Posts labeled Historical
Review - The Master of Seacliff
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Andrew Wyndham dreams of escaping his mundane life of working in his aunt and uncle’s New York shop to become an artist in Paris. It’s the turn of the twentieth century, and the likes of Monet are shaking up the art world. When Andrew’s friend arranges for him to be the tutor for the son of wealthy Duncan Stewart, it seems he is well on his way to realizing his dream.
Tags: Mystery Historical
Review - Two Hearts Two Spirits
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Igashu and Helki are two young men in a small native tribe hidden away in a valley of the Rockies near one of the new national parks around the turn of the twentieth century. The two young men are very close, but soon they will face a tribal ritual: the bow and basket ceremony. The boys who choose the bow will become warriors and hunters - men - while those who choose the basket will have a more domestic life and join the Two Spirit people - homosexuals.
Tags: Historical
Review - The Celestial
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This review originally appeared on Speak Its Name. As “The Celestial” opens, Todd is working his claim in the mountains near Truckee, about 90 miles northeast of Sacramento. It’s about 20 years after the California gold rush started, but there are still a lot of men like Todd staking claims and hoping to strike it rich. Egged on by his irascible uncle, who was invalided in the civil war, Todd has stole away in the night, leaving his mother to care for her brother on their tumble-down farm near Sacramento.
Tags: California Nineteenth Century Western Historical
Review - Lord and Master
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This review originally appeared in a slightly different form at BDSM Book Reviews. Reynold, the next Duke of Wilton, is very attached to his young lover and submissive sex slave, Lord David Litchfield, but the lad is immature and becomes jealous of Reynold’s friendship with Lord John. The suspicion erupts more than once in a public argument, so to avoid scandal Lord Reynold buys a commission in the army and leaves for the Americas, where revolution is brewing.
Tags: Eighteenth Century Historical BDSM
Review - Solemn Contract
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This review originally appeared at Speak Its Name. James ‘Jem’ Bradley would do anything for his sister Meg. She’s the only family he has after the two of them left their family in old England and immigrated to pre-revolutionary New England. They left over their father’s objections to Meg’s plan to marry Neil Iveson, and it seems daddy may have been right. Neil has taken all of their money, and borrowed more, to invest in a failed get-rich-quick scheme.
Tags: America Eighteenth Century Historical
Review - Unspoken
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“Unspoken” is told from the point of view of Stefan, a 30-something working class man in a small-ish Dutch town. He is married with three children as the book opens, and if you asked him, he would probably say he’s happy, except for the problem of finding work to provide for his family in the middle of the depression. Stefan has done what was expected of him; he got married to a good woman, fathered children, and does whatever work he can find to put food on the table for them.
Tags: Depression Netherlands Historical
Review - Cawnpore
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This review originally appeared at Speak Its Name. Cawnpore picks up more or less where the author’s previous work, The White Rajah, left off. Like the first book, this one takes the form of a memoir of the fictional John Williamson. Williamson has parted company with his employer and lover James Brooke after the inquiry into the battles that firmly established Brooke as the “White Rajah”. While Williamson is still in love with Brooke, the ghosts of all the people killed in Brooke’s name has driven a firm wedge between them.
Tags: India Nineteenth Century Historical
Review - Frost Fair
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Gideon Frost is a man skating on thin ice, almost literally. The young printer is barely keeping his business together, and his creditors are circling outside his door. He’s only just getting by, and when the need arises he’s not above selling his body for a few shillings to make ends meet. His one hope to get things back to black, for a while at least, is a commission for an engraving of Joshua Redfern’s new house.
Tags: Nineteenth Century Historical
Review - The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Band of Thebes
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This review has also appeared at Speak Its Name. The Rise and Fall of the Sacred Band of Thebes opens on that fateful day on the plain of Chaeronea, when Philip and his golden son wipe out almost all of the Sacred Band. Almost all, for although badly wounded, Nikanoras still lives, much to his shame. Alexander finds him and has his wounds tended. From that desperate opening scene, we flash back to Nikanoras’ childhood.
Tags: Historical Ancient Greece
Review - Eromenos
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The story of Hadiran and Antinous has provided great fodder for gay historical romance. After all, there are few male historical figures that we know had sexual relationships. Even Alexander and Hephastion may have enjoyed a purely platonic affair. But that Antinous was Hadrian’s sexual partner there can be little doubt. The many memorials left by Hadrian to Antinous seems to suggest there was love there as well, and the fact that Antinous died so young makes the story a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare.
Tags: Historical Ancient Rome