Ellie Reads All the Books: K. J. Charles

Review: Wanted, a Gentleman by KJ Charles

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Title: Wanted, A Gentleman
Author: KJ Charles
Genre/Themes: Historical, MM romance
Release Date: 9 Jan 2017
Author's links: Website / Twitter / Facebook Group / Goodreads
Add on Goodreads
My rating: 4 Stars

Blurb

By the good offices of Riptide Publishing
KJ Charles’s new Entertainment

WANTED, A GENTLEMAN
Or, Virtue Over-Rated

the grand romance of

Mr. Martin St. Vincent . . . a Merchant with a Mission, also a Problem
Mr. Theodore Swann . . . a humble Scribbler and Advertiser for Love

Act the First:

the offices of the Matrimonial Advertiser, London
where Lonely Hearts may seek one another for the cost of a shilling

Act the Second:

a Pursuit to Gretna Green (or thereabouts)

featuring

a speedy Carriage
sundry rustic Inns
a private Bed-chamber

***
In the course of which are presented

Romance, Revenge, and Redemption
Deceptions, Discoveries, and Desires

the particulars of which are too numerous to impart.

Review

KJ Charles' historical romance are my favourite queer historicals and this one easily joins their ranks. It's impeccably written, engaging and so much fun. This is a kind of road trip story in the chase of a runaway bride where two unlikely people fall in lust-love.

This Georgian romance is less serious than the Society of Gentlemen series but we have some political elements here as well and they give this light-hearted story an edgier feel and a certain depth to the characters which makes them all the more likable.

I won't go into details about the plot, but I just want to say that we have The Matrimonial Advertiser as the great-great grandfather of Tinder and Grindr and reading about it was highly enjoyable.

The leading characters, as one has come to expect from KJ Charles, read like real-life people dealing with real-life issues. Martin who is an freed slave is a most fascinating character and I loved everything about him -he is very attractive, smart but also struggling with conflicting feelings of gratitude and rightful indignation towards his former masters. He appears so put together,a successful business man, confident and completely at ease with who he is but meeting Theo and the road trip they take together brings to the fore all his buried emotions.

I found Theo less intriguing than Martin though they certainly made an interesting couple. I loved how they saw the other for he was and even though things between them started as a business transaction they quickly developed into something real, intimate.

There is a big twist in the story towards the end which I have to admit I didn't expect and it did turn things around in many ways, yet it still worked and added a certain sensationalist flavour to the story.

Wanted, A Gentleman is a quick and very entertaining read, recommended for the times you want to escape reality and lose yourself in a good book.

Purchase links: Riptide

Author Interview

Author Interview: KJ Charles

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KJ Charles talks about her writing and gives sneak peaks in her upcoming books

ER: Hi, KJ and welcome! I want to start this interview with some questions on your writing process and then dive in more detail about your upcoming books (and I know you have a few of those up your sleeve)

So, let’s kick this off with the question how you became a romance writer. Was this your childhood dream?

KJ: I always told stories in my head but it never occurred to me that I’d be a writer; I never really wrote them down at all. And when I did start writing I didn’t actually intend to write romance--I was supposed to be doing fantasy. None of this was planned, basically. I’m just making it up as I go along.

ER: What is the best and the worst thing about being a writer?

KJ: Best is the reader response. When people say that a book meant something to them, or are inspired to create art or Tumblr jokes or reference your work or just talk about it. Writing is very solitary and then the book comes out and strangers are suddenly talking to you about the people in your head, and sharing in your mental creations. It’s really astonishing.

Worst is how easy it is to screw up. Especially writing romance, which is a genre people come to in search of something that is in the end going to make them feel better. I don’t ever want to think that someone read a stupid throwaway remark of mine that made them feel attacked or belittled; I don’t want to expose my blind spots and unconscious bigotries, both for my own shame and for the sake of readers who might read something hurtful. Unfortunately, writing is a great way to give people a CAT scan of your psyche, for good or ill. If I’ve learned anything it’s that we all have a lot more blind spots—at best—than we’d like to think.

ER: Which part of the writing process is the easiest and the most difficult for you?

KJ: I love the self edit. When you have the first draft down, you’ve found out what the book is actually about, and you’re just tweaking and refining and oiling the bits to work together. That’s pure fun.

