If you're in the mood for a historical romance, this is the perfect summer read. It will transport you to the picturesque town of Melliton to stroll through the countryside with Penelope and Agatha, feeling at home among the buzzing bees and fragrant flowers. 

 One of the most remarkable elements of Waite's work is the clear amount of in-depth research she puts into every aspect of her story. From historical context that makes for some incredible worldbuilding, to the specific details of each character's occupation, this book will immerse you in Penelope and Agatha's universe. Even though a lot of information is packed in, most of it provides fascinating details to support the plot and characters. I learned more about beekeeping and printing presses in 1820's England than I ever have before, and it was so much fun! These details also help establish why Penelope and Agatha feel and act the way they do, providing further insight on their character personalities and motivations.

Speaking of characters, if you like emotionally-driven plots with lots of internal character conflict, you will likely enjoy this book. Waite's character work is amazing, and I feel like I got to know everything about Penelope and Agatha, from their wants and fears to their histories and hopes for the future. A lot of these emotions play into their friends-to-lovers story, making for a very slow burn. However, once they do finally get together, the heartwarming romance and steamy sex scenes make the wait well worth it. Penelope and Agatha experience external conflicts as well, but in my opinion these take a backseat to the internal stakes and struggles of our protagonists. I truly felt for both Penelope and Agatha as they tried to do what was best for those around them while discovering what they want and deciding who they want to be. They complement one another so well and it's crystal clear they're meant to be together. 

I also loved the wide cast of queer characters in this book. Not only is this an F/F romance, and not only do we get a cameo of one of the protagonists from the first book,  but we also have at least three other queer couples in the cast. Each of these relationships is so beautifully written that I could honestly read an entire book on any one of them, especially John/Harry and Isabella/Joanna. If Olivia Waite gives these characters their own books I will devour them in no time! 

My only critique, which I think comes down to personal preference rather than issues with the story, is that a certain aspect of  the historical context added one too many layers for me. Specifically, I'm referencing the subplot around the Queen Caroline protests. At the beginning of this book, I fell in love with beekeeping and printing presses, could clearly envision the contrast between busy London and tranquil Melliton, and became quickly attached to our cast of characters and their individual interests and issues. While these personal issues are tied to the protests and ultimately lead to conflicts of their own, it was difficult to feel invested in the protests when I was already so devoted to our main characters' already-established dilemmas. The protests and connections to women's rights definitely still ring true today, however the story provides enough complex character pairings, such as Penelope/John, Agatha/Thomas, Sydney/Eliza, and the Turners, among others, to have more than enough material to examine the disadvantages of being a woman in society. If this book featured Queen Caroline as a character perhaps I would feel differently, but ultimately I wanted to get past the protests subplot so the story could center around the characters I'd grown to love. 

Overall I would recommend this book, and I will definitely look forward to book #3 in the series - based on the title and premise alone, it already sounds amazing!

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers/ Avon Impulse via Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This review will go live on The Blogger Girls on July 28, 2020.

I loved Olivia Waite’s debut last year, The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, so I was quite eager with this one. Alas, the sophomore book didn’t charm me as much. I struggled to get through the first part of this book. I thought there were too many things that were happening, it muddled the romance. Most especially everything related to the Royal Scandal of King George IV and Queen Caroline.

I understand that this book was set around that time, and with Agatha Griffin worked in printing business, this event might seep into her daily life. But I thought it was too much. I could feel my eyes glazed over all those parts; like, if I want to learn about history, I could check out Wikipedia.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows picked up about half-way through. In fact, if only Waite focused on Agatha Griffin, Penelope Flood, and the people of Melliton, I thought this could be a more enjoyable story for me. I had fun reading Agatha and Penelope dealing with The Melliton Auxiliary Branch of the Society for Suppression of Seditious Libel and Mendacity (my God that’s mouthful *laugh*). When Penelope arranged that ‘plan’ to help the beekeepers of Melliton against the vicar and the revengeful Lady Summerville… well, I was very much invested!!

This is a very slow-burn romance; we didn’t get any “action” until the last third of the book. But when we got to that part, it was good! I also liked Agatha’s relationship with her teenage son and his girlfriend. As well as Penelope’s relationship with her husband (don’t worry, it’s a marriage of convenience, because Penelope’s husband was in love with her brother, and Penelope only liked women). Oh, and this is a story about two women in their forties too, so that is another plus point.

