I loved this book!
Lord Eden is an earl, and his father's qill requires that he get married, and fast. But as a "man of unusual make", how will he find a bride? Enter Harding, his handsome new valet, who is determined to help him find his happy ending.

This book has it all: a gorgeous cover, lovely prose, achingly lovely pining, and a perfect ending. The twists kept me guessing and the pacing isn't too fast or slow. I found this to be the perfect mix of Cat Sebastian style queer historical joy wtih Alexander's own immaculate wit, humor, and expertise.

Lord Christopher Eden has hidden himself away from the prying eyes of the ton for years. Part of this separation from society was aided by his long time abroad and schooling in America. Christopher considers himself to be a ‘man of unusual make’ because he hasn’t always been the heir. Christopher’s secret enables him to fashion the life he feels necessary, assuming the heir mantle when his entire family dies, leaving the lordship unoccupied. He maintains his own wardrobe and avoids any unnecessary servants, having only Cook and the butler to keep house. Christopher would love to continue in this manner, however, the entailment of his estate requires that he marry prior to his next birthday.

In order to enter London society to find a wife he knows he will never satisfy, Christopher consents to hire a valet. James Harding is highly recommended, and a handsome, perfect fit for the role. Unfortunately, Christopher struggles to behave in accordance with the ton’s expectations. He initially seeks a match with a suitable woman who’s heartbroken over the unwillingness of her father to accept the suit of her love match, a man of some name, but little wealth. The more Christopher endeavors to find some merit in assisting the young woman, the more his egalitarian nature rears up–causing some bigger issues that risk any match being made. This thoroughly frustrates James, who wants to see Christopher’s fortunes settled, as well as those of other members of society with whom he’s had connections.

Part of Christopher’s struggle encompasses his attraction to, and fear of, James. This valet could wreck his life, should he discover the secrets of Christopher’s true origins. However, it seems James is even more an ally than Christopher could have imagined.

This is a delightful look into the high society of Regency England, with a transgender twist that results in layers of deception that rival the usual big secrets of the genre. I really enjoyed seeing Christopher learn about himself, and find himself, through the course of the story. Any reader who digs “hidden histories” will like this one, because it’s so fraught with struggle–that in some ways is wholly unnecessary. Christopher’s desire for a true partner is poignant, and I liked that James was able to make life easier for Christopher, in this regard. I also loved how the two men found a compromise in terms of making their futures secure and happy with one another. The end was a delightful curveball that really underscored the challenges of transgender people in history, while affirming happiness and living one’s truth. Highly recommend!

4.5 stars

I'm obsessed. This is such a clever, funny book. I gasped. I clutched my pearls. Totally and completely devastated that the author only has a backlog of contemporary romance, because I'd love nothing more than to read more regency from them. So it goes.

What an interesting book! I don't always read the synopsis of the ARCs I received, and I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns in this book.

Christopher is the Earl of Eden in this story, and from the beginning, he asserts that he has a secret. When he hires a valet to have a "proper" season in London, his secrets slowly start unraveling.

As the reader, it was fairly easy to guess what all the secrets are, but I was still eager to see how everything would get resolved. The story takes place in a Regency-like England, but the secrets, issues, and emotions are all very relevant today, which makes it so much more poignant.

The story was well-paced, the language flowed well without being overly flowery or anachronistic, and the ending was sweet. It really is a sweet story and will stay in my head for quite a while.

As many of my friends already know by now, I'm not much of a romance reader, but I enjoyed reading this one so much. It's a light, beautiful read and feels like a warm soothing salve on chilly days. The narrative follows the story of Lord Christopher Eden who is described as 'notoriously eccentric', and James Harding - the distractingly handsome and rigidly traditional valet. Thank you to Vintage for my ARC!

Beautiful storytelling with a mix of chaotic emotions and the backdrop of the London season.
There are a lot of obstacles for our two protagonists, including Christopher's impending nuptials. If that wasn't enough to convince you to read it, this would- it's a slow burn Regency/Historical Romance with a beautifully crafted LGBTQIA+ representation; tastefully handled.

An unlikely fragile friendship and the dilemma it comes along with it.
No one theme overpowers the other, and the narrative flows and flies by as you read the book. The book is witty, authentic, and a delight to read.

This book was absolutely wonderful and I had a great time reading it. It was such a warm and lovely romance, and it was a great feel good book

I think something I've learned about myself recently is that while I'm not necessarily a historical fiction girlie, I AM a queer historical fiction girlie and this gave me everything I needed

This is a beautiful book about gender, loneliness, and building your destiny with an unfortunate title and a proofreader who can't distinguish "compliment" and "complement."

