lgbtqiahistoricalromance:Unfit to Print by KJ CharlesWhen crusading lawyer Vikram Pandey sets out in
lgbtqiahistoricalromance:Unfit to Print by KJ CharlesWhen crusading lawyer Vikram Pandey sets out in search of a missing youth, his investigations take him to Holywell Street, London’s most notorious address. He expects to find a disgraceful array of sordid bookshops. He doesn’t expect one of them to be run by the long-lost friend whose disappearance and presumed death he’s been mourning for thirteen years. Gil Lawless became a Holywell Street bookseller for his own reasons, and he’s damned if he’s going to apologise or listen to moralising from anyone. Not even Vikram; not even if the once-beloved boy has grown into a man who makes his mouth water. Now the upright lawyer and the illicit bookseller need to work together to track down the missing youth. And on the way, they may even learn if there’s more than just memory and old affection binding them together…ReviewFirst, it was great reading a work with both of the main characters as men of color (a fact that brought them together when they initially met in school). Gil was taken out of school and sent to live on the streets when his father died, and while Vik continued his education up through Oxford, (his loving parents have been behind him all the time), he’s taken on the fight to help people from India that have been mistreated by white employers. Being pulled apart left scars on both of them, and it was sweet watching them come together and reclaim one another, but the situation Gil underwent isn’t downplayed and Vik’s purpose is spelled out for those that aren’t familiar with the events of the time. It rather made me wish that Clem Talleyfer from An Unseen Attraction had known about Vik. Their situations gave a realistic account of the precarious nature of being a person of color, during a time when laws were still little to no protection. Second, the concept of Holywell Street as the setting, because this aspect of life is so seldom mentioned in fiction, and it was interesting when Gil explains to Vik about the realities of people getting what they want rather than the facade the laws use. With Vik’s position, it is also somewhat ironic that had the events taken place just a few year’s later, the Indian Institute would have been in proximity, and they might have just one day crossed paths.Third, if you’ve read Wanted, A Gentleman, there’s a thread connecting that novel to this work. That made for a couple of enjoyable Easter eggs, and pondering villains and their henchmen. It’s important to know that the events took place in 1875, and that this is a novella of 40k words. -- source link