So yes, this has its wonderful moments but those other side stories (including the real-life history) made The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows rather boring *shrugs*

This is simply a lyrically beautiful book. The story of Penelope and Agatha swept me away. 

Penelope is a bee keeper in a small community. She knows both the gentry and the tradespeople, Her husband is at sea on a whaling ship, with her brother. Penelope navigates between all of it, with strength and grace. I found the descriptions of her to be absolutely glowing.

Agatha runs a print shop, with a place in London an a place in the small community where she meets Penelope. she is a widow, with an adult son. As much as Penelope glows, Agatha feels like the deep blue coat that she wears on her beekeeping walks with Penelope. She has a quiet strength as she runs her business, deals with political censorship, and falls in love with Penelope.

I appreciate the work Olivia Waite puts into describing women's work and women's worth. Included here are not only the print shop and the beekeeping, but writing, poetry, activism, and even Queen Caroline. It may be set in the early 19th century, but every moment is also timely and present.

CW There are scenes of homophobia. It is handled sensitively and honestly. There is both the ugly and the hate, and the solidarity of standing up for what is right and care for people as people. It is not trauma-porn.

I highly recommend this book and can't wait to reread it.

First of all - this book inspired me to look into getting a beehive for my school. I loved all the descriptions of the bees, hives and collecting of honey.

This was such a great book. It’s more of a slow burn romance with a ton of interesting research into printing, bees and the political movements of the time. I liked that Agatha and Penelope are both older women and know their own minds, but still grow within their friendship and then love.

Agatha is a widow with a 19 year old son and her own printing business. She discovers a hive in her warehouse and meets Penelope when she needs someone to remove it. Their relationship develops slowly through letters and visits until they realize it’s something more.

The politics of the time, to include divorce, the right to vote and issues of libel and sedition were tied into the story in multiple ways and heightened the suspense towards the end when I couldn’t put the book down.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows is the story of two women, both over 40, who make decisions about how they're going to live their lives. Penelope Flood is a beekeeper is a small town, Agatha Griffin is a widow who is running a London printshop. When Griffin finds a swarm of bees in the small town branch of her printshop, she meets Flood, and they hit it off. Slowly, cautiously. It's a slow burn, so slow and delicious. 

The book is richly researched and filled with lots of background about bee keeping. The politics of the time are hugely important to the story as well. I appreciate when topics central to a story are fleshed out enough that I come away know more about them than I did before. 

The book is a slow burn, but the women are interested in each other early on, developing a solid friendship before cautiously moving forward. There are exchanges of letters that cement the friendship and that I just adored. And once that slow burn combusts, the heat level is very high. 

I really loved this book. The developing relationship is rich and luxurious. There's very real danger from authority figures both large and small, and there are women who grow to know themselves better throughout. Just lovely. 

Also, I consistently pictured them as the aunts from the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, more or less. 

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I had heard mixed things about The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, with the main critiques being the uneven pacing and the focus more on the politically driven external plot with the romance being secondary. However, while I struggled a bit with book one for similar reasons, I was only marginally bothered by these issues. 

For one thing, I think this is a great execution of slow-burn that really allows both Agatha and Penelope to shine and the tension to crackle while waiting for the long-awaited kiss (and more). And the two exchange letters early on, focused equally on business and pleasure, and I felt there was just as much relationship development in those as there was when they interacted in person. I did want a bit more of their respective family dynamics, since I expected them to play a larger role, however.

As a history geek, I loved the detail put into the social and political stuff in this one, a stark contrast to the science in the previous book which left me a bit cold. It did overtake the plot to an extent, but I wasn’t overly bothered by it, as it did come back to Agatha and Penelope and their work toward change in the end. 

I did enjoy this book, even though the choices made seem to be a bit divisive. If you are at all interested in a politically driven queer historical romance, then I would recommend giving it a try to see if it works for you.

Last year I loved Olivia Waite’s The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics. When the sequel, The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows became available on NetGalley I was so excited. I enjoyed it tremendously. I received this as an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Like Lady’s Guide, Care and Feeding focuses on the hidden life of women in late Regency England. Agatha Griffin was a minor character in Lady’s Guide, the sharp-eyed and unsentimental printer of Lucy’s book. When the book opens, she has been widowed two years and is struggling to keep her printing business going until her son Sydney is mature enough to take over. Her son is more interested in going to the speeches of political firebrands and making eyes at her apprentice, Eliza. Agatha despairs. She meets Penelope Flood when a swarm of bees is discovered in her printworks library. Penelope is married to a sailor who is often gone for years at a time. Theirs is a marriage of convenience.

