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This is kind of a strange book. I liked it, but there's definitely a lot going on.
It's single POV, and our POV character is Frank, who's just barely making it on tutors wages after being seriously injured in action in India. Frank's understanding of colonialism is complicated. He's well aware the people he was fighting were people, just the same as him, and has the PTSD to show for it, and he's equally sure England shouldn't have come in and taken their resources/effed around with them. He's also not sure it's possible for the colonial powers that be to just go back to where they came from and leave the rest of the world alone at this point. It's an interesting (likely anachronistic, although my awareness of the levels of discussion of imperial spread in Edwardian England is almost none, so, who knows) perspective.
In any case, he has a lifelong friend, also gay, whose life he saved in action, thereby receiving the serious injury. Said friend has surprisingly inherited, but the money is tied up for the moment and is living beyond his means in a state of drunken Depression. In this state, said friend somewhat accidentally procures Frank a private tutoring job.
The private tutoring job is for Viscount Gracewater, an adult still living with his father, and this is one of those "something is clearly wrong the moment you walk in the house" situations, you're just not entirely clear what is wrong.
The Viscount, "Gracie", immediately takes to Frank. Gracie is curious about the world around him, he seems childlike in many ways, and perhaps as though he has some type of learning disability, maybe dyslexia.
The book is a slow burn with a lot of subtle darkness under the surface and then, occasionally, that darkness will just burst out of the narrative in ways that are very unnerving. Each time, though, it forces Gracie to grow some, to settle into himself and learn to stand on his own two feet.
This book is a mass of content warnings, including rape (not between the main characters), child abuse, and suicide, among others. But Fox handles the topics deftly and compassionately, and nothing feels dismissive. This is a case where the HEA is both earned and feels almost just, for lack of a better word.
It's single POV, and our POV character is Frank, who's just barely making it on tutors wages after being seriously injured in action in India. Frank's understanding of colonialism is complicated. He's well aware the people he was fighting were people, just the same as him, and has the PTSD to show for it, and he's equally sure England shouldn't have come in and taken their resources/effed around with them. He's also not sure it's possible for the colonial powers that be to just go back to where they came from and leave the rest of the world alone at this point. It's an interesting (likely anachronistic, although my awareness of the levels of discussion of imperial spread in Edwardian England is almost none, so, who knows) perspective.
In any case, he has a lifelong friend, also gay, whose life he saved in action, thereby receiving the serious injury. Said friend has surprisingly inherited, but the money is tied up for the moment and is living beyond his means in a state of drunken Depression. In this state, said friend somewhat accidentally procures Frank a private tutoring job.
The private tutoring job is for Viscount Gracewater, an adult still living with his father, and this is one of those "something is clearly wrong the moment you walk in the house" situations, you're just not entirely clear what is wrong.
The Viscount, "Gracie", immediately takes to Frank. Gracie is curious about the world around him, he seems childlike in many ways, and perhaps as though he has some type of learning disability, maybe dyslexia.
The book is a slow burn with a lot of subtle darkness under the surface and then, occasionally, that darkness will just burst out of the narrative in ways that are very unnerving. Each time, though, it forces Gracie to grow some, to settle into himself and learn to stand on his own two feet.
This book is a mass of content warnings, including rape (not between the main characters), child abuse, and suicide, among others. But Fox handles the topics deftly and compassionately, and nothing feels dismissive. This is a case where the HEA is both earned and feels almost just, for lack of a better word.