Most difficult: Copy edits. As an editor and an opinionated person who dislikes being wrong, I have difficulty taking them with grace.

ER: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

KJ: I’m now a plotter. It’s been a hard learning curve, though. I had to dump 30K on a book where I’d been winging it and it hadn’t worked; I vowed to plot thoroughly in the future; I then plotted out an entire book in detail, the first of a trilogy, and had to dump 30K of that because I’d forgotten to make the characters interesting or likeable. /side eyes everything/

ER: You write mostly queer historical romance. Is this your favourite subgenre to write? Do you want to try other subgenres?

KJ: I vastly prefer historical. If I do contemporary it would be urban fantasy probably, maybe horror. To be honest I don’t think I have anything to say in realistic queer contemporary that wouldn’t be better said by #ownvoices writers. Which is not to dictate what anyone else should write, but it’s how I feel about me.

ER: You have written only m/m couples so far, if I’m not mistaken. Are you interested in writing other types of relationships - m/f or f/f or poly relationships?

KJ: My December novella features a f/f central relationship and I’m aiming to write more of that. I have a forthcoming nonbinary main character also (Sins of the Cities book 3), and I’d love to write more nonbinary leads. I’ve never had an idea for a poly romance, but if I do I will!

ER: Speaking of writing dreams and future plans - what is the most outrageous/crazy story you want to write (Please, ignore the practical aspects of who would publish and who would want to read it)?

KJ: I don’t really see anything I want to write as outrageous, in that if it makes a coherent story, why not just do it? There is an amazing world of readers out there. (Except for my Twitter-running-joke contemporary Brexit romance, Hard Brexit, which involves a constitutional lawyer and a hot Brexiteer, with wigs-and-robes kink. That’s probably a step too far for anyone, ever.)

ER: Same question but about what kind of story you want to read and haven’t found it yet?

KJ: It’s not remotely outrageous, I just want more diverse historicals--diverse in terms of class and race and gender and sexuality and setting and period. Also I really want queer Restoration romance please. Someone do that or I may have to.

ER: Now, it’s time to focus more on your upcoming books. I believe Wanted, a Gentleman is your next release, right? Can you tell us more about it?

KJ: In fact I have two! Bear with me...

‘The Price of Meat’ is a short story (15K) in the queer horror anthology All in Fear, out now. It’s set in a Victorian AU, inspired by one of my favourite Victorian pulp stories (I won’t spoil it by saying which but Sondheim fans will probably work it out from the title!) and based on a real historical curiosity: the liberty of Alsatia, which was an area of London where laws officially didn’t apply. It’s penny dreadful rather than romance, with a f/f relationship at the centre.

Wanted, a Gentleman, publishing January, is a shortish novel/long novella set in 1805, a road trip story in which our heroes are on a chase to Gretna Green in pursuit of a runaway heiress. Theo is a Lonely Hearts magazine publisher and jobbing weasel; Martin is a merchant who’s a sort-of friend of the heiress’s family, and the story is about them solving their immediate problem of catching the heiress, tackling the larger problems they both have, and coping with the utter ghastliness of a 14-mile-an-hour high speed chase on miserable roads through nowhere...all the while falling in love. :)

ER: I know you are also working on another series of historical romances. When can we expect them and what will they be about?

KJ: The trilogy is called Sins of the Cities, and it’s a Victorian series set in 1873. I love Victorian sensation fiction, which is all about lost heirs and family secrets and murder and shenanigans, so I decided to write one. It’s three separate romances involving a set of friends, with an ongoing family-secret/murder plot that works its way through all three books. I also wanted to write some lower/middle class characters, not just the aristocracy, and to generally make my Victorian London a bit more reflective of the real place’s diversity.

The first is An Unseen Attraction, publishing February, about Clem Talleyfer, a lodging-house keeper, and Rowley Green, a taxidermist. Two gentle, quiet, mild-mannered men who deserve a lot better than to get mixed up in someone else’s murderous family secrets...

ER: This is a bit of unfair question but who is your favourite character/book you have written?

KJ: Probably A Seditious Affair. It’s a very political book, which I like; I loved putting the history together; the romance absolutely flew for me in the writing; plus these were the most star-crossed lovers I could possibly imagine, which is hugely pleasing to the sadistic writer brain.