Griffin and Flood (as they refer to each other) begin their very slow burn relationship as a correspondence. Having a friend for the sake of friendship is outside of Agatha’s experience as an adult. As she somewhat reluctantly continues the correspondence and builds the friendship, she begins to consider what she wants, just for herself, not for the business or for her son. Both women are middle aged and they live in a society that is essentially uninterested in them. Together, as friends and then as lovers, they begin to consider their own dreams.

A lot of historical romances are set during the Regency era (thanks, Georgette Heyer). Waite upends the conventions of Regency romance by setting here story entirely outside the Ton, weaving in the political and social upheaval of the time, and placing the romance between older, queer women. Waite uses some of the secondary characters to explore the disadvantages to women who marry. Marriage and babies are often part of a Regency romance’s happily ever after, but in fact, married women had no legal rights.

Kindness and cruelty are also central to the story. Agatha and Penelope lack the wealth and rank that insulated Catherine and, by extension, Lucy. Agatha is in tune with the political climate because, as a printer, she could be liable for speech suddenly deemed seditious. Penelope is more dependent on the tolerance of her community that the wealthy Countess of Moth. There are some scenes fraught with an underlying homophobia that is more frightening because it is silent.

Homophobia and misogyny are not solved in the book, but Agatha and Penelope do get their happily ever after. Most assuredly a lot people thought they were just two good friends living together for the rest of their lives.

I had high hopes for this book but honestly, it was a letdown. I liked the general idea and adored that the two protagonists were older women, but the story was bogged down with so much other content that it felt padded out to make it longer. There was so much involving the politics and royalty of the country and beekeeping that I got bored very often.  I felt like the actual romance part took up way less of the book than it should have. When things finally progressed between the two the explicit nature of the relationship between them felt so sudden and out of place that it felt the author changed her mind about how she wanted to write it in the last fourth of the book.

4.5 stars

I was really looking forward to this sequel ever since reading The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics and it met all expectations.

Agatha and Penelope immediately seemed like real people to me, their different experiences and personalities made them come to life right away. They are both sapphic women in their 40s (Penelope is a lesbian and Agatha bi or pan) and I just want to say that as a younger queer reader it's so good to see older protagonists, especially when it comes to sapphic relationships.

While I remember The Lady's Guide to be a faster romance, this one was very slow burn and I find it was well developed and not unnecessarily dragged for the sake of building up tension. It made sense for them to get together when they did and not sooner, and there was plenty of sapphic yearning and pining.

The presence of queer people (other than the main characters) in historical times was already given some space in the first book but here it was further developed with many side characters that are either currently in a same sex relationship or are canonically queer. Even the other characters, aside from the antagonists, are perfectly accepting of queerness and fully acknowledge these queer relationships in their romantic and sexual nature instead of glossing over them as "good friends". Since this was my favorite thing in the first book I'm really, really happy about how this aspect was further developed and always present especially in the second half of the book.

The historical context of England of that time was pretty much lost on me so I did miss a lot of the references and kind of had to skim the plot because I didn't care too much about it, but even without a lot of context the book was still enjoyable and if I had been more confused I could've certainly done some research of my own to understand it better, but the fact that I didn't feel compelled to do it meant that it was fine (also that I'm lazy, but I'm not here to review myself).

Overall if you enjoyed the first book this has a different relationship dynamic and different themes but similar vibes and, just as that one, it reads as social and cultural commentary on top of a beautiful romance. It follows different characters aside for a few cameos so it can be read as a standalone and I highly recommend it if you're into sapphic romances where they're both on the slightly older side and if you think bees are cute and important

This book is an absolute delight, warm and rich as honey. 

The main characters are so real I feel as if I’ve had tea with them, and the world they inhabit is just as vibrant. Olivia Waite’s descriptions are scrumptious, the words as gorgeous as the story itself. 

The romance centers on Agatha, and engraver overseeing her late husband’s printing business, and Penelope, a country beekeeper. It’s a proper slow burn, but one that felt achingly real as the two women go from awkwardly learning about each other to learning about themselves before coming together gloriously. I was hooked on every tiny bit of UST between them, while very much enjoying their evolving friendship. 