In turns, it's everything I expect from Alexander: witty, genderful, and kind. But the romance is barely there. I want to say this book might qualify as aromantic rep, but I'm not sure it's sufficiently in the text. The last 10% felt a bit rushed and muddled relative to the earlier excellent plot and character work. Truly, all the characters shine. They serve the novel's broader allegorical purpose (and are just fun!), so it's a real shame that a lot of the plot and character kind of fizzle out toward the end.

I think this book could have been so much more had it leaned into its more gothic tones and its aromantic subtext. The ghosts, trauma, PTSD balanced with carriage races and particular horses were delightful. Feels like a very queer and gender-y book got neutered by a hesitant publisher tbh.

While I adore the novel's premise and hoped for a transmasc version of "A Lady for a Duke" I found myself rather bored with the storyline, character depth, and relationship between the two. I don't feel like there were enough scenes establishing the pair breaking from the employer/employee decorum and creating a real bond beyond "first person my age I've been around, and he is also attractive." I love a trans regency and a trans romance but overall the follow-through on the premise wasn't there for me.

Thank you to Vintage Anchor Books & PRH Audio for the review copies! This was a lovely, cozy romance with amazing representations we don’t often see in Regency romances.

While this wasn’t a friends to lovers romance, it kind of felt like one, because out lovers come from different classes - Christopher is an Earl and James is his newly hired valet. Since we only got Christopher’s point of view, and he was aware of that having a crush on his employee was problematic, he tried to keep himself at a distance from James for so much of the book. But they did keep growing closer in a more friendly way that eventually turned romantic.

So much of this book was about Christopher becoming more comfortable with himself as part of society, and allowing himself to trust others. All of the characters were so kind and lovable.

While I enjoyed this one, this is the kind of book where it’s helpful for me to read multiple books at once. I get frustrated with the pacing otherwise, even when it is purposefully done.

I really loved this book! It had a great sense of humor, and showed how trans and queer folk may have lived in the Regency era. My main critique is I wish it had explored the characters emotions in a deeper manner.

A Gentleman’s Gentleman is another slam dunk by TJ Alexander. TJ’s books always feel like a warm hug and I was so excited to see them stretch into the Historical Romance genre. I was not disappointed in the slightest. I read the bulk of this book after a tornado hit my house and it was the PERFECT cozy comfort read to soothe my anxiety.

TJ Alexander is a hit or miss author for me, and this one is a miss. Aside from the fact that the premise of the novel is pure fantasy (in reality, the title passes down according to the letters patent, not the whims of the previous holder), I couldn’t get past the first chapter due to the writing style. Our main character is presented in excruciating detail as he wakes up, gets dressed, eats breakfast, etc. I’d expect this from a first draft by a first-time writer, but not from a multi-published author.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received.

Thank you to Vintage Books for the eARC and PRH Audio for the free audiobook.

I’m loving the increase in queer historical romances. It obviously happened (they were roommates!) and I love that we are writing and talking about it.

A Gentleman’s Gentleman stars Lord Christopher, a reclusive Earl who has to marry within the next few months to keep his title and land. Enter James Harding, Christopher’s new valet, to help him transition to London and woo a wife. The only twist…is that Christopher wasn’t born male, so any wife would have to be accepting of his secret and the marriage of convenience.

This story felt a little less like a romance and more of a coming of age. It’s told in third person from Christopher’s point of view, and so much of the story revolves around Christopher coming to terms with himself, his wants, and accepting who he is. I felt genuine friendship (and some lust) between Christopher and James, but I was missing the emotional connection and romance.

Regardless, I still really enjoyed this story and had a fun time listening to it. The narrator Harrison Knights did such a good job conveying Christopher’s quirky personality.

Lord Christopher Eden is tasked with a truly awful task: he must marry by his next birthday (by the stipulations of his father’s will) or lose his title and lands. For such a private gentleman with a great secret, marriage is an unpleasant chore and love is something only other people can obtain. Still, he will make the attempt to find a sympathetic wife who can keep secrets. To fit into society to obtain said wife, he needs a valet, finding one in James Harding, who harbours a secret of his own.

