Forced proximity. Competence. Camaraderie. Healing. Feelings.

Answers. (To years-old questions.)

Feel-good, emotionally satisfying… cannot wait for the next book in the series! Love!2022 2023 2024 ...more3 s aspeccharactersoftheday2,014 150 Shelved as 'featured'

https://www.tumblr.com/aspeccharacter...asexual2 s Colette633 15

I ver much enjoyed this story, it was different and quite lovely. It is part of a much larger world set in an alternate Britain filled with magic. I will definitely be reading more from this author.2023 alt-universe fantasy ...more1 Claire890 102

3.5 stars, rounding up for the "it's complicated" polyam + acespec rep! Even when the writing or the plot doesn't totally pull me in, I really love the author's politics and care around consent, representation, and ethics in general. It's funny sometimes to think of authors building up a sense of trust and care over time with their readers in the way people do -- and in this case, the way that her characters do very explicitly -- but that's how this series feels sometimes. , the author taking care of the reader in the way that the characters take care of each other. It's distanced and not *personal*... but loving, putting love and care out in the world. I have feelings about it!aaaaangst alt-history bipoc-mc ...more1 Emilie838 12 Read

I understood why Carillon didn't trust the Council. I hadn't read Thesan and Isembard's romance, Eclipse, prior to reading this, and hadn't gotten that earlier view of Alexander as being much more functional than he is in his travels with Carillon. There was quite a contrast there. Alexander is in emotional turmoil here, and also very broken by his wartime experiences. Carillon is relatively okay, having Lizzy and the children and the land magic to steady him. He's still pretty broken about the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law, thus the lack of trust. Alexander was far away from Albion at the time, so Carillon knows that Alexander didn't physically have anything to do with it.

Carillon isn't worried about Alexander's abilities with magic or if there's fighting to be done. And he apologizes for the things he does that make the asexual and aromantic Alexander extremely uncomfortable. Still, it's awkward. And now middle-aged Carillon and senior citizen Alexander are trying to infiltrate a group of queer young people -- also awkward. At least some of the younger crowd and/or their elders know about Carillon's bisexual adventures in Europe before the first World War, and for a few years afterward. So they know he's had sex with men. Alexander tries to act very young and shy in that context, and I was dubious about how he'd come across as acting young, but I'm willing to accept a handwave there.

As another reviewer notes, the rescue that Carillon has in mind, and that Alexander is helping with, takes place off-page, after a good amount of build-up. I read the novellas set after the book, and there's one that I imagine at least some asexual readers would be uncomfortable with. It's not that it's terribly unreasonable, given the set-up for it. Carillon has his wife, Lizzy, but he's generally a highly-sexed character, whether rites to make the land fertile are involved or not.

As the books with Geoffrey Carillon have progressed, it's clear that water from the well at Ytene is the thing that saved his land-sense, when so many others had lost theirs while fighting in the war, or at least during wartime. Wealhtheow2,465 574

Based on the blurb, I thought I was getting two dangerous magicians fighting back to back in high stakes spy game. What I got was two men talking eliptically for hundreds of pages about their feelings, and not a spot of magic or danger. The only stakes seem to be whether they can pass as lovers long enough to fool their hedonistic hosts. And even that could be a fun read! There's a lot of potential tension there, you could have all sorts of them not being sure what parts of their flirting was a facade and what was real. But nope, they endlessly strategize about how to pretend to be lovers and honestly talk about their feelings all the time. They spend hundreds of pages going to tea and house parties and pretending to flirt with each other, and then off page apparently do the one actual plot point of absconding with a German alchemist. The apparently immensely difficult naming magic Alexander needs to do to free him? Happens off page, and takes only a couple sentences to say he did it. Blowing up his laboratory? Off page. Any scary enforcer work Alexander supposedly does for the Council? Off page. Speaking of which--this is book 1 in the series but apparently there are a number of other books in the same world, which I think is why readers were supposed to just know that the Council is shady without there being a single reason in this book to think so.

The characters do nothing, and aren't memorable. They're supposed to be 40 something and 60 something, but their only past seems to be from WWI; they never talk about and seem untouched by the many other decades of their supposed lives. Plus the writing is very repetitive. There are stylistic tics that, once I noticed them, made me realize why every conversation and every character sounded the same. Mandy12

To preface this review: I have not read any of Celia Lake's other books and was unaware when I got it that it was part of a much larger world. There were things that I didn't fully understand and some confusing bits due to this, hence the slightly lower rating, and I do wish that there was maybe a bit of info put in that explained so that this could be more of a standalone series. In spite of that, however, this was such a wonderfully well written book.

Carillon is endearing, charming and quite able as a protagonist; someone that you really want to see happy, and his relationship with both Lizzy and Alexander are so well developed and well written, each of them different but no less loving. His devotion to Lizzy doesn't override his bond with Alexander and the kindness Lizzy shows and the sweetness of all three really shines through.

Alexander is a bit rougher around the edges and still suffering from a traumatic loss years ago but the slow opening of his heart to Carillon is beautifully written and explored. I love the representation of an ace protagonist, which I thought was handled quite nicely, and his reserved demeanor is no less endearing than Carillon's outgoing one. Somehow the two of them work together, and it's surprisingly romantic, tender, and gentle.

This has been one of my favorite books to read this year so far and I look forward to the next book! Eden1,988

2023 bk 134. I'm not sure why I had problems with this book - well maybe I do. I was all set for a between the ward mystery/espionage book and what I got was a fantasy novel set in an alternate 1930's. The spying was there and well done, I didn't enjoy the length of time spent on the emotional tension between the two main characters, well three main characters. The problem, rescuing a scientist, after being the point that brings the two men to work together, ends up feeling trivial and thrown away instead of the focus of the plot. I think it was that the author both seemed to know what she wanted out of this book - also seemed to not know what she wanted out of this book. I didn't even read the novella attached. Barbara1,248 5

My rating is perhaps a little stingy. While this book is the first in a series, it turns out that there are many earlier stories set in this world, featuring many of this characters here. While there is enough backstory included in this book to follow the plot I can't help feeling that if I had a better understanding of the subtext I would have enjoyed this more.

Also, I was expecting an intrigue story with a romance subplot. Instead, this is a romance with an intrigue subplot. Indeed, the intrigue portion is wrapped up about 3/4 of the way in, with threads dangling - which annoyed me.

I might search out the earlier books and then re-read this one in a better frame of mind.
sf Virginia Rounds 256 10

One of my favorite Celia Lake books!! Right up there with The Fossil Door.

It's part of a larger story and there is some context that would help set the stage for the 'enemies' part of the relationship arc. But given that, I love watching them get to know and respect and then trust and then love each other.

This is a poly romance, since Carillon is married, and an aromantic one as well: Alexander loves Carillon differently than C does A. And they make it work. Anne Libera1,085 10

Not quite sure what I thought of this - Carillon as a character is always close to being too much (with his Lord Peter and Lymond antecedents) and this is much denser than some of Lake's others in a way that made me feel as if I'd missed something or forgotten something important from a previous book. Allison Henle850 4

Utterly delightful, as are all the books in the series, but this one moves particularly slowly. Jennifer205

I d the complicated nature of everything even though it left me tense and dying for something more to happen. I'm conflicted, does it make sense that things stay complicated because there's so much else going on in everyone's lives/minds? Or is it a whole lot of talking and thinking to end without feeling settled? I'm not a big age difference fan but them being older overall helped.reread-worthy Marsha Valance3,840 57

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