The events of the time play a prominent role in the story while feeding the ever-present question of the novel, which asks what a marriage really is. The bees in their hives are also a particularly important extended metaphor about community and power structures, and I very much enjoyed how Agatha and Penelope decided they fit in at the end of the novel. It’s all lovingly done with a deft touch, the prose often achingly beautiful and the symbolism lush. 

The love between Agatha and Penelope felt very real, and I adored Agatha’s unbending and Penelope finding that she could stand up and make a difference in her own way. 

As the parent of a teenager, Agatha’s struggles over her son and Eliza frequently made me laugh or sigh in resigned agreement. It rang very true, and I was very happy to how Agatha resolved things in regard to that plotline. The secondary plotlines were treated with care, and I was very happy with how it all wrapped up in the end. 

Overall, a very engaging and elegantly told story. It’s beautiful.

If you are looking for a thoughtful, thematically rich, slow-burn, f/f historical romance featuring middle-aged women, then this is definitely worth checking out. There's a lot to like here, although for a romance it does feel a bit bloated and has some pacing issues- dragging through the middle and then breezing through the last 25% or so. And it takes FOREVER for the romance to get going! Although once they finally admit their feelings for each other, it's fantastic.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows follows Agatha Griffin (buttoned up widow running a printing company in London and managing her politically radical, nearly grown son) and Penelope Flood (unconventional small-town beekeeper engaging in brief affairs with women in between her gay husband's long absences at sea). When Agatha discovers a beehive in her rural warehouse, Penelope comes to the rescue and the two begin a friendship, writing letters back and forth, and regularly visiting one another. As I said, they don't admit their feelings until the last 25% of the book and I wish it had begun sooner instead of just jumping in full-force so late in the game.

I loved the friendship and growing love between these women, not to mention the care and appreciation of their middle-aged, imperfect bodies. This really wrestles with how queer people lived during this time period- the dangers, the compromises, and the work-arounds. The author clearly did a deep dive of research into other topics as well- beekeeping, printing methods, and the nuances of politics during the time and their relationship to women's rights and lack of access to divorce. All of which are interesting, but I did feel like they dominated the narrative to a greater degree than I wanted for a romance.

I love romance that explores bigger issues, but in this case it felt like too much given the genre. This easily could have been a new favorite if it was pruned a bit and more attention was given to the romantic element. That said, once the romance (finally!) kicks off, it's a steamy whirlwind that combines love and friendship in a beautiful way. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I love the queer stories Olivia Waite puts out in the historical romance genre and this is no different. It was so fantastic. I loved the storyline, I loved the romance, and the characters were fantastic. I would recommend anything by this author if you are a lover of historical romance.

I absolutely fell in love with Olivia Waite's writing in her first novel in this series, "The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics," so I was so excited to read this new release in the series! I ended up not enjoying this one as much as the first, primarily because it added a lot of what seemed to me to be unnecessary historical events. I did still thoroughly enjoy the story, however, and I look forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to Avon Impulse and NetGalley for providing me with a free e-copy for review.

This is the second in the Feminine Pursuits series by Olivia Waite. When widow Agatha Griffin comes across a bee hive in the back corner of her warehouse she's sent to bee keeper Penelope Flood. They are each attracted to each other but are very slow to act on their feelings. When the inevitable happens the passion and romance is sensitive and believeable.  Along the way we are treated to some fascinating bits of information about bees, beehives and honey. The political climate of the time also is an important part of the story.
This is a very well written and enjoyable f/f romance.
Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Olivia Waite writes beautifully, and her characters are very real and interesting people. This book, though, is a SUPER slow burn. There isn't even a kiss until more than 70% into the book. And there was so much additional plot around the social and political turmoil that the romance kind of got lost in it all. It felt like a book about characters fighting for social change that happened to have a romance, when it should have been the other way around.

I will be writing a more in depth review soon, but what I will say is that The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows exceeded all of my expectations. While I enjoyed the first book in the Feminine Pursuits series and gave it 4 stars, this was a definite 5 star read for me. 

I absolutely loved the two leads, and it was fun to get to know Eliza better. An adorable romance that I will be recommending to so many friends! I already pre-ordered my own physical copy.