A Gentleman’s Gentleman by T.J. Alexander is set in 1819, so we have the deliciousness of the Regency Era. Christopher, however, is an odd duck in comparison to those of his status, as he doesn’t hire the amount of servants he ought (just Cook and Plinkton, the ancient butler who has always been around), and dines with them to boot. So if readers are looking for the stifling manners of the time, they won’t find it coming from his direction. Some of the description and language also feels a little more modern at times, but it was so much fun that I didn’t mind it.

The book itself is just a delight, to be honest. We’ve got the lovely miscommunication when it comes to love, and there are little sprinkles of comedy throughout. There’s a sex scene at the end, too, that is quite fiery but also tender. If I had a quibble, I would say it’s that things seem to wrap up ALARMINGLY fast; maybe it feels so after the tension of trying to find a wife for the entirety of the novel. I would have loved a little more in the slowburn yearning department, but that’s just me; I can NEVER get enough yearning.

Harding and Christopher are both believable characters that I rooted for the entire time while getting all giggly when they were admitting how they felt for one another. I’d definitely recommend for people who like some historical flavour to their reads as well as for those who enjoy queer characters seizing their happiness. All I have left to say is that when I finished the last page, I was filled with a warm, fuzzy glow.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Vintage for sending me a review copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

This trans historical romance from the author of Chef’s Kiss and Triple Sec, is sweet, fun, and full of secrets.

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this, the characters of Christopher and James were well done, I loved the growing relationship between the two men as well as the side characters of Éteinne and Miss Montrose as well as Belinda and Chester. The queerness of this story is interwoven into every page, though it takes to the end to figure out exactly what was going on. I did suspect some things but the way everything came about was wonderful. This is a solid entry into the queer historical romance genre.
This is more of their journey (especially Christopher's journey) and I loved that for him.

Recommend for those who want more character growth, and not necessarily just sexual scenes (although what is there is lovely).

I was really loving it, Christopher and Harding as individuals and their relationship. This book made laugh and cry, but at the end I felt the miscommunication was completely unnecessary and frustrated me greatly, other than that it was lovely.

Lord Christopher Eden is known as a “man of unusual make” because his eccentricity keeps him in his manor house, far away from London, and with only two servants. He's happy to spend calm days with only his cook and aging butler, but a stipulation on his father's will states that he must be married by 25, or he will lose everything. With the day fast approaching, Christopher finds himself forced to hire a valet in the hopes of looking normal and gaining a wife. Except the valet is James Harding, distractingly handsome and infinitely capable, and feelings Christopher has tried to keep buried start coming to the surface.

I appreciate the twist Alexander gave this otherwise very traditional historical romance. You're not outright told what is "unusual" about Christopher, but there are hints. And he's so nice that you're constantly rooting for him to get to live his life however he wants.

The other big reveal is a little obvious, but I loved how it made the message of "you're not as alone as you think" that much more powerful. Showing that Chritopher had many people there to support him, even when he didn't know it, hits a little harder and made everything even sweeter.

In the end, it's a perfect LGBTQ twist on a very classically sweet historical romance.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Vintage for the emotional read!

Not bad, not great. A perfect pallet cleanser while you relax between reads. I have been wanting more historical romance in my life and this premise struck my Bridgerton and Downton Abbey interests. What you get here is a decently executed book and pleasant writing style. The issue here are the characters. Everyone just felt flat, void of any real depth. Which, given the historical period, can be true as Regency Era individuals were very superficial. I was just hoping with a queer romance, it would have given something a little more emotional.

The setting- I really enjoyed the historical setting of this book. It was fun to see the authors take on it, especially with the queer characters within this book. The world felt pretty fleshed out, and I liked the authors descriptions.

The characters- I did like the romance between the two main characters. There were a lot of cute moments, and banter between the two of them. I just wish there was a little more between the two of them. They barely touched the whole book, and were fairly clueless of their feelings between each other. Then when we finally got those admissions the book was over, I guess I just wanted more pining to really make me feel the tension. Overall they were cute but I wanted the fireworks.

The plot- The plot of the book was interesting. I really enjoyed getting to know the backstories of our characters as the story went along. It really ends up shaping how the story goes in the end. The element of one of our main characters trying to find a wife to gain his inheritance was a good way for us to meet the side characters. We went on some fun side quests with them, and met the protagonist of the next book in the series.

I really enjoyed this one. I was a tiny bit hesitant because historical isn’t always my favorite to read. However I love everything that TJ Alexander writes. So I was happy to get offered an ARC. Thank you so much. I recommend picking this one up if you are looking for a queer historical romance.