Me downloading the book: it seems quite interesting, but is Francis Bacon a captivating character enough to carry a whole book?

Me after 48 hours, having finished the book because I couldn’t put it down: well

The dangerous kingdom of love starts exactly like that: like a book interesting enough to be read, but as someone who studied Francis Bacon and New Atlantis in college I was quite skeptical about him being able to carry a whole book on his back, as main character and narrator.
Boy, I was wrong.
Neil Blackmore starts immediately giving us a very interesting protagonist and narrator, he depicts Francis Bacon as an intellectual, sarcastic, and relatable (at least to me) person, as soon as page 3 I found myself already captivated by Bacon as a narrator and his story.
Cue to 48 hours later: I put that book down only to feed and sleep (and because two or three times I identified so strongly in Bacon I had to stop reading to compose myself).

Recommended if: you love history - especially about english monarchy - but do not despise a more fictional retelling of it, queer characters and complicated love stories, books very well written. And I emphasize the last part because as I said Mr Blackmore had my undivided attention since page 3 and I loved every minute of this novel.

I am sorry to say that I have given up on this book at 18%.. I had been looking forward to it as I loved The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle. But it just isn't working for me; I am ok with swearing and sex but I find the book boring.. Maybe too much swearing and focus on sexual behaviour. Maybe me and Bacon just don't get on. With thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this book.

The Dangerous Kingdom of Love is a very weird but entertaining book. I really enjoy historical novels about famous figures, especially when they're queer so this book hit all my buttons for me.

Neil Blackmore created a fantastic representation of King James I's court, with all the privilege and colour you'd expect. But the reader experiences this from Francis Bacon's perspective -- an arrogant and rude philosopher who has vowed to stay away from queer romance, as it is illegal, despite King James being in a queer relationship himself. Bacon was a great main character and I enjoyed reading from his eyes, especially because he's not one to shy away from swearing at the top of his lungs.

Blackmore also develops the plot, based on real life, to his original intent which I found intriguing. I definitely recommend this strange queer book if you're looking for a fun, quick read. So long as you're not offended by a shitton of swearing.

Neil Blackmore delivers an intriguing and colorful tale of King James I through the eyes of Francis Bacon.
Bacon is under the impression that the Kings lover, Robert Carr is plotting to turn King James against him. The highly unpredictable King James appears to be heavily influenced by his lover. Bacon in turn, is busy plotting a way that can return him to the King’s good graces and begins by grooming an innocent, young George Villiers to be the King’s new lover.
The language at times can appear crude and cutting but it is the right amount of spice that adds to the ‘behind closed doors’ frolic, danger, longing, love and the desire to survive. This is an entertaining, scandalous and amusing read that makes this a wonderful work of historical fiction.
Thank you NetGalley, Neil Blackmore and Cornerstone for an ARCi in exchange for an honest book review.

I ate this book! It's full of delicious drama, gossip, scandal, political plots to destroy your enemies. The title is really fitting, the book gives us a lot of love, romance, sex, and all of it is highly dangerous.
The main character is Francis Bacon. I know little of him, but it's a familiar name. There are more characters that we all know from history. The book is inspired by history but is modernized for our reading pleasure. It brings up serious subjects of homophobia, double standards, performative religiousness. Those are not however the main topics of the story, at the heart of this is love, longing for love, the terrible things we may do for love. And it is about how one perceives their actions as just and reasonable, when the hurt others and are not in fact better than the actions of people we despise. The ending really brings this point home, it is really powerful.

What a refreshing piece of historical fiction!

I will admit that I know little about this period, but Blackmore's success here is the authenticity he creates around his protagonist. Francis' voice may not be to everyone's taste, but isn't this just a fact of life? His flaws are what make him such a believable and therefore evocative character, and I would recommend this volume to anyone interested in original, punchy narratives. I feel I have learnt more about Francis Bacon than I ever expected, and it was a delight!

Thank you very much to Random House UK, Cornerstone and Net Galley for the honour!

From before the first page when I read the Dramatis Personae and saw King James I & IV described as 'a sodomite and a failed intellectual' followed further on by William Shakespeare as simply 'another playwright' I knew this book was going to be one for me. Blackmore uses language that is honest and crass but felt completely appropriate to the story. An historical tale told in a modern way.

