bonaventure Tarleton, Arabella's twin brother, who informs him that Arabella has run away and that the two of them must pursue her immediately. During their search for the elusive Arabella, Bonny (I am not a huge fan of this nickname) describes his life with his sister, revelling in books and writing their own continuations -- yay fanfic! -- and desperately hoping for financial salvation. He also reveals that he is not a person who falls in love with women. Valentine is appalled: nobody had ever told him that falling in love with men was an option ...
Pretty much everyone in this novel is queer, with the (possible) exception of the suspicious innkeeper. Valentine and Bonny encounter a lady novelist and her friend, who have offered shelter to Arabella ("she leaned in and kissed her companion full on the lips. What a very strange friendship these women had developed. Perhaps it was the remote location..." [loc. 2040]) and have several unexpected encounters with Valentine's aristocratic acquaintance Sir Horley, who flirts shamelessly with Bonny and tells Valentine they have so much to talk about next time they meet. And Arabella, though she turns out to be a shameless drama queen, has definite, if novelistic, ideas about her own future.
Once I discarded any expectations of historical accuracy (or more accurately historical-ambience tropes), this was an absolute delight to read. There were a few points where I was uncomfortable with how Valentine was treated, and I felt the novel needed more of the backstory about familial expectations and how, exactly, Valentine had disappointed the Tarletons. But overall, a hilarious, charming and warm-hearted romance.
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