2.5 stars rounded up

a tropey trans historical romance with hijinks! i really wanted to love this more than i did, but there are a lot of things here that were still lovely and worth mentioning, and it was ultimately a very quick atmospheric read. i'm also not sure i agree with the tropes listed in the blurb: "enemies to lovers" doesn't actually apply if they just vaguely don't get along at first, and while "forced proximity" is technically true, it's not one of the tropes that would've come to my mind when thinking about this book.

i listened to this via audiobook; it's a single pov narrated by Harrison Knights who i thought was well-suited to this book. he's got nice clear diction, and he's able to make christopher and harding's voices distinct without overly performing their voices.

i think that the strongest part of this book was christopher's developing self-love; so much of his transness up until this point in his life had been protecting his secrets and shutting himself off to vulnerability with people who wanted to love him, and it was very nice to watch him realise that the world is so much wider and queerer than he could ever have imagined. i could never get tired of reading about queer people finding love and allowing themselves to be loved.

that being said, i wasn't too taken in by the romance. christopher and harding have a slowburn romance up until the end when they jump from having barely touched each other to furiously having sex on the floor of the manor, which was just a little bit jarring lol. particularly at the start, the connection between christopher and harding seems a little bit too insta-lust for me, and many of their initial conversations are montaged over, which made it feel like harding was always held at arms length. he felt a little one-dimensional to me throughout, despite their increased banter over time and the consideration he shows christopher; he was kind and clearly a good person but i never really fell for him, and from christopher's pov it feels like he'd been half in love with harding from the beginning anyway purely off of physical attraction. there were some moments where i was almost like, i wonder if this book will end with christopher and harding just being best friends and then christopher makes a bunch more queer people and creates a community, because i just wasn't invested in their romance.

there are a lot of (relevant) hijinks in this book, but i can't say i particularly cared about the others; i liked belinda though i suppose. there were only brief interactions between christopher and proper london society, so the whole 'propriety' element of engaging in the london season felt surface level, and the characters in high society felt more like archetypes.

overall, this is a light-hearted trans historical romance that's an easy read! i think i just wanted a little more depth from some of the more serious conversation topics (ie both of their differing types of grief about their families) because i think it would've really made the difference between Good and Great.

thank you to netgallery for the audiobook ARC!

A surprising Regency romance between the reclusive Christopher, Lord Eden and James Harding, his new valet. I was intrigued from the start and loved the unexpected twists and turns. I listened to the audio which worked very well, with only one quibble: Christopher sounded like a female character in a pantomime - which made him a little bit ridiculous, and much less likeable. As the male narrator was speaking as a trans-man, I'm not sure why his voice was so feminised? Apart from that, I loved the way narrator Harrison Knights navigated the banter between chatty Christopher and the much more taciturn James.

The romance itself has light and shade. Both Christopher and James have tragic backstories, and these unfolded with both angst and tenderness. In particular Christopher's life choices isolated him from his community and meant he missed out on so many experiences as a young Earl.

In other ways the story was almost comedic. The visit to the tailor, a secondary character elopement plot, the ghost, were all featherlight. It's a very slow burn but delicious once they get themselves sorted! The happily ever after was surprising and satisfying - I was so happy for them both.

I have to start by saying that when I picked up this book, I did not realize it was a trans hero. I don't read this genre at all.

Having said that, I did listen to the tail end of the audiobook as I like sappy heas, and the 4 chapters I listened were written really well. Tj, prose was soothing, great word choices that truly brings out the emotions. I liked how Christopher and James were portrayed not in the context of the book (since I read only the last few chapters), but in the context of characters.

#netgalley #TheEarlMeetsHisMatch

What an absolutely charming story! TJ Alexander does not miss and I’m so excited to see them branch into historical. This is a queer romance featuring a trans earl and his valet. This story is treated with Alexander’s usual mix of heart, humor and emotion. I have brunt out in regency romances in the past, but this definitely reignited that love.

The narrator does a fantastic job bringing this novel to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC in exchange for an honest review!

The burn is agonisingly slow and I was surprised by how little spice there was, given the sprinklings of cursing and fantasising, but I didn’t mind that!
The prose is lush, without being overly flowery or pretentious. Some of the metaphors and similes made me gasp with how illustrative they were.
Always love to see the ‘this animal doesn’t like anyone but me… but they like you’ microtrope.
It’s such a lovely read from Harrison, I really enjoyed the sass and humour brought to Christopher in particular. From a technical perspective, the inserted pickups were noticeable, but not too jarring and not too frequent.
Overall a great time! Everything I like from a regency romance - a lot of pining and a lot of fun.