ER: Oh, that is my favourite of your books too. I hesitate between Dom and Silas for a most favourite character and can’t really choose but as a couple (and the story of their coming together and staying together) they are just out this world amazing!

ER: Which book of all you have written so far was the easiest to write and which the most difficult?

KJ: Jackdaw was absurdly easy. Writing it was like taking dictation. The most difficult was Unseen Attraction draft 1, which as noted above started with a different plot and two different main characters. I’d already sold the trilogy, including audio rights, so I couldn’t simply not write the damn thing, and I had two linked subsequent books depending on this one so I had to find a way to keep the trilogy structure in place while redoing everything else including recasting the leads completely and oh my God I’m going to have to go for a lie down just thinking about it. Once I had the proper characters, it was a joy to write.

ER: And my final question is what advice would you give to aspiring authors?

KJ: You will get more criticism from more sources than you can imagine. All of it will hurt; some of it will be unfair; plenty of it will be important. You need to learn to listen to it, assess it, and be very ready to accept you screwed up. That’s how you do better as a writer and a person. (And don’t ever throw a tantrum about it in public.)

ER: Thank you very much KJ for doing this interview!

KJ: Thank you for having me!

*** *** ***

KJ Charles next release is Wanted, A Gentleman, coming out on January 9 from Riptide publishing.

Add to Goodreads / Pre-order from Riptide

Blurb

By the good offices of Riptide Publishing

KJ Charles’s new Entertainment

WANTED, A GENTLEMAN

Or, Virtue Over-Rated

the grand romance of

Mr. Martin St. Vincent . . . a Merchant with a Mission, also a Problem

Mr. Theodore Swann . . . a humble Scribbler and Advertiser for Love

Act the First:

the offices of the Matrimonial Advertiser, London

where Lonely Hearts may seek one another for the cost of a shilling

Act the Second:

a Pursuit to Gretna Green (or thereabouts)

featuring

a speedy Carriage

sundry rustic Inns

a private Bed-chamber

***

In the course of which are presented

Romance, Revenge, and Redemption

Deceptions, Discoveries, and Desires

the particulars of which are too numerous to impart

Favourites

Review: A Gentleman's Position by K. J. Charles

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Titlle: A Gentleman's Position (Society of Gentlemen #3)

Author: K. J. Charles

Genre/Themes: Historical, MM romance

Release Date: 5 April 2016

Author's links: Website / Twitter / Facebook Group / Goodreads

Add on Goodreads

My rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis

Among his eccentric though strictly principled group of friends, Lord Richard Vane is the confidant on whom everyone depends for advice, moral rectitude, and discreet assistance. Yet when Richard has a problem, he turns to his valet, a fixer of unparalleled genius—and the object of Richard’s deepest desires. If there is one rule a gentleman must follow, it is never to dally with servants. But when David is close enough to touch, the rules of class collide with the basest sort of animal instinct: overpowering lust.

For David Cyprian, burglary and blackmail are as much in a day’s work as bootblacking—anything for the man he’s devoted to. But the one thing he wants for himself is the one thing Richard refuses to give: his heart. With the tension between them growing to be unbearable, David’s seemingly incorruptible master has left him no choice. Putting his finely honed skills of seduction and manipulation to good use, he will convince Richard to forget all about his well-meaning objections and give in to sweet, sinful temptation.

Review

A Gentleman's Position is the final book in an amazing queer historical series, Society of Gentlemen. It brings a hard won and well deserved happiness to Lord Richard (the protector and father figure of the Richardians) with his trusted valet, David Cyprian. It's a passionate tale of love, lust, class and obligation but above all for me it is a story of determining one's identity, of growing and changing, becoming a better person for yourself and for the people you love and care about.

This series made convinced that Ms Charles is a true master of the historical romance. Her stories are vivid and detailed, carrying a strong sense of the Regency athmopshere in all its complexity - political and social unrest which further add to the difficulties the characters have to surmount on their way to happiness.

