TEST
Cat Sebastian takes readers back to Georgian England with her latest novel, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. It’s a lively tale laden with wit, sparkling dialogue and insightful social commentary; the two leads are superbly characterised and there’s a vibrant secondary cast, too. In fact, when I was only a few chapters in, I thought I’d be awarding the book a DIK, but unfortunately, the plot gets rather convoluted in the second half in a way that didn’t seem all that well thought-out, and that knocked the final grade down a notch or two. But it’s still an entertaining read.
After taking a bullet to the leg, highwayman Gladhand Jack ‘retired’ from the business of highway robbery and now runs a moderately successful coffee house in London. It’s a comfortable – if unexciting – life, and a year after his retirement, Christopher – Kit – Webb is bored. He doesn’t really want to go back to his old life of thievery and trying not to get killed, but he can’t deny that he misses the activity and excitement – or that he’s getting more restless and foul-tempered by the day. Which is why, when something that looked like first-rate trouble – an exquisitely dressed young gentleman complete with powder, patches and an elaborately adorned wig – walks into the coffeehouse, Kit is instantly intrigued.
Edward Percival Talbot – Percy to his friends – is the only son and heir to the Duke of Clare. Or rather, he was, until information recently came to light revealing that his father’s marriage to his mother was bigamous. After living for some years on the Continent, Percy returned to England after his mother’s death to discover that his obnoxious father had married his (Percy’s) childhood friend Marian (seemingly against her wishes), that he has a new baby sister – and that his father married his mother – and now Marian – while he had another wife still living. The first blackmail letter arrived a month earlier, setting out the facts and demanding money, and now Percy and Marian have two months to come up with a plan. Neither of them wants to pay the blackmailer. Percy knows that paying up will mean spending a lifetime in fear of exposure and is inclined to make the truth known on their own terms; Marian thinks paying the blackmailer will let Clare off the hook for what he’s done and she wants revenge, to bring him as low as humanly possible.
Although Percy is facing social ruin, and his entire life has been based on a lie, he’s firstly concerned for Marian and little Eliza and wants to make sure they’re safe and well taken care of before he focuses too much on his own situation. To this end, he plans to steal a book from his father – and then use it to force him to pay him and Marian enough money for them to be able to live comfortably. (At this stage, we don’t know what the book’s contents are). It’s Marian who comes up with the idea of getting Gladhand Jack to do the job for them – but after his first visit to the coffeehouse, Percy isn’t so sure the former highwayman is the right man for the job.
And, as it turns out, neither is Kit, although he’s tempted. Very tempted – and by more than just the idea of one last job. But he knows his own limitations and that his bad leg won’t hold up sufficiently for him to be able to pull off the robbery himself. So he offers to teach Percy how to do it instead.
The first section of the story details Percy’s attempts to persuade Kit to help him, using a mixture of financial incentive and flirtation that stops little short of outright seduction. The chemistry between them is palpable, the dialogue is superb – witty and very sharply observed – and I enjoyed their spirited conversations and the steadily growing affection and tenderness between them.
Kit and Percy are likeable, complex characters, complete opposites who shouldn’t work as a couple – yet they do. Kit is an adorable grouch who has no idea of the esteem in which he’s held by those around him, and Percy hides a deep vulnerability behind his ostentatious outfits and witty conversation. He makes little attempt to hide his attraction to men, while Kit is less concerned with what’s between a partner’s legs and, as he puts it, seldom goes to bed with people because he seldom meets anyone he really wants to go to bed with.
Both men are carrying considerable emotional baggage – Kit has experienced great loss, and Percy hasn’t known much love or affection – and have come to believe that they don’t deserve to be happy or loved. But as they become closer and begin to fall in love with each other, that experience – and the mutual support they can now offer – gradually shows them the lie and they begin to understand that they’re more than the sum of their past experiences and that together, they can be better than they were before. I was pleased with their honesty and that they behave and speak like adults, discussing their pasts in a realistic, sensible way, and that there are no overblown dramatics.
The big problem with the book though, is the plot, which gets progressively more complicated somewhere after the halfway mark. We don’t find out what’s so important about the book Percy wants to steal until really late in the day, and the way plot point after plot point is suddenly stuffed in in the last quarter of the story not only had my head spinning but contributed to an overall feeling of ‘is that it?’ when the book ended. I understand there’s going to be a sequel , but this novel wasn’t originally billed as part of a series (and still isn’t) and I came away from it feeling vaguely disappointed at the way so many things have been left hanging.
In the end, I liked, but didn’t love, The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. The romance is sweet, tender and sexy, and the setting of Georgian London is well-established; I especially loved the descriptions of Percy’s sumptuous outfits. The secondary characters – special mention goes to Betty, Kit’s employee, and Collins, Percy’s valet – are interesting and well-rounded, and the discussions as to the evils and abuses of great privilege are perceptive and, dare I say, timely. Despite my criticisms, fans of queer historical romance will find plenty to enjoy here.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer
Visit our Amazon Storefront
Grade: B
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 08/06/21
Publication Date: 06/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Related Reviews
Well, I just finished reading The Queer Principles of Kit Webb and loved both heroes to bits. Like you said, great characterization and palpable chemistry throughout. No forced drama, actual adult conversations, no moping and doping in the third act over contrived betrayals. Awesome!
I do agree that the last 25 – 30% is a bit of a whirlwind in terms of the plot. At times, it feels overstuffed with too many new characters and plot twists so late in the book. Weirdly enough, if this book were 25 – 50% longer, I think it would have worked. The fact a sequel is coming makes this shortcoming less annoying to me than if the book just ended. Now, it feels more like a “To Be Continued…”
An area that could have been expounded upon in greater detail would be the robbery itself. Not to get too far into spoilers, but it felt rushed compared to the great preparation scenes. Heck, if there were a bigger word count to play with, I think there could have been more prep scenes, particularly a final battle plan being mapped out and discussed in depth. The final countdown, if you will. As for the robbery itself, it could have used some more pulse-pounding tension. It was more like, “Oh, okay. I guess this is the robbery we’ve been waiting for. Cool,” instead of the BIG EVENT.
Overall, I think a solid B grade is fair. Since I’m generally a character and dialogue centered reader/writer, I can be a bit more forgiving about somewhat messy plots as long as they still operate within some semblance of plausibility.
Agreed. I’m less forgiving about all the hanging threads because I had no idea this wasn’t a standalone when I chose to review it months ago. And that’s unfair on readers who expected a complete story.
Great review, Caz. I also finished the book feeling disappointed.
I felt that the way the plot was resolved meant that we were just told things, rather than living through them on page. And many of those things just made think ‘why?’ Actually, there are many parts of the plot that make me think, ‘Why did he/she do that? What was their motivation?’ I felt that Percy and Kit’s HEA was diminished by this lack of detail.
It wasn’t until I reached the end of the book and saw that part 2, Rob and Marian’s story, is due in the summer of next year, that I realised that this book was either the start of a series or duology. So that is obviously why so many plot details are absent – and will, presumably, come out in the next book. Hmmm, might have been a good idea to market it as such to keep the readers on-side!
Other than this, there are plenty of Cat Sebastian’s good points as Caz has said above. However, IMO, the relationship between the MCs doesn’t have the zing and charm of some of her previous couples.
When I picked this up for review a few months back, there was no indication it was a series/there would be a sequel, so I’m wondering if there was one planned at the time the book was written. Maybe CS came up with it while she was writing – I don’t know. But this one isn’t billed as part of a series at Amazon – and having seen the author mention a sequel on Twitter just before I this one, I do feel cheated. The plot should have worked on its own without so much left hanging or unclear; I’m not averse to reading series with overarching plots, but they need to be properly planned out, and that’s not the impression I got here.
I’m not interested in reading the sequel anyway (it’s about Marian and probably Rob? – and we’ve already had a Robin and Marian(ne) from KJ Charles this year – and CS isn’t in the same league IMO.
The page following the end of the story in the ebook says:
Announcement
Cat Sebastian will be back to steal your heart
with Rob and Marian’s story
Coming Summer 2022
So it’s definitely R and M.
That isn’t in the ARC, which I’ve had for several months, so I’m guessing it was finalised after they went out. It’s not uncommon for announcements and acknowledgements to be ommited from review copies because they’re made available months in advance.
I still think this was originally planned as a standalone.
I agree. I think it’s likely that she changed it due to plotting issues………….
I don’t know if this is related, but I heard The Queer Principles of Kit Webb got shoved way back in production due to lockdowns and whatnot. In other words, it may have been a mess of a project Sebastian completed in a mess of a year. Not saying this as an excuse, just as a possible explanation for the poor plotting.
Also, this is not the first time Sebastian has had trouble with telling vs showing. Don’t get me wrong. I love her characters and writing style and think a number of her books are clear winners. But her newest book brings to mind a glaring example of her leaving out essential details is in A Gentleman Never Keeps Score. Granted, Gentleman is not an erotica piece, so fade to black sex scenes aren’t out of line. But when…
Sometimes, I honestly wonder if Sebastian is beholden to strict word count requirements that force her to rush through important scenes- or excise them. Or maybe she burns out while writing and just can’t wait to finish the darn book to move on to the next one.
In light of all this, will I be reading The Queer Principles of Kit Webb? Probably. But it’s unfortunately starting to sound like Sebastian is getting put on a content mill like so many HR writers, which makes quality suffer.
I know many authors have struggled/are struggling for a variety of reasons related to what’s been going on this past year and more.
II doubt it’s a matter of word-count issues – but I can’t help wondering if well-established authors don’t get much editorial guidance these days.
I’m waiting, Nan, for you to read a KJC book and come back and realise just how big the difference between these two authors is. They’re often lumped together because they both write queer HR, but I think you’ll realise there’s a huge difference in quality!
I know, I know. I’m currently balancing a lot of soon-to-be-due library books with huge waitlists in addition to writing deadlines and other stuff outside of erotica. (Excuses, excuses.) But I do have A Seditious Affair on my Overdrive wish list.
As for editorial issues, I think you’re right. I see more mainstream romances littered with typos and plot issues than ever.
I can’t say that I noticed that, Nan, and Hartley is probably my favourite of all her characters, so it obviously didn’t bother me!
Not a clue about word counts but I know that a lot of authors have struggled with writing during the pandemic.
KJ Charles has written on her blog about the difficulties she had with Subtle Blood and I believe she only finished it a couple of weeks ago. I think it’s self-published, so she was able to delay publication until she was happy with it.
I like Hartley too. :-) Actually, I can’t recall any heroes of hers so far that I didn’t like. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score is a good book, and I enjoyed it. There were just some decisions she made with showing vs telling, and the HEA that didn’t quite work for me as well as I hoped. But, we’re all different!
Some of the plot elements remind me of Victorian sensation novels — and I mean that as a compliment. Does anyone know whether Cat Sebastian is a Wilkie Collins fan?
No idea – but I certainly am!
The plot didn’t strike me that way at all – it wasn’t detailed enough and the complexities were, well, not complex in the way I associate with Victorian sensation plots. The best pastiche of that genre I’ve read recently is KJ Charles’ Sins of the Cities trilogy – which is consciously fashioned in that style. This one… is more haphazard, I think.
Looking forward to picking this up!
The last couple of Cat Sebastian’s books were disappointing to me. They weren’t bad, and I do enjoy her writing style, but her characters are often prone to martyrdom, and the whole “don’t believe they deserve to be loved” seems to be a theme, so I got a bit bored with her books. This does not sound like it will break that cycle, but the review makes me consider giving it a try anyways, we’ll see.
I wasn’t all that sold on her Regency Imposters books – I quite liked A Duke in Disguise but she’s been hovering in the B range for a while – although I did give the last Sedgwick book a A-.
This book started off really strong – so strong that I thought it might end up as another DIK – but then as I said, the plot got really convoluted (and didn’t make much sense in the end!) Plus, the sequel bait issue – I came away feeling like there was too much unresolved by the end. I do think it’s better than most of her other recent books though – especially the first half.
****SPOILERS BELOW****
Just finished this yesterday. Your observations (both above and in your review) are spot on, Caz.
I had a hard time getting into this book–it didn’t immediately grab me–but after a few chapters, I found myself thinking “oh, this really is well written, and the banter is delightful!” But ultimately the weak plotting (wrt the robbery, plot point revelations, and side character development) let me down.
Also, I personally found this off-putting: Percy’s ability to pretty easily discount (and then chuck) the idea of remaining at Cheveril and being a good landowner and taking care of the people he had power to take care of.
I understood why he felt that way in part, given what his father had done. Plus, if I understood correctly, he would not be able to be with Kit if he stayed at Cheveril as the new Duke.
But the way it was presented didn’t work for me. I needed to see Percy struggle more with the idea of the tremendous good he could do long-term (and the wrongs he could right) as the Duke versus (1) what he would be giving up emotionally (Kit), (2) his concern that he himself might not have the temperament to be a good landowner, and (3) ongoing uncertainty about his position, since at any time he could be revealed
.
As it was, Percy’s seeming conclusion that aristocratic landowners = evil (“Power to the People!”, I guess?) was just a little too simplistic for my taste. YMMV
Yes, I thought the plotting overall was fairly weak. I liked the characters and their banter and their relationship for the most part, but the motivations were really underdeveloped. No way would that have happened in a KJ Charles book!