REVIEW: Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan
Book Reviews / C+ Reviewshistorical romance / interracial-romance / novella / POC / POC author / Series / Victorian / white hero/black heroine7 Comments
Dear Ms. Milan:
I’ve had an odd pattern with the “Brothers Sinister” series — I’ve loved every other book. Which means three books I loved in one series — not a bad record at all. This novella falls in the “like” zone. Parts of it are delightful, but it never fully jelled for me.
It’s quite common for heroes of romance novels to declare that they like women, but Women’s Free Press columnist and Victorian feminist Stephen Shaugnessy — know for his “Ask a Man” column — means it more literally than most; he likes women for their minds and souls as well as their bodies. And he’s found a woman he likes very, very much indeed — his neighbor, Miss Rose Sweetly, who works as a computer. (Literally, someone who does computations.) Enchanted by her enthusiasm for mathematics and astronomy, Stephen arranges for Rose to tutor him as a means of spending private time with her. His motives aren’t fully formed, but they’re certainly not evil:
He wasn’t planning to seduce her, not really. It would be a terrible thing for a man like him to do to a woman in Miss Sweetly’s position, and he had a very firm rule that he did not do terrible things to people in general, and to women in particular. Liking a woman–even liking her very well–was more reason to adhere to the rule, not less.
Rose may be young and a genius, but she’s no fool. She knows Stephen’s reputation as a rake, and she knows the likely outcome for a black woman and shopkeeper’s daughter if she falls for his charm. And so she resists all of Stephen’s honest efforts to tell her how he feels.
‘If I ever have you in my bed, I want you to remember yourself. I like you. There’s no point having your body if you’re not included.’
‘This–talking to you, just like this–is already the point. I like you. I like talking to you. If you don’t like me, send me off.’
That is, she tries to resist it. But it’s hard to feel nothing for a very attractive man whose interest is so genuine.
He liked people. He liked her. She suspected he’d told her the simple truth: He wasn’t trying to seduce her.
He was just succeeding at it.
The novella is short, about 90 pages in epub, but there’s room for an important subplot about Rose’s sister, who’s close to giving birth and is being treated very badly by the racist white doctor attending her. This experience is pivotal for both Rose and Stephen. Spoiler (spoiler): Show
I enjoyed this story most at its serious points: when Stephen feels hurt and rejected — but never fails to be eloquent — and when Rose is struggling to help her sister, and to decide what’s right for her future. The parts that failed for me were the more light-hearted courtship scenes: for example, one in which Rose has Stephen calculate the odds that he would be able to seduce her, using factors like the probability that she would be hit on the head with an anvil. It’s clever and it’s cute, and I’m damming with faint praise there…. cute rarely works for me, especially in historicals, and the cleverness feels unnatural.
I also didn’t feel the love quite as much as I wanted to, perhaps because I’m not as enamored by discussions of math and astronomy as Stephen is. Or rather, the idea is that Stephen is generally entranced by Rose’s enthusiasm and brilliance, which is certainly believable… but I didn’t connect with his feelings. This is the same issue I had with The Countess Conspiracy: I’m supposed to love the hero for loving the heroine’s brains, but somehow I just didn’t.
But though it wasn’t a perfect book for me, there was much to enjoy. Both characters have interesting backgrounds, which leads to some powerful conversations as they really get to know each other. And there is definitely a sweetness to them. C+
Sincerely,
Willaful
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I liked the Countess Conspiracy the best. I don’t know why. I’m still wondering if it was my need to escape the world at the moment or whether it was compelling writing.
@SAO: I think it hit a chord for many readers. I just wasn’t one of them.
I love this whole series, each book almost more than the last, and I felt this was a nice epilogue with which to end it. For me the spoiler moment really did feel like a punch to the gut and at that level it succeeded. I agree that it was problematic as an empowering moment and I wasn’t sure that was really what it was intended to be.
I’ve enjoyed the whole series, this one included. The Suffragette Scandal is my favorite. As for this one, I felt acutely for Rose, so much so that for a while there I was mad at Stephen for pursuing her in a way that made her feel he was toying with her. She was in such a vulnerable position that I really struggled with Stephen’s behavior even knowing that Stephen couldn’t come out with a marriage proposal right off the bat or there would be no story. My favorite parts of this novella were the telescope scene and the subplot about Rose’s sister Patricia– those were just lovely. I would love to read more books set in Rose and Patricia’s community.
I actually enjoyed the subplot more than the main plot, which is a bit telling. This was a story I felt could had been better if it’d been longer. I’d love to see more of the social ramifications of an interracial relationship in the late 1880s. Hell, I could already see Free eager to sink her teeth into it. Even though there wasn’t room for it in such a small story, I wish we’d seen Stephen and Free talk about it.
Like Willaful, the math and astronomy bonding didn’t do a lot for me. The telescope scene was beautiful, but the sisterly bond between Rose and Patricia made the book for me more than the romantic one between Stephen and Rose. And while I enjoy a good sex scene, I felt that this one was tacked on just to fulfill a quota. I’d been OK if there hadn’t been one in this book. Dedicate the space to a bit more exploration of the social issues.
I agree that the spoiler scene was a bit OOC, but had the same thing happened with someone I loved, I’d do the same thing. It’s a modern reaction to such a horrible thing, and you’re right that Rose wouldn’t had behaved that way had she not had backup. The negligence could have had serious consequences. It’s a bit fairy tale, and I had to suspend my disbelief for much bigger when reading Tessa Dare’s “Any Duchess Will Do” a few days ago (and I wasn’t able to suspend it quite enough, because yeah.)
The Governess Affair, The Duchess War and the Suffragette Scandal are my favorites in this series.
@Meg: I forgot to mention it, but I completely agree. Nothing wrong with the sex scene per se, but it felt tacked on because they’re expected.
I think part of what bothered me about the spoiler scene, now that I think about it, is that Milan’s other heroines solved things with their brains…
TDW, THE and TSS are my three favorites, but I also really liked TGA.
@Willaful: That’s true, but I kind of liked that cerebral Rose had a physical reaction to what happened in that moment. And with the exhaustion and exhilaration she was feeling from what had just happened, I believed that she might just let rip physically right then.