The Vibes: queer found family, true love, calling HER daddy

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

Horley Comewithers (or, as he is known for much of this novel, Rufus) is set to marry a woman of his aunt's choosing, despite the fact that he is a) gay and b) in love with someone else. In swoops Arabella Tarleton, twin sister of the man he's pining after. Arabella will secure her own freedom through marriage, and she has a fat dowry—but she knows she's no good for anyone who wants true love. So she proposes a scheme: why not run away together and marry?

What neither Rufus nor Belle realize is that there's a lot more to love than storybook romance, and sometimes the person you're meant to be with is the one you least expected.

The Review:

What an exciting, unique, heartstoppingly lovely book. Do Horley and Belle suddenly fall into the kind of m/f relationship you normally see in romance novels? No. But I would call this a romance nonetheless, because, despite Belle being on the aromantic spectrum (I'm not sure if you'd call her totally incapable of experiencing romantic attraction? I'm not educated enough on the aromantic experience to be certain, but based on what I've read, grayromantic may be a way to describe her?) there's just this like... sense of two people finding each other's soulmates in a way that isn't sexual, and isn't conventional, but also goes beyond standard platonic friendship.

Because Rufus and Belle have friends. They actually have a lot of them, even if the relationships aren't always easy or straightforward... and we see several of them in the form of couples from the two previous books in this series. So I would say that it's best to read Something Fabulous and Something Spectacular first. They're great books anyway, but you pick up on some dangling emotional threads from them and get resolution.

But no, what Rufus and Belle mean to each other is such a special and intense yet soft dynamic... They're truly husband and wife by the end of this book. Their future is together. They also enjoy sleeping with other people (though sex isn't out of the question for the two of them—there's a rather beautiful thing Rufus says about the capacity in which he would enjoy sex with Belle, if it ever happened, that I found remarkable).

What I find so smart about this book, the way so many Alexis Hall books are smart, is that she does confront the way something could be "missing" from Rufus and Belle's marriage. But it's not to do with Rufus's lack of sexual attraction to Belle. That's really not seen as an issue. It's not to do with their lack of monogamy, either (they both sleep with other people, on the page and off). It's to do with Belle feeling that, because she can't experience the type of romantic feeling that she's seen idealized in books, or within the sweepingly romantic relationships she's surrounded by... She is essentially depriving Rufus of finding the thing that she believes he needs.

Belle has been a polarizing character for readers throughout this series. Not for me, personally; she's flawed but hilarious, and clearly has had a good heart from the beginning (even if her choices aren't always... the best). She gets a bit of karmic retribution in this book that I feel some of her haters will enjoy, but it's not over the top, and she's not "redeemed", because there's... no need. But being fully in her head allows us to really get into why she is the way she is, and so much of it is like... Kinda meta?

Like—what would it be to be aro or on the aro spectrum in a fucking romance novel series? What would it be like to clearly love someone and not feel like you can ever love them in the "right" way? I will say, I don't consider myself on the aro spectrum (though shit, this book has made me wonder) but I did relate to Belle in many ways. It put her experience in a very "layman's terms", approachable perspective, which could be less than what the aro community could want? I can't speak for them, again, I do not identify on the spectrum. BUT I do think that if you've literally never read up on it at all, this book probably won't confuse you.

Rufus's development is probably a little less significant than Belle's, but it's still a breath of fresh air to see someone who's like... a bit lost, a bit sad, but also so funny and so willing to fully embrace "the difficult one" for who they are. He really rolls with the punches without ever seeming like a doormat. I also feel that his relationship with Belle would have fallen into "gay best friend" in a lesser writer's hands. But he's given such agency and such determination, even as he's initially drawn into this admittedly kind of zany plot.

No, this is a true queerplatonic relationship, and I love that it's given the space to be that while also receiving a classic historical romance novel treatment (albeit with the same degree of hilarious self-aware commentary this entire series has had—at one point we get an entire 1800s version of like, the Google review system for inns, and it is INCREDIBLE). Rufus does a run for your love. There's only one bed (and like, they are naked in the bed together, but no sex). There's an anvil marriage. It's great.

The only reason why I won't rate this a little bit higher is that I would've loved a teeny bit more Rufus and Belle together on the page, but I also deeply appreciated the roles Bonny and Valentine and then Peggy and Orfeo from the two previous books played in this one. Especially Orfeo. My kingdom for Orfeo, would die for them.

The Sex:

HOT. KINKY. SUPER GAY. You get several on the page sex scenes in this one, and they're all great (and not a one involves Rufus and Belle together, and they're so good with that). You have one f/f scene involving a sort of like... baby lesbian "it's giving missionary as in God" but in a funny way girl...? An m/m scene with a would-be highwayman bookseller guy and his MASSIVE SEA SERPENT (and some role-playing! Of the "oh no, I've never touched one before, you show me how" variety).

And... A spanking scene. Which is the first time I've ever read a man call the heroine "daddy". I was VERY pleased.

This may be the most unique romance novel I've read yet, and I'm so impressed with it. Would recommend to people interested in expanding their horizons (as readers, as people, whatever) or like, just interested in a hot, literally laugh out loud book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Montlake for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.