title: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen
author: KJ Charles
publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
publication date: March 7, 2023
pages: 352
peppers: 3 (on this scale)
warnings: violence, death
summary: When Gareth's mother died, years before the opening of the novel, his father sends him away from their Baroncy in Kent to live with an unkind uncle in London. Now that his father has died, he moves to Kent to claim his inheritance. Once there, he comes across the Doomsday family of smugglers, run by their leader Joss, a man with whom Gareth had a brief affair that didn't end well. The more Gareth gets threatened by the locals and the more he looks into his father's life, the more he sees that doesn't add up to what he thought it would.
tropes:
- I'll never see this person again
- inheritance
- mean family
- newly discovered family
- noble criminals
- on different sides of the law
- things are not as they appear
- pro-LGBTQ+ characters in a place/time where/when their actions were against the law
what I liked:
- strong characterization
- some great humor
- two main characters live in a time when they can't be open about who they are, but they find ways to make a life
- together
- great supporting characters
what I didn’t like:
- nope, nothing here
overall rating: 5 (of 5 stars)