Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure

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Courtney Milan’s latest offering in the Worth Saga series is the novella Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure. In it, the author offers something the romance world is sadly lacking – a romance between an older couple. And by older I don’t mean forties and fifties – I mean sixties and seventies.

Seventy-three-year-old Bertrice Martin is a wealthy widow who has been feeling lonely and out-of-sorts since losing so many friends (and a lover) recently. Violetta Beauchamps (aged sixty-nine) is impoverished, unmarried and newly unemployed. She has worked as an assistant to a property manager for many years and is looking forward to a pension when she retires – which disappears when her boss finds an excuse to fire her.  In desperation she plans to fund her retirement with a small lie. The worst tenant at the building she previously managed is two years in arrears with his rent, and she plans to go to his aunt (Mrs. Martin), tell her that she, Violetta, actually owns the building the nephew is renting a room in and demand payment – and keep that payment as her pension.

Mrs. Martin abhors her nephew  – the “Terrible Nephew” and has no plans to bail him out. But she will pay Violetta the same amount if she helps Bertrice kick the Terrible Nephew out of his rooms and promises to never lease to him again. A deal is struck and the two head to London to oust the nephew. What follows is a few weeks of Bertrice and Violetta wreaking havoc in the Terrible Nephew’s life and an awakening attraction and love between them.

I am in two minds with this novella. First, I absolutely love the premise – two mature ladies out to make a good-for-nothing man pay for his crimes against them in particular and womanhood in general. And they have a wonderful time doing it. There are hilarious passages where Bertrice harangues her Terrible Nephew and men at large. When Violetta suggests the Terrible Nephew is at his club, Bertrice responds:

Gentlemen. In a club. All squashed together. How odious. I cannot believe it is allowed.

Of course it is allowed. They make their own rules. They make ours as well. In any event, I see it more in the light of putting all the cockroaches in one jar.

Violetta and Bertrice have both been sorely betrayed and abused by men and their anger is justified. However, I found their methods to be questionable. I kept feeling as though Bertrice was walking too close to the line with her revenge and that the nephew was going to win in the end because of Bertrice’s risky choices. Some of Bertrice and Violetta’s actions could easily be viewed as “deranged” – especially by an all male judiciary system. And short of a last minute save from Violetta, the Terrible Nephew almost does win. I felt like Bertrice was too savvy to get this close to losing everything.

The romance between the pair is more of a side note than part of the plot. The passages about how our sexual value and desirability should not be defined by age were all very poignant and on target. But we don’t get to see much of how the romance between Bertrice and Violetta develops. I think this is part of the curse of the novella – it’s hard to get everything fleshed out. I would have preferred less man-bashing and more romantic development.

All that aside, I think Ms. Milan has brought something fresh to the field of historical romance. It would be terrific to see this work encourage other writers to expand their pool of interesting, fun, sexy characters to include those over the age of fifty. And it would be lovely to see more lesbian  romances too. I’m giving Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure a recommendation because I think some readers will enjoy the humor and Bertrice’s unique views on men. If you are looking for a well-developed romance though, it may not be for you.

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Reviewed by Evelyn North

Grade: B-

Book Type: Historical Romance

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date: 05/05/19

Publication Date: 03/2019

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

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Lynda X
Lynda X
Guest
05/06/2019 7:12 pm

I haven’t finished the last couple of books by Milan, including this one. I was bored by her “hilarious” parts.. I think Milan’s earlier works are among the absolute best in romance, largely because she had interesting characters, often in impossible situations. She explored interesting themes, like cruelty being a habit, etc. Frankly, I think she has lost interest in her writing lately and has attempted to expand her subject matter in an attempt to restart her engine, but it’s not working. I will buy her next one (if she ever finishes it) because it sounds like her old romances. Often writers just lose their “voice” which dictates the dialogue, etc., making the initial writing tuning into their subconscious. I think Milan has lost their voices. I really, really hope she gets it back.

Evelyn North
Evelyn North
Guest
05/06/2019 8:04 am

I adored The Governess Affair and The Countess Conspiracy. Such great romances. I imagine I will always read Ms. Milan’s books because of my early love of them..

Caz Owens
Caz Owens
Editor
Reply to  Evelyn North
05/06/2019 9:07 am

Well, I keep trying them in the hope she’ll return to her earlier form. So far, I’ve been disappointed. None of the Worth books have worked well for me :(

Blackjack
Blackjack
Guest
05/05/2019 10:57 pm

I’ve always found Courtney Milan to be among the better novella writers in the romance genre, and at least one of her novellas, The Governess Affair, is still one of my very favorite romances. I do want to read this one as I was intrigued by the pairing of an older couple and two women at that. Tempering my expectations a bit though now. Thanks for the great review!

Caz Owens
Caz Owens
Editor
Reply to  Blackjack
05/06/2019 7:41 am

I always hold up The Governess Affair and A Kiss or Midwinter as examples of how to do novellas RIGHT and they’re the yardsticks by which I judge all other novellas! This one sounds like it’s fallen to prey to the same problems I’ve experienced with the previous books in this series: too much tub-thumping and not enough romantic development. I’ve always admired the author for her ability to blend those two things together, but the balance has tipped in favour of the “issues” recently and it feels to me as though CM has forgotten she’s supposed to be writing romances.

Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
Admin
Reply to  Caz Owens
05/06/2019 8:17 am

I’m rarely in a romance for the tub-thumping.

Caz Owens
Caz Owens
Editor
Reply to  Dabney Grinnan
05/06/2019 9:22 am

Nope. And especially not when it’s so bloody obvious.