Since I really enjoyed the first book in the Feminine Pursuits series - A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics - I bumped this book up in my to be read queue, even though I had a fourteen day library loan clock ticking on another book.  I was looking forward to finding a similarly enjoyable journey in the new book.

This book was much lighter in tone than its predecessor, befitting two female characters of roughly equal standing.  One was printer running a demanding printshop in London, as well as a satellite print works in the small town of Melliton.  The other was Melliton’s only female beekeeper, the only daughter in a merchant family of seven siblings, still living in the family’s ancestral hall on the outskirts of Melliton.  Both women were essentially single:  the printer was four years a widow; the beekeeper married her brother’s best friend, who was the Purser on the whaling ship that her brother captained.  

This was undoubtedly a slow burn romance.  Although the beekeeper’s marriage of convenience was the primary obstacle that her relationship with the printer had to overcome, there were so many small misunderstandings between the two women that they didn’t profess love and start kissing until around 72-75 percent through the book.  Before the kiss, we watched both the printer and the beekeeper become increasingly frustrated by their growing seemingly unrequited feelings and desires for each other.  Had they just a mite more open communication, the tension between the two would have been nonexistent because the misunderstandings that kept them apart could have been resolved by two or three somewhat embarrassing questions.  But where would have the fun in that have been?

The descriptions of gardens, bees, and beekeeping, as well as of the print shop and printing, were beautifully rendered and evocative of the sights, smells, and noises of the locations and the activities.  

There really can be no comparison between this novel and its predecessor, so Waspish Widows can definitely be read as a stand alone.  If I had to choose just one of the two, I would probably go with Waspish Widows over A Lady’s Guide because I tend to prefer slow burn romances.

Overall, I appreciated this novel taking me on its journey.  To me, not having read much straight Regency romance, I don’t know if it is traditional enough to appeal to fans of the genre.  But if you have the slightest warm feeling toward (or curiosity about) sapphic romance, I would definitely give this novel a space on the TBR list.

*3.5 stars*

So. Many. Plotlines.

sigh

I really, really like Olivia Waite, and I LOVE how she is writing the smart F/F historical romances that we all want to read. I adore historical romance, and I love nerds, so I'm always dying when I read about each upcoming book from this author. However, I think this author gets in her own way a lot of the time.

The good news is that we have two older MCs, a lovely slow-burn romance, and some explicit sex on page, though we have to wait ages to get it. Also, I could have read about the bee-keeping stuff all day long. Very interesting and a lot to delve into there. I also felt like Penelope's family dynamics and marriage had a lot of meaty plot elements that really fleshed out the story.

But the author just couldn't stop there.

We get endless chapters about the King and Queen and their marital issues, sedition laws, religious and puritanical power movements, relationship complications with side characters, and it goes on and on. There are details that are introduced and focused on and then seem to fade in importance. There is just so much there, so much that could have been spread out with another story, that it really muddled the romance for me. The book is very long, and a lot of it felt like extraneous information. I would have been happy with just the bee-keeping stuff alone with maybe a little family drama thrown in. As it was written, I found myself zoning out during the endless pages about the royal scandals.

The romance was very slow to develop, and though I like a slow burn, I wish more of the book had these two women in an actual relationship, not just pining for one. I understand that open communication was very risky during those times, but they basically hinted at each other for over 300 pages until they got their act together. But when they got together finally, whew, lots of chemistry and heat! Thank you, Olivia Waite!

I appreciated all of the research that went into this story, and I think the author did a very good job writing it, but I wish it had been paired down some to make the romance take center stage. Still, I can't wait to read more from this author and see where else she can take me.

*Copy provided in exchange for an honest review*

This is a sweet set-up: Penelope, a beekeeper, and Agatha, the widowed owner of a printing press, meet when Agatha finds a bee colony in her warehouse. The two women are middle-aged and work for their living, although finances aren't an issue in the book. They connect over bees, and their friendship grows as they tend to hive and engage in political discourse - the to-be queen is in the press, as her husband seeks to sully her name to get a divorce before his coronation. Penelope and Agatha's interests take center stage in the story, so there are lots of details about beekeeping and running a printing press (much like in A Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanic, which I loved).

This is a sloooow burn (first kiss is 3/4 of the way into the book, which is just much later than I like in my romance). The last fourth of the book has some explicitly steamy scenes, which feels like such a departure in tone from the rest of the book. 