Narrated by Sir Francis Bacon who speaks to us directly and paints himself repeatedly as an outsider in the court of King James. He is 'the cleverest man in Britain' and has many enemies plotting his downfall while Bacon himself plots to elevate his own position. He presents himself as morally superior to his aristocratic 'superiors' while simultaneously working with the queen to replace King James lover Robert Carr with one of their own - George Villiers - in order to have the king's inner ear. However trouble begins when Bacon and Villiers begin a relationship themselves and Bacon despite his better judgment falls for the boy.

The story is one of power and love. Both the power of love and the love of power and how either can elevate and corrupt.

Set in the 1600's this book tells the story of Francis Bacon and although it wasn't anything like I was expecting I did enjoy it to a degree. There seemed to be a lot of characters, some familiar names like Shakespeare. There was a lot of crudeness and swearing but if you can get past all that it is quite a fun read. The exploits he gets up to are really quite funny and a bit silly. If I can liken it to something similar it would be the TV show Blackadder.

Sir Francis Bacon is a lawyer at the court of James I, having served under Elizabeth I and he does so, if not willingly, at least, his position is what he wants, even if his king falls short. But he accrues enemies as people with power who won't do as they are told do, and Bacon attracts powerful enemies at court, a legacy from a report he wrote that lead to the demise of the Earl of Essex. Now he is being persecuted by Robert Carr, the king's lover, and he joins forces with the queen to find a way to bring Carr down, and, in so doing, allow Bacon to attract more power at court.

And the great plan? To replace Carr with a creature of their own choosing in the king's bed. Bacon uses his network of spies to find a suitable candidate but stumbles across George Villiers, a twenty year old lad fro Leicestershire who is perfect - in every way. Bacon himself prefers a more rugged man to pleasure himself with, so when he realises he is attracted to the pretty strawberry blond boy, it can only lead to trouble.

The Dangerous Kingdom of Love is written as a memoir, with Sir Francis Bacon addressing his readers directly, the fourth wall being breached in literature. He is open about himself, his thoughts, how he views the world, and his opinions and feelings about everything. He tells us his story and we are, naturally, entirely sympathetic to him. And so, when his own eyes are opened to his own behaviour, when we learn at the same time as he does that his world can be viewed very differently, we feel the shock with him and we look back over the rest of the novel and wonder at everything he has said and judge him afresh.

This is the second of Neil Blackmore's novels I've read and so I'm expecting the profanities, the use of the F word as a verb and not a noun, the open homosexuality described. Some readers won't be, and I suggest that, if you are sensitive, don't read it. If you are OK with the material, you will read a love story that holds true for all relationships, regardless of those involved.

If there were a criticism, it is that the ending is rushed. We go almost day by day through Bacon's life through the main body of the novel, then, close to the end, we hurtle through several years in the space of a couple of pages where Bacon narrates the story. If feels as if he's heading to the conclusion, but he isn't, and that is a bit annoying as it grates against the detail of the rest of the novel.

At worst, this is a romp through the reign of James I; at best it is a multi-layered study of love which highlights, as the title promises, the dangers of falling in love.

I sat down to read this in the afternoon and looked up a few hours later to find I’d finished it. That’s the mark of a good book. It took me a moment to get into the story because I couldn’t easily follow the narration but once I could (either because I adjusted or the narration smoothed out), I was so immersed in Francis Bacon’s mind that his decisions felt rational to me — until the end when he was confronted about those decisions.

I enjoyed how he broke the fourth wall to tell us directly what he thought. Some of those moments made me laugh out loud. My heart ached for him as he faced the reality of a life without love as a gay man (though of course that wasn’t the term used) in the 1600s. I also realized I clearly haven’t read enough historical fiction from the post-Elizabeth years because I was shocked to learn about King James’ relationship with men.

The ending felt a bit rushed but it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the story or my surprise at how easily I “agreed” with Francis Bacon’s thinking until the glaringly obvious was (finally) pointed out.

