So Ruth, who is never wrong, told me to read The Summer ofYou by Kate Noble and the way she talked about it made me want to go and buy it
immediately. So I did, and then read it rather quickly.
Think steamy Georgette Heyer that plays with narrative
device. Observe: I said steamy. This is
not one of the squeaky clean historicals you sometimes find on this blog. If you
are offended by steamy scenes then you are probably not going to like this book
and should stick to your Heyer. You have been warned.
But if you don’t mind, oh I don’t know, perhaps the hottest
sex scene I have ever read in a Regency ( made more so because the sexual
tension was so wonderful infused and borne outta friendship and the guy---the Rochesterian
misunderstood thought-to-be-a-Highwayman guy--- is such a dish ) then you are
in for a treat. (Note: this book is more than this scene; but there is this
scene, so I am letting you know )
Lady Jane leaves the ton and her society with her boring and
horrible brother and retreats to the Cottage: a massive mansion in the Lake
District with their ailing father who is suffering from the side effects of dementia.
From the first, Lady Jane is out of place: receiving
visitors, planning social events, wandering the town… she has no one who “gets”
her and while she enjoys the female company she keeps ( this book excels at
painting lovely female friendships ) she wants something more. She finds it, in the figure of Byrne Worth: a
wounded war veteran who lives at the edge of her family’s property and is
renowned as the surliest most uncouth man in the history of time. When Lady Jane meets him, however, they form
an immediate bond ( she may ALSO have noticed his fine figure when she stumbles
upon him swimming en dishabille in the cold pond ) and she gives him jam and he
gives her a special kind of tea and La! They become friends.
And this, ladies, is where the book gets really good and
ends up winning the honourable mention of other books of its ilk ( think The
Blue Castle, Venetia, the Black Sheep ): Friendship. Romance borne of
friendship. This isn’t “she doth make the
torches burn bright” love at first sight crap with no substance. No, Lady Jane
and Worth get each other, talk to each other enjoy ---and eventually --- crave
each other’s company. The physical ( and it gets physical ) attraction that
blossoms out of that does so gracefully, subtly and oh-so-believably.
Who wouldn’t want to marry their best friend? When they finally consummate a passion borne
out of similar personalities and traits--- it is seemingly more intense and
beautiful because it is not something strewn from objective desire. Certainly they are attracted to each other;
but they have a foundation from which to springboard that attraction.
Pepper in some hijinks and familial problems and a few
sideline romances and a ball and you have a fun regency getaway that is told by
a much more competent pen than many contemporaries. Not only does Noble infuse
her story with a careful and impressive knowledge of regency history, she does
so in a winking sing-song manner,
devilish and deviant, pulling you aside and coaxing you along: nudging
you closer and further as excited to tell—as you are to read--- the next
portion of the tale.
I mentioned before that I was absolutely smitten with the
range of narrative perspectives and I remain so. Noble’s unexpected switches of points of view
are nothing short of textbook. She knows
how to seamlessly transition and leaves you without a jolt. If she suddenly
changes to a secondary character’s viewpoint it seems as easy as pie and
natural as all get out.
I know that had I seen this book on a shelf I never would’ve
picked I up. But that’s the great thing
about bookish people, they share and give you the insider scoop. Someone gave this insider scoop to me and I
am giving it to you.
I leave you with a few awesomely fun snippets:
“Later that summer, when the atmosphere was beginning to dip into autumn, Jane would be able to look back and pinpoint this moment in time---the moment of Byrne Worth’s lascivious delicious grin---as the moment that the earth hit a bump and the winds changed their course and the great northern heat wave of 1816 began.”
“There was a moment, so slight Byrne could not count its
passing, that those eyes held him rooted to the ground.”
“Jane had infiltrated, her cinnamon scent stale in the air,
like leftover spiced tea. He shouldn’t be surprised, but he was. She had wormed
her way into his daytime thoughts; his unconscious was simply catching up.”
“There was nothing like a party to remind a person that the
world was larger than their own frustration”
“But… a small worry pricked the back of her mind. Those
other gentlemen…nothing would change with a kiss. With Byrne, would it change
the way they spoke to each other? Would it colour every conversation that was
to come, every time they ran into each other between their houses, every look?
And, suddenly it mattered to Jane. It mattered, she realized, because he was
her friend.”
“He could chalk up his actions last night as a product of
stars…”
“new Jane who discovered the ability to be bold and
vulnerable at once.”
