Review: The Duchess War - Courtney Milan

[hrj]

(It feels a bit odd not reviewing something with lesbian content on this day of momentous Supreme Court decisions, but this is what I had queued up.)

When more than one person mentions a specific author in the context of "if you like X, you may like Y", and if one's own books appear as either X or Y, it seems like a reasonable idea to check out what the other person is writing. And when one of that person's books turns up as a free Kindle special, well, what the heck. Nothing lost except perhaps some reading time that would have been otherwise allocated.

And so I found myself reading Courtney Milan's The Duchess War. I've never been a voracious reader of historic romances--not like some people I know--though I have my favorites. (Despite certain deep flaws of social consciousness, I return regularly to Georgette Heyer for comfort reading.) But I'm not entirely au courant in the field of straight historic romance these days. (There really aren't enough lesbian historic romances to really consider it a "field".) That said, I can easily see why Milan gets recommended regularly to those looking to go beyond tired old tropes in their historicals. Despite beginning with a bare outline that feels all too familiar -- a handsome and personable Duke being pressured to end his bachelor state, an intelligent and sharply impertinent woman of less-than-exalted birth, with a Dark Past, who collides with him under disruptive circumstances -- we get a result that's far from routine.

Milan's strength, in addition to a deft touch with description and setting, is taking the ordinary human foibles of two very different people falling disastrously in love, and making them seem romantic and attractive even in the midst of their chaotic messiness. (Is that too abstract? OK, it takes a good writer to write a realistic wedding night between two virgins and make it both sexy and endearing.) And if Milan's protagonists feel perhaps a bit too progressive and open-minded in their social politics for the setting, they aren't unhistorically so. It's just a matter of devising a story around the particular historic types needed to make it work. And it works very well, including the inclusion of enough secondary characters and trailing plot-threads to encourage the reader to seek out more of the author's works.

If The Duchess War doesn't leave me eager to pounce on every other Courtney Milan novel available, it's only because it is, in the end, relentlessly heterosexual, and as usual I'm caught between the desire for well-written, engaging stories and the desire for stories that acknowledge my own existence. To be fair, one of the features The Duchess War has going for it is that one is permitted to fantasize that the heroine's two older female guardians are engaged in a well-closeted Romantic Friendship. Though you have to be aware of and looking for the possibility to spot it. In a perhaps not-so-odd way, historic romances that have less explicit sexual content make it easier for me to do a cross-gender identification when reading.

But setting my own personal quirks as a reader aside, for those who enjoy progressive-thinking, well-written historic romance, with explicit but not excessive sexual content, I can definitely recommend this book.

Comments

[julesjones]

Since I was one of the people saying, "Read this book!", I'm glad you enjoyed it. :-)

When I first read the book, I wasn't sure if the Romantic Friendship was put in by the author or just my tendency to have slash-tinted reading glasses. Later in the series it became clear that it was the author. The main characters and the explicit sexual content are relentlessly heterosexual, but there are characters who are clearly in a closeted same sex relationship, and late in the series there's an important secondary character who likes men as friends but really isn't interested in doing the socially approved thing and getting married to one of them, and eventually realises that there is an alternative.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I'd seen hints in some other comments that the Romantic Friendship wasn't just my wishful thinking. One of the reasons I tend to be somewhat laid-back about spoilers is that life is too short to consume vast quantities of media without any clue whether it will acknowledge my existence or treat it respectfully. So without the knowledge that I might eventually be given the payoffs you mention, I'd be disinclined to continue reading. (The series still isn't high on my to-do list, but it has a LOT of competition.)

For me, it's become something of a Bechdel-level minimal requirement for being excited about a book: queer women have to be a clear and present part of the world of the setting. I don't ask for a setting with open-minded tolerance and acceptance -- my love of historic fiction pretty much precludes that. But I want more than an empty space where I'm allowed to imagine myself--more than a subtextual tease.

And even in purely historic settings…the more I study history, the less realistic I find novels with 18-19th century settings that fail to include any reference to women's romantic and erotic desire for each other.

[julesjones]

Because I went on a complete and utter binge on the series, I then failed to review them beyond Kermit-flailing. But there's a good review of the book with the f/f secondary romance at Dear Author, although the f/f isn't mentioned until the end: http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/b-plus-reviews/review-the-suffragette-scandal-by-courtney-milan/

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Still feels a bit like being a vegan at Thanksgiving dinner. What I want is Milan-level writing about that minor secondary romance! I get so despairing over the overwhelming focus of lesfic on contemporary settings, and the…shall we say "random"?…quality of writing in the subgenres that tickle my fancy.

[julesjones]

It's better than nothing, but it's still only one or two pieces on a platter of h'ordeuvres. When I read it, I wanted to point LB friends at it, but largely because even that tiny bit is far better than what you find in most mainstream romances. The main reason I'd wave the series at you is actually because it's a series about women (and men) who are allowed to have both brains and love, and is a very deliberately alphole-free zone.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Yes. I will say, your writing is about the only thing I've ever found that hits that "Like Milan and Heyer, except about lesbians" book craving I have. For which I thank you heartily, but I wish other people did that too!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The more time I spend hanging out in lesbian publishing, the more I understand why there aren't more books like mine published there. Lesbian publishers (and LGBT publishers with significant lesbian catalogs) tend to have a very passive approach to promotion. The existing market will be informed of the books' existence and purchasing will happen. But the existing market is very strongly focused on an extremely narrow set of sub-genres, and historical fiction of any sort is not part of that narrow set. So writers of historicals and historical fantasy (as opposed to, say, contemporary urban or paranormal fantasy) have a hard time finding traction.

And, of course, if we're talking historical romance (fantasy or not), but structure of romance publishing means that publishers who *do* "get" historicals are unlikely to be interested in publishing lesbian-oriented stories.

This was the bind I found myself in when shopping for a publisher. It was nearly impossible to find a lesbian publisher who put out anything even vaguely similar to what I was writing. But it was completely impossible to find a mainstream publisher who was putting out anything even vaguely similar to the series and characters I envisioned. At least the lesbian publishers wouldn't pressure me to straight-wash my stories a few books down the line.

[julesjones]

I wonder if Riptide might be worth looking at, both as reader and writer? I'm not that familiar with their catalogue (so many books/publishers, so little time), but I did like Sam Starbuck's m/m historical about Brutus. M/m and not romance, so not what you're looking for, but I think does indicate that they're at least willing to consider decent historicals.

[rummages] Yes, their current open f/f call includes historicals: http://riptidepublishing.com/open-calls/ff-novels

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Not really a good option for me as a writer. Actually, not an option at all -- none of my published or in-process novels would fit inside their length limit. Aside from being committed to Bella for the Alpennia series. (They may not entirely understand my genre, but they're the best fit in every other way.)

A browse through their thematic catalog filters also suggests they wouldn't be a good fit for tone and content. Just because a publisher is willing to consider a particular topic/genre doesn't mean they'd be a good home for it. The information structure in the catalog confirms a more impressionistic conclusion that they're highly focused on erotic content. Not a good home for me.

I might check out a couple books as a reader -- the catalog filters help, but further reading suggests that even the few books tagged as f/f more often than not involve their characters in f/m encounters as well. And the clear preponderance of a m/m focus makes it tricky to have confidence that they would "get" the sort of thing I'm interested in.