Lord Richard had a lot of learning to do and some atonement for his past mistakes and boy, did he keep on making mistakes even when he had the best intentions. I found his journey fascinating and oh, so real. Taking a hard look of who you are and finding out that you are not in fact the person you thought you were and you don't to want to be that person any more takes a lot of courage and is not easy to deal with. His mistakes, though painful to his friends and loved ones, were avoidable, they were part of his growth and untimatelt he managed to rise above them and be the man he wanted to be.

David Cyprian, on the other had, was just as amazing as we came to expect him to be from his appearance in the previous books. He seemed so in control, so sure of himself and tiny glimpses of slef-doubt and insecurity made him feel human and easier to relate to. He was not perfect, noone really is, but we saw how much effort and thought he put into being the best he could be.

The romance appeared totally impossible, both were stuck in their respective positions and there was no way to make things between them work on a personal level, yet their love for each other proved stronger than prejudice and fear and stifling norms and the petty morality of the times.

I really, really like the depth and sympathy with which Ms Charles explores issues of identity and the clash of the political with the personal. We saw it in the previous books, most noticeably in A Seditious Affair, and it was also present here. The problems Richard and David and rest of the their group face were real, life-threatening and Ms Charles never cheapened them or made their solution trivial or too easy. It didn't work like that at the time, and the the historical accuracy of her stories made them stand out.

A strong place in this story was taken by the issues of consent and abuse of power, what marriage/relationship in Regency England could/should be.

I also very much loved and appreciated the supporting characters in this story - Richard's brother and his wife, David's mother and her husband. Ms Charles creates a truly diverse world representative of the times and this makes the characters and their roamnce feel even more real.

Speaking of the series as a whole, I think Ms Charles has done a remarkable job with them. The stories are interwoven, complex and engaging. Her writing is superb and her attention to detail makes all the difference when reading a historical romance. The characters in the series are deliciously imperfect, real people of different walks of life, facing harsh choices and decisions and really struggling to find happiness and love at a time when this could easily mean the death sentence for two men in love with each other.

I haven't read much historical romances and even less queer ones, but this is definitely the best I have read and can't recommend it enough.

Purchase links: Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / Publisher / ARe

My reviews of the previous books in the series:
A Fashionable Indulgence - 5 Stars
A Seditious Affair - 5 Stars

Favoruite books

Review: A Seditious Affair by K. J. Charles

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Titlle: A Seditious Affair (Society of Gentlemen #2)
Author: K. J. Charles
Genre/Themes: Historical, MM romance
Release Date: 15 Dec 2015

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook Group / Goodreads
Add on Goodreads

My rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis

Silas Mason has no illusions about himself. He’s not lovable, or even likable. He’s an overbearing idealist, a Radical bookseller and pamphleteer who lives for revolution . . . and for Wednesday nights. Every week he meets anonymously with the same man, in whom Silas has discovered the ideal meld of intellectual companionship and absolute obedience to his sexual commands. But unbeknownst to Silas, his closest friend is also his greatest enemy, with the power to see him hanged—or spare his life.

A loyal, well-born gentleman official, Dominic Frey is torn apart by his affair with Silas. By the light of day, he cannot fathom the intoxicating lust that drives him to meet with the Radical week after week. In the bedroom, everything else falls away. Their needs match, and they are united by sympathy for each other’s deepest vulnerabilities. But when Silas’s politics earn him a death sentence, desire clashes with duty, and Dominic finds himself doing everything he can to save the man who stole his heart.

Review

I discovered historical mm romance just this year and together with Joanna Chambers, KJ Charles has become one of my favourite authors in the genre.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, A Fashionable Indulgence, and I loved this one even more. It's an incredible love story of two people who are in fact each other's arch nemesis.

On the surface, Silas and Dom have nothing in common, they stand on opposite lines of politics, they come from different walks in life, they held different, opposing even believes. Yet what they have in common is stronger than all this - they fit each other emotionally, sexually, they challenge each other and being together despite everything makes them happy and content.

It's a long journey for them to be able to come together which seemed almost impossible till the very end. I have to admit I absolutely love how Ms Charles managed to bring them together, it felt realistic, true to the times and the only possible way for them to (a kind of) a couple.