Lisa
Lisa
Guest
Reply to  Blackjack
05/06/2019 9:08 am

I don’t mind if an author wants to change their voice, but like the rest of you, it bothers me if they continue to call their books “romance” when their voices have clearly moved on to, say, fiction with strong romantic elements, or women’s fiction, or Message Fiction. It often feels exploitative of the loyalty of the romance fan base, who will often stick with authors through three or four books that don’t really work for them anymore.

Also, it’s a little weird to me that Milan is such an advocate for Own Voices authors, but doesn’t see anything weird about herself telling the story of septuagenarian lesbians? I mean, I guess you could argue that she’s doing it because an unconventional story might need a big-name author to demonstrate financial viability, but it feels a little more to me like virtue theater. I don’t know. Did she post anywhere about why she felt this was her story to tell?

Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
Admin
Reply to  Lisa
05/06/2019 9:16 am

I’m loving the phrase “virtue theater.” It’s virtue signalling with a flourish!

Caz Owens
Caz Owens
Editor
Reply to  Lisa
05/06/2019 9:21 am

It often feels exploitative of the loyalty of the romance fan base, who will often stick with authors through three or four books that don’t really work for them anymore.

Yes, yes and yes to all that, especially what you’ve said about it being exploitative. She’s still using the same cover design and sorts of images as for her Turner and Brothers Sinister books, which is, IMO one of the best HR series around – which is signalling to the reader that these newer titles are more of the same – and they’re not. Not by a long chalk.

Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
Admin
Reply to  Lisa
05/06/2019 9:26 am

I’m all for Own Voices authors but, to me, that doesn’t mean that only people from one voice can write stories about that experience. Here at AAR, we’ve championed queer books by straight authors, BDSM books by writers who don’t actually live that life, billionaire books by those whose incomes aren’t that robust, etc…. It makes me crazy when art is policed by saying “No, you can’t write that.”

Lisa
Lisa
Guest
Reply to  Dabney Grinnan
05/06/2019 2:06 pm

I actually agree with you! But online Ms. Milan seems not to. So if you wrote this book I would say fine, but when she does it it feels contradictory.

Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
Admin
Reply to  Lisa
05/06/2019 2:28 pm

Fair.

Blackjack
Blackjack
Guest
Reply to  Lisa
05/06/2019 4:32 pm

I agree with what you are saying, Lisa, and struggle to enjoy writing that cannot seamlessly balance ideas/issues with the characters’ stories. This is a problem that plagues all kinds of writing far beyond the romance genre. Dickens was accused of being a didactic author who struggled to avoid sermonizing his audience. It’s a tough skill, and while I appreciate “Ideas” in all writing, when the author sees themselves as a preacher to their readers, I have a hard time enjoying them. Plus, it’s often patronizing to feel as if one is in need of a lecture on something about which I’m likely to share similar views. Following Milan on social media, I do have the sense that her fictional writing is driven by advocacy and romance itself is fairly secondary now. She used to be one of my go-to authors, but over the years, I find I hold back on buying and wait for reviews before purchasing.

Nah
Nah
Guest
Reply to  Lisa
05/06/2019 7:08 pm

The new Romancelandia trend is to be as woke as possible while also profiting off of the movement. There’s such a weird wibbly line between promoting own voices and writing about marginalized characters while critiquing each other for not getting the experience perfectly correct. It’s fascinating.

Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
Admin
Reply to  Nah
05/06/2019 9:39 pm

I resist the idea that one can only enjoy stories that are ____________________. I read fiction for all sorts of reasons: to learn (I just learned the origin of the word posh!), to escape, to better understand the world. I can love stories whose narratives feature plots I’d skitter away from in reality. And I can learn from stories written by those who can illuminate a world unfamiliar to them (The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter and A Good Man Is Hard To Find come to mind.)

Blackjack
Blackjack
Guest
Reply to  Nah
05/07/2019 1:11 am

I, for one, fully support Romancelandia being as woke as possible for socially humane reasons, and I also fully support artists making a living from their writing. If their work has social and entertainment value, why shouldn’t they be able to profit from it? I’ve always hated the concept of the starving artist. We live in such a grossly materialistic world and pay exorbitant amounts of money for all sorts of things. Why should writers feel ashamed to earn money for their books – woke or not?

I also though don’t have a problem with an artist writing about marginalized characters and then critiquing others’ representations. Likewise, readers too can read about marginalized representations and then go on to critique the views of what they just read. Art can and should be able to sustain critique. It’s how we learn and grow. I don’t really see this as a new trend though.

Dabney Grinnan
Dabney Grinnan
Admin
Reply to  Blackjack
05/07/2019 8:34 am

Romancelandia can be as woke as it wants. That’s my point. Reading and writing are personal. Everyone has the freedom to read and write for whatever reason she chooses. And the more we support all readers and all writers, the more successful authors will be. It’s when we parcel our books into acceptable and non that we get the unimaginative claptrap that dominates much of the Amazon bestseller lists making the big bucks and genuinely thoughtful, creative works struggling to make a dime.

Robin
Robin
Guest
05/05/2019 3:33 pm

I’m sad this wasn’t more fleshed out plot-wise and romance-wise, and I’m especially sad that the resistance against male domination reads like man-bashing. (One of the things I enjoyed so much about Sarah Waters’s Tipping the Velvet was how so many of the women characters acknowledge the control of patriarchy but largely functioned outside it.) Novelas are tricky for conveying fully fleshed-out stories. I’ve seen it done, but not often.