Judging on this and his previous novel (the intoxicating Mr Lavelle), Neil Blackmore has the sexually fluid historical romp market sewn up. Quite a specialist market I grant you…

This novel, told from the perspective of Francis Bacon with all the potential for a personal view of proceedings that implies, is an immersive experience, diving into court intrigue, the experience of an outsider in courts and the lies and secrecy that a gay man would need at that time (despite the King’s public favourites!). The use of commoners by the rich and powerful is a recurring theme, as well as the Potential for elevation (and demotion… to execution).

The nature of the narrative is such that the language is rather robust at times - that might pit people off. I’d urge anyone concerned to give it a go regardless- this is historical fiction at its finest.

I ended up enjoying this much more than I thought I would! I was drawn in by the promise of a gay historical fiction, which I've never seen before (I'm sure they exist, but historical romance isn't usually my jam, so I don't know of any), and I didn't leave disappointed. This was crude but funny, emotional, and surprising in its complexity and humanity.

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

Francis Bacon, known as the cleverest man in England, finds himself in a threatening position. King James I is unpredictable and is being influenced by his lover Robert Carr, who is an enemy of Francis. Now, Francis needs to concoct a new plan, so he doesn’t end up at the Tower.

Francis’ voice is a bit of an arrogant with foul language, but if you can get passed that, he is good at grasping your attention and he sharply relates the story. He vows to stay away from love since his kind of love is punishable, despite the king flaunting it in everyone’s face. For the rest, this kind of love is too dangerous and can cost your life.

Francis’ world is full of lies and schemes and he is good at pulling whoever he needs to into his world to fulfill his plan. His story is interesting.

As for those who are familiar with this piece of history, and as it is with any kind of story that was told before you need to bring some originality and edge to make something known being interesting again. And the author certainly achieves that. It is very original and sharp. The only problem I have is the vulgarity, which I personally do not like and because of that I couldn’t bring myself to rate it as 5 stars.

Although the stories at the heart of the book (Robert Carr and Frances Howard: see the recent 'A Net for Small Fishes', and that of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (the Buckingham from 'The Three Musketeers' who is in love with Anne of Austria) have been told before and, I would guess, are fairly well known, what this book brings to the party is linking them through the rambunctious voice of Francis Bacon.

For me, it's Bacon's narration that makes the book: he's crude and coarse, he's clever and vain, he's aware that he's surrounded by enemies, and he's on a mission to plot his way to the top while taking down his detractors, especially the Howard family. Along the way, he has more than an eye on our present with sneaking asides about how lying and deceit are no longer flaws in public servants and Westminster rulers, on how greed and ambition rule and the wealthy continue to prop up their ascendency; an especially funny diatribe on how a nascent system of 'medicines everywhere, in every town, in every village, ready to be used at any moment, a national service' is bound to be stymied by questions of 'where was the money for such a scheme?' King James might have just spent a fortune from the public purse on jewels for his favourites but 'not a single Member of Parliament (save perhaps me) was going to pay to stop injured peasants dying of blood poisoning'.

So this is very much historical fiction with a postmodern outlook: deliberate anachronisms in diction, and social commentary combine with a slanted retelling of history (in reality, the puritanical James was never this shameless and there are still scholarly debates on whether he actually slept with any of his male favourites). I especially like that this reclaims the Stuart courtly romp from all the ultra-feminised tellings that make it a place where women's subjectivity rules with stories of female friendship, forced marriages, lush love affairs and lots and lots of glossy clothing descriptions. This is entertaining, fun and necessarily bawdy, but also has a more heartfelt element that emerges, particularly near the end.

I really enjoyed ‘The Dangerous Kingdom of Love’ by Neil Blackmore. Like his previous novel it was a refreshing style of writing that told a period tale in a very modern way. I laughed out loud in many places yet I also felt I learnt about a man I knew little about.

Thanks for the ARC! This is a great historical novel. Blackmore gave voice to real people from history and he has a writing style that is really engaging. Loved the language and the explicitness... really gave me a good feel of being in the past.

Some of the book is really sad... living in a time when a person wasn't able to be out and love who they loved. Sad but accurate... it happened.

Much better than I expected. If you like historical fiction at all, check this out!