This is a masterfully written story - heavy on the politics, entwining real historical events in the plot in the most perfect way. It's politics that very much define Dom and Silas and it's what divides them but it's also what brings them together. They grow and change and find a balance between politics and doctrines on the one hand and personal lives and deepest personal values, on the other. The intersection of the personal, the political, the social, the intimate and sexual were just brilliantly explored in Dom and Silas' relationship.

I'm not much of a fan of BDSM romance but I found the dom/sub aspect of the relationship fascinating. It was so important for both of them to feel valued for who they are, especially for Dom who was made to feel disgusting/unworthy of love because of the things he likes in bed.

This is by far one of my top reads of the year - a complex, compelling historical mm romance. It has a sstrong and intriguing plot, true-to-life, yet star-crossed lovers type of romance, fantastic writing. And we see more of the Richardians which is always a pleasure though this book made me hate Richard so much at one point and I'm still not his biggest fan by the end of it. Cyprian reveals himself as a true puppet master and the final book in the series is bound to be something really special.

Purchase links: Amazon / Amazon.co.uk / ARe / Publisher

Blog Tour

Blog Tour for A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles

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This post is part of the Blog Tour for the release of A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles. Book 2 in the historical mm series, Society of Gentlemen series, comes out on Dec 15.

The banner is made by El @ Just Love Romance

These are some fabulous, well-searched, historically grounded stories exploring the possible for love and relationships between gay men in Regency England, a period of political and social unrest which affect in many different ways the life/fate of the character.

I'm very happy to welcome Ms Charles on the blog, talking about the Past and Points of View. Enjoy her piece and don't forget to enter a giveaway for a chance to win a copy of A Seditious Affair and $25 gift card at All Romance.

The Past and Points of View

One of my pet hates is sentences that begin “The Victorians…” because the odds are whatever’s coming is going to be a wild generalisation that will annoy me intensely. “The Victorians put covers on their piano legs because they were indecent.” “The Victorians believed in the Empire and their right to rule.” “The Victorians had a crisis of faith.” “The Victorians only had sex under the bedclothes.” Etc.

SOME. The word is “some”. (And in the case of the piano leg thing the word is ‘none’ because they didn’t.)

The problem with the “The Victorians…” way of looking at the past is that it erases people. “The Regency” has come to mean Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett; aristocratic men in breeches and women in silk gowns. It’s rarely associated with, for example, massive working class unrest and agitation for votes, or villages stripped of their male population by the endless wars, or starving veterans begging on the street, or the early women’s rights movement, or the 15,000 black people then living in Britain. It’s much easier to treat the past as a settled thing, a monolith. Everyone in Britain 1800-1820 was Colin Firth: the end.

So you might read that, for example, ‘sodomy was condemned in Regency England’, along with the horrible laws and a few examples of terrible judicial murders. But that passive ‘was condemned’ is a fraud. Condemned by who? The law itself and the people who enforced it, sure, and appallingly. But not the people voluntarily engaging in it, or those who made a living in sex work, or those who knew their friends and families had illegal love lives and chose to love or ignore rather than condemn, or by philosophers like Jeremy Bentham, who wrote (though didn’t publish) a huge essay arguing for homosexual law reform in 1785.

In A Seditious Affair, my Regency m/m romance, the heroes are Government official Dominic Frey and radical bookseller Silas Mason. Dominic believes in the social order, the supremacy of king, church and state, the ruling classes’ right to rule. Silas believes in universal suffrage, women’s rights, legal rights for children, land reform, a universal basic income, universal free education, the separation of church and state, and homosexual law reform. (Not all of this is discussed in the book, you’ll be pleased to hear.)

It might seem that Dominic is an accurate representation of Regency thought and Silas a ridiculous anachronistic mouthpiece for a set of modern left-wing views. But in fact people did hold all of Silas’s views in the Georgian period, and argue for them, loudly and were often jailed or ostracised for it. Silas is a man of his time as much as Dominic, albeit Dominic’s views were a lot more widely held. Because people in the past were just as argumentative and different and venal and selfless and fanatical and conservative and freethinking as they are now.

What it comes down to is, human nature doesn’t change. People differ wildly, always have, always will. So when you see “The Victorians…”, give it side eye for me. The word is always “some”.

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Author Bio and links

KJ Charles is a writer and freelance editor. She lives in London with her husband, two kids, an out-of-control garden and an increasingly murderous cat.

