By TJ Alexander
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice rating: 🌶️🌶️
Pub date: 3/11/2025
Blurb
The notoriously eccentric Lord Christopher Eden is a “man of unusual make” and even more unusual habits: he prefers to live as far from the prying eyes and ears of the ton as possible, and would rather have the comfortable company of his childhood cook and his aged butler, Plinkton, than the swarm of servants and hangers-on befitting a man of his station.
But Christopher's pleasant, if occasionally lonely life is upended when he receives word from his lawyers that, according to his late father’s will, he must find a wife by the end of the Season if he intends to keep his family's fortune and the Eden's End estate. Christopher cannot imagine a worse fate: as he isn't attracted to women, his chances of making a wife happy are slim. Furthermore, if his quest to marry has any hope of succeeding, he must move to London posthaste and acquire some more suitable staff.
Enter James Harding, Christopher's new, distractingly handsome—if rigidly traditional—valet. After a rocky start, the two strike up a fragile friendship amid the throes of the London Season . . . a friendship that threatens to shatter under the looming shadow of Christopher’s impending nuptials—and the secrets both men are keeping.
With its heady combination of dry wit, slow-burn romance, and a nuanced, complex portrait of trans identity and relationships that’s as relevant now as it was during the Regency era, A Gentleman's Gentleman stands to transform the historical romance genre as we know it.
Category: Historical Romance
Read if you Like:
🎩 Trans representation
🎩 Forced proximity
🎩 Earl and valet
🎩 Wife hunt
My Thoughts:
This is a really sweet story with some excellent banter and an interesting exploration of what it might have looked like to identify as trans and gay during the Regency Era. I enjoyed watching Christopher and James learn to trust each other. This is on the shorter side and I would have loved to see a bit more of James and Christopher getting to be together but I did really enjoy getting to read each of their stories and the sacrifices they had made to feel like their authentic selves.
If you like queer historical romance this is a great choice! I've loved seeing the growth in traditionally published queer historical romance over the past few years and I hope it's a trend that continues!
Thanks to Vintage for providing me with an ARC. All opinions are my own.
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