While politics are a major topic in this book, it feels like Agatha isn't really emotionally invested in politics - she is cautious at all turns, until reactionaries threaten people close to Penelope. She makes choices that help her avoid trouble, even if it means acquiescing and not printing materials she believes in. This just feels... off the mark these days, with larger conversations going on about how we must all engage rather than staying silent. Agatha chooses her comfort over the cause, and that's just accepted in the book, which I think immediately dates the story and weakens the characters.

I didn’t think Olivia Waite could top her first f/f historical, The Lady’s Guide To Celestial Mechanics. I was wrong. SO wrong. I adored Lucy and Lady Moth from Celestial Mechanics – but I LOVE Agatha and Penelope with a fierce passion I haven’t felt for historical romance characters in a long time. Things I love about this book:

Big The Grumpy One/The Sunshine One energy. My absolute favorite trope-y pairing is the unutterable grump who is utterly baffled by their own tendency to fall wildly in love with somebody who has a tendency to flit happily around in meadows – in Penelope’s case, LITERALLY MEADOWS, because she tends bees! This pairing is basically written for me. Agatha’s utter confusion at the way she wants to be AROUND SOMEBODY? All the time??? And doesn’t resent them being so dang happy???? UGH, FEELINGS.

Bees. Frankly the bees are a beloved minor character here, as they should be, and the care that has gone into the description of tending bees at a period when science and natural history was undergoing leaps and bounds of knowledge is breathtaking and deeply rewarding. Plus there is a great deal of tromping down country paths, which is essentially my favorite wildly unrealistic personal fantasy. Also, BEE WEAPONRY.

Historical setting. I’m so used to dukes swanning gaily around ignoring what’s going on in the lower classes even while they marry housemaids and prostitutes with absolutely no thought to their peers that finding a historical romance firmly settled in the middle class is beyond delightful. And even better, this particular one is set during a time of serious civil unrest, which forms a central part of the storyline without seeming like set dressing. Watching the characters navigate the way their world is changing is all the more powerful because their world really IS changing; everything from Penelope’s beekeeping to Agatha’s printing press is deeply impacted by the way that their society is shifting in ways both social and scientific, which makes the civil change central to their storyline. But the characters are so strong, and the romance so well-crafted, that this resists the urge to turn into a historical novel and stays firmly a romance, with the love developing between the protagonists the central storyline.

Parenthood – specifically, parenting in a time of intense social change. This one hits close to home for me. Agatha undergoes her own personal shift; her character arc encompasses growing into herself as a reluctant agent of revolution, then a willing activist for change. But she’s hit hard by the realization that as she’s tried to demonstrate doing what is right to the young people for whom she is responsible, they have – believe it or not – actually listened. And believed what she was saying, to the point that it takes them in a different direction than she ever anticipated, and she then has to sit down with herself and figure out if she’s really walking her own talk, so to speak. This is something that so many of us who are parenting during this time of significant cultural change are facing; if we’re doing it right, we’re raising our kids to be better. And then when they demonstrate it, we’re hit by our own inherited bias, still crawling along in our hindbrains influencing our reflexive reactions. It’s the double whammy of realizing that you can be as well-meaning as you want, but without some self-awareness, you might not be reaching your full potential.

Queer community. This is probably the best thing about this book, and what makes me clutch it to my bosom in weepy delight. The genuine queer community that Agatha finds with Penelope is so perfect, so warm, so quiet, and so REAL. I can’t offer spoilers here, because the community they find features in a lot of important plot points, but I just want to dive in and roll around in the realness of Agatha’s startlement when she discovers that in addition to falling in love, she’s managed to find a community that she’s always longed for without knowing it was possible. People who understand her, who realize what it means to be queer in the context of their society – in more than one way, and in ways that include hiding, openness, and even allyship, and who will do anything to support their community. I JUST LOVE IT OK.

Creative – and realistic – HEAs. Another thing that has given me joy in both this book and the first in the series is the way the characters find ways to bind themselves together with permanence in a society that doesn’t allow them to legally marry. It is a delightfully technical detail that really makes the happily-ever-after feel real, and I’m so glad the author took the time to weave it in. (And I really love the way that this book’s ending builds on the choices that were made in this vein in the previous book, but I can’t elaborate without spoilers!)

I loved it, you’ll love it, go read it. I can’t wait for more.