KJ writes mostly romance, gay and straight, frequently historical, and usually with some fantasy or horror in there. She specialises in editing romance, especially historical and fantasy, and also edits children’s fiction.

Find her on Twitter @kj_charles or on Facebook, join her Facebook group, or get the newsletter here. She is represented by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency, and published by Samhain and Loveswept.

A Seditious Affair (Society of Gentlemen #2)

Blurb

Advance praise for A Seditious Affair:

“This book is so good I read it in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down. K. J. Charles has long been one of my favorite authors, and this book doesn’t disappoint. A Seditious Affair is a beautiful love story interwoven with the realism of the political unrest of the time—another winner from K. J. Charles!”—USA Today bestselling author Carole Mortimer

Add on Goodreads

Pre-order links: Publisher / Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / ARe

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Historical Romance

Waiting on Wednesday: A Seditious Affair by K. J. Charles

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Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it features books that we are eagerly awaiting to be released.

Title: A Seditious Affair (Society of Gentlemen #2)
Author: K. J. Charles
Genre/Themes: Historical romance, M/M
Release Date: 15 Dec 2015

Add on Goodreads

Pre-order: Amazon / Penguin

Synopsis

*** *** ***

Why am I waiting for this book? - The simple answer is because I loved the first book in the series, A Fashionable Indulgence (review), I want to read more this world. Both Silas and Dominic are intriguing characters from what we have already seen of them and though I'm not a big fan of BDSM, I'm really curious how their relations will play out in the end.

Historical Romance

Review: A Fashionable Indulgence by K. J. Charles

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Titlle: A Fashionable Indulgence (Society of Gentlemen #1)

Author: K. J. Charles
Genre/Themes: Historical, MM romance
Release Date: 11 Aug 2015

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook Group / Goodreads
Add on Goodreads

My rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis

When he learns that he could be the heir to an unexpected fortune, Harry Vane rejects his past as a Radical fighting for government reform and sets about wooing his lovely cousin. But his heart is captured instead by the most beautiful, chic man he’s ever met: the dandy tasked with instructing him in the manners and style of the ton. Harry’s new station demands conformity—and yet the one thing he desires is a taste of the wrong pair of lips.

After witnessing firsthand the horrors of Waterloo, Julius Norreys sought refuge behind the luxurious facade of the upper crust. Now he concerns himself exclusively with the cut of his coat and the quality of his boots. And yet his protégé is so unblemished by cynicism that he inspires the first flare of genuine desire Julius has felt in years. He cannot protect Harry from the worst excesses of society. But together they can withstand the high price of passion.

Review

This is my first historical mm and my second book by KJ Charles and I can honestly say I was just blown away by the exquisite beauty this story is.

It's a beautifully written, rich and very well research, detailed-oriented story about love and social customs and fashions and politics and intimacies of Regency London.

I loved, loved, loved everything about it. The romance was tender and clever and captivating. Harry and Julius were quite interesting and fascinating on their own but as a couple they were just a joy to read. Theywere total opposites but they fitted so well together and each gave the other of he desperately needed. Ms Charles plays with stereotypes and reader's expectation while developing Harry and Julius' romance - one has all the knowledge of social customs and fashion and war and being a gentleman, yet he is yet a novice when it comes to feelings and matters of the heart. The other is all about openness and sincerity and spontaneity, lacking in socail manners and grace, yet much more experienced in all wordly things.

I'm all team Harry here with his strong passion, love and loyalty, even sense of social justice. And Norrey was the perfect antidote to all that - darker, somehwat disillusioned, resigned and determined to forsake all adn any feelings. Harry restored his passion, his desire to live, to love, to experience life to the fullest.

The strong political aspect was not a burden as it could so easily be in romance. It complemented the love story adding depth and making it real. The reader felt an immediate participant in the events not just a casual observant.

The social background was essential to understand the conflict and all the tensions in the story and was very convincingly presented - being gay was not easy at the time; it was just as dangerous as being a seditionist.

Throughout the story Ms Charles skillfully played with the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion and this made it even more enjoyable fr me.

Recommended read for fans of historical romance! Next book in the Sosciety of Gentlemen series, A Seditious Affair, comes out in December.

