Title: Kindred Hearts
Author: G.S. Wiley
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M historical romance
Length: 37 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
A guest review by Jenre
Summary Review
A sweet historical romance between a shy, theatre loving gentleman and a navy officer.
THE BLURB
Crippled by a devastating stammer, Alfie would prefer to hide himself away in the audience of London’s theaters. But as the perfect Georgian gentleman, it’s his responsibility to find a husband for his ward Eleanor. The pain of having to converse with strangers is lessened by the appearance of the kind-hearted Lord George Caldwell and his cousin Lieutenant Markham, who is far more interesting than any character Alfie has seen on stage, and far more intriguing than any man he’s ever met in person.
THE REVIEW
Kindred Hearts reminded me very much of the sort of short story that sometimes cropped up in anthologies of Regency romances by Signet, or other such publishing houses where the focus is on the slow dance of romance, and sex is either only alluded to briefly, or firmly behind closed doors. The story follows Alfie, a member of the British aristocracy who hides his crippling stammer by taking himself off to a different theatre each night in order to avoid other aspects of polite society. When his mother arrives from the country, bringing Alfie’s ward with her, Alfie is forced away from his theatres and into society where he meets dashing Navel man, Lieutenant Markham.
Much of my delight in this story sprang from my feelings towards Alfie. He has quite a delightful naivety about him, as well as an embarrassed acceptance of his limitations in terms of his speech impediment. His love of the theatre shone though the story as he enthusiastically attends the theatre and gets caught up in the magic of make-believe, leading to his awed relationship with one of his favourite actresses. His attraction to Lieutenant Markham was understated but fitted well with Alfie’s shy personality. I also liked that Alfie was a gentleman who knew his duty, even he wasn’t always happy about it.
As I said earlier, the story closely followed that of a Regency romance, even if this particular story is set during the Georgian era, and I happily read along with all the familiar conventions, especially to do with the way the romance progresses. The heroes meet, exchange longing looks, make allusions to their attraction, and almost kiss before things move onto more physical pleasures (which are fade to black). Intertwined with this is the story involving Alfie, his mother and his ward, as Alfie is dragged off to balls and forced to socialise with other members of the aristocracy when all he’d really like to do is hide in the theatre. The historical setting was a mix of the familiar, in its depiction of society, walks in the park and ballrooms; and unusual, in the descriptions of the theatre and life backstage. I greatly enjoyed this aspect of the story as we are immersed in the two different worlds, with Alfie as the join between them. The story ends hopefully, and in what I felt was an appropriate way for an m/m historical with an accurate setting.
Overall, if you’re looking for a sweet historical short story with an engaging hero, then you can’t go wrong with Kindred Hearts. I enjoyed it a great deal and would highly recommend it.
I love Regency romance. It sounds like a lot is crammed in one short story. Isn’t it too much?
Hi Ingrid
It didn’t feel crammed at all. I think possibly because the two story strands were interdependent on each other.
Jen
This sounds delightful and reminds me of the days when I read historical het romances, except in this cases it’s two gentlemen who are eyeing each other longingly. I don’t mind the “fade to black” because frankly, sometimes there’s so much sex in M/M I’m drowning in a sea of cum. I’ll definitely be reading this one. Thanks for the rec.
Hi Wave
It reminded me very much of het romances too. It made me quite nostalgic for those books :).
Hmm. I’ll mark it as a maybe… because I’ve read several m/m historicals lately and enjoyed them.
Hi Chris
*gasp* really? You’ll read a historical?
*faints*
Lol! Seriously though, this is a good historical so you should read it :).
Hard to believe, isn’t it?! 😉 But I’ve actually read several historicals over the past few weeks!
Hi, Jen! How nice that a sweet, non-explicit, well-written m/m romance can still find a home and an audience in our genre. I worry sometimes that the demand for explicit stuff will crowd out the good stuff that isn’t sexually explicit. I didn’t know that Torquere was open to a range of fiction beyond just sexually explicit fiction! Good for them, and good for you for a great informative review. I’d like to check this out.
Hi Val
I’ve read a few ‘sweet’ romances from TQ now (a number of which have been GS Wiley stories, lol). They were mainly shorts though. I can’t remember reading a ‘sweet’ longer book from them.
You are right, it is nice that there are non-explicit m/m stories to choose from. I get tired of the endless sex from time to time.
Great review. I love most anything by this author but I didn’t love this one. I thought it was actually too short for everything going on. I LOVED Alfie so much but his romance was perhaps the least important detail. I really enjoyed watching his ward find and capture her man but that too felt too fast and truncated. The side story about the actress was almost heart wrenching (poor alfie!).
I just felt like all the story lines going on were fabulous but too many to let them all shine. Still highly recommended.
Hi Kassa
I loved Alfie too and, yes, I wish more had been made of his romance with Markham. You are right, there was a lot going on, but I felt that was part of this story’s charm.