Wow I was drawn in from the first page. This book was thrilling to read - I haven't been this hooked by a historical novel for ages. It was more explicit than I expected and doesn't shy away from foul language. It is however accurate, shocking, scandalous, it's brilliant! Better than I was expecting!

Francis Bacon, currently on the outs with King James, begins a series of plots to get back into his graces. But these plots have consequences.
(I was given this book as a ARC or Advanced Reader Copy given through NetGalley as an audiobook for an honest Review. All of these thoughts are mine and at no point was I pressured or swayed in my opinion)

This book comes out 15 Jul 2021

This is a adult, LGBTQ+, Historical fiction

Francis Bacon wants power
But Carr, lover and current favorite of King james is in the way. Worst he is plotting to get Bacon out of the way.

But Bacon won’t just take this lying down. He will live to plot another day. He just has to find the right way to go about this. Just a little time and he’ll have his own plot to get what he wants.

And he might have found the perfect person to use to get his way
But the person that he set up to remove Carr? He might turn out to be Bacon’s own downfall if he doesn’t watch his step.

And the kingdom of love is a dangerous. And it can lead to anyone’s downfall. But Bacon refuses to let something like love make him fall. He refuses to fall.

This was a all around 5/5 for me.
This book was written in a way that kept me hooked and made for an enjoyable read. I could not put this book down, needing to know how the plotting of the characters where going to go.

Even knowing how history plays out doesn’t change this.

The Characters were enjoyable to follow
Neil Blackmore’s writing of the characters made me stick around. Every character was fun to follow. None of the characters were boring to be in a scene with.

Even the villains were entertaining to read. And Bacon, our POV characters, thoughts and inner monolog about the characters around them made for good entertainment.

But the plot what was what made me read this in one sitting
I could not put this book down.

All the schemes that where running were interesting and made me want to stick around to find out how they were going to end. Who was going to come out on top

And when one scheme wrapped up, another one just as interesting took its place. I was hooked to the very end.

Speaking of the ending.
The ending broke me. This is a historical fiction with real life characters, so you can guess how things play out.

But even with that in mind Neil Blackmore shifted things enough that things didn’t play out exactly how history does. And when it does go the way that it does in history, how we get to those events where interesting and changed at places.

And so the ending broke me. But it wasn’t just because of how history plays out.

Toward the very end a revelation comes out that shook me to the core. Now some people might be able to have seen this. And might have taken this revelation in from the very start of things. But I didn’t, and it made me take everything in, in a different way.

This will make any re-read a new experience if you didn’t get the revelation (Like I did) making this a book that you can take in more than once.

So please give this book a change if any of this is your thing.

Because I definitely will be coming back to this book an some point.

Gosh, I found this book incredibly sad. Not sure what I expected from historical fiction about a man loving another man during the reign of the Stewards, but this wrecked me.

This is a story about Francis Bacon told by Francis Bacon. King James is already on the throne by the time we meet Francis, and he is already known as one of the smartest men in all of England. Quite quickly, we see Francis start plotting in order to secure his place at court and out of The Tower,

I found Francis to be quite a likeable character. He was funny, quite sarcastic, and quite naïve when it came to feelings of love. As characteristically arrogant as he was, when it came to feelings of love, he was quite dumb.

I usually go for historical fiction novels set during the Tudor reign therefore I did not know much about King James nor Francis Bacon. It was quite refreshing to read a piece of work set during King James’s reign that did not have anything to do with the Gunpowder Plot nor the killing of witches. I enjoyed having a glance at this time in history through Francis’s experience. Though, as I have already said, it was sad.

It can still be difficult to read about men not being able to openly love other men whilst living in a time when it is generally accepted. It is good to go back to see how far we have come but I do wish that we could go back to all of the Francis Bacon’s of the time and tell them that their way of love is generally celebrated.

What I also liked about this book was the question at the end. Was Francis a bad man? He was a man playing the game at court but when it came to Villiers, was he immoral? I wish they could have lived as the old married couple, but I could not help but feel that Villiers version of the truth did stand. It makes you think about who narrates the history of these people and what their truth is. Life at court muddied the water when it came to morality, friendship and love.

Overall, I felt tremendous sadness for Francis. I will be reading more of Neil Blackmore’s books after reading this.