Purchase Links: Amazon / ARe / Publisher

Author Spotlight

Friday Favourites #12: K. J. Charles

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Today's guest at my Author Spotlight post is Ms K. J. Charles, author of the historical MM romance. I've read and quite enjoyed book 1 in the Magpie series, The Magpie Lord, and will be reviewing it on the blog soon. In the meantime check what she shared about Japan, musicals and Terry Pratchett :)

Friday Favourites

1. Favourite place
I love Japan; I recently spent time with friends on the outskirts of Kyoto, right into the hills, in cherry blossom season. It was wonderful. Closer to home, I love Cornwall too; the light is different there, and the way it slides from beauty to menace explains why it’s such a compelling place for writers. (I set much of Jackdaw in Cornwall.) London, where I live, is a rancid overcrowded filthy pit of exploitation, greed and poverty spiked with genius. There’s a Terry Pratchett line about Ankh-Morpork that sums up my feelings about London:

“Citizens hate living there and, if they have to move away on business or adventure or, more usually, until some statute of limitations runs out, can’t wait to get back so they can enjoy hating living there some more.”

2. Favourite food and drink
Again with the impossible questions. If I had to eat one cuisine for the rest of my life it would probably be Vietnamese. Bright, clear flavours full of herbs and zing. But the best meal I’ve ever had was probably sushi at a fish market in Hokkaido, with everything fished right out of the water. Perfectly fresh sea urchin…we ate that meal in, what, 2006, and I still salivate thinking about it.

3. Favourite music/genre/artist/song
I love musicals. Guys and Dolls, Singin’ in the Rain, anything by Cole Porter or Sondheim. I’ve seen four different productions of Sweeney Todd, the last one with Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton twice because it was jawdroppingly good. I could listen to the soundtrack of that forever.

4. Favourite movie/TV series
I’ve, uh, never seen The Wire, Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad. I have two kids and, till recently, two jobs, something has to give. Favourite movie…Casablanca and Some Like it Hot are both pretty perfect.

5. Favourite hobby besides writing, if you consider writing a hobby

We are passionate supporters of the Saracens rugby team, so I guess “screaming my lungs out in the rain while watching huge-thighed men collide forcefully”…actually, that’s a pretty good hobby, isn’t it?

Favourite books -

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. One of the great fantasy novels ever, set in a magical ancient China. Funny, compelling, scary, incredibly moving, light-handed and superbly written. Everyone should read this book. The ending is magnificent.

Georgette Heyer: Okay, one isn’t possible. The undisputed queen and indeed inventor of the Regency romance, and a plotter of superlative skill. These Old Shades is a classic alpha hero with lots of period detail and adventure; The Unknown Ajax is a gloriously structured comedy that makes me cry with envy; Cotillion has the most beta hero ever written, a negligible, disregarded fool of his family, and his love affair is outstanding and hilarious.

Terry Pratchett. I am a massive fan of Pratchett, who flew the flag for genre fiction as few ever have. He wrote brilliantly in an often mocked genre, with passionate moral and political convictions. Again, it is impossible to choose, but Thief of Time and The Truth and Going Postal are three of my favourites. And Reaper Man. And Hogfather. And Wyrd Sisters. Oh, just read them all.

Queer romance: Ohhh, again with the lists. Glitterland by Alexis Hall is tremendous, real and moving; The Salisbury Key by Harper Fox is a terrific thriller romp; Widdershins by Jordan L Hawk might have been written directly to my specifications. Actually, I glom anything by all three of those authors, along with Ava March’s Regencies and EE Ottoman’s steampunk.

Author Bio and Links:

KJ Charles is a writer and freelance editor. She lives in London with her husband, two kids, an out-of-control garden and an increasingly murderous cat.

KJ writes mostly romance, gay and straight, frequently historical, and usually with some fantasy or horror in there.

Find her on Twitter @kj_charles or on Facebook, join her Facebook group, or get the very occasional newsletter.

K. J. Charles latest release, A Fashionable Indulgence is coming out this August.

A Fashionable Indulgence (Society of Gentlemen #1)

Synopsis

In the first novel of an explosive new series from K. J. Charles, a young gentleman and his elegant mentor fight for love in a world of wealth, power, and manipulation.

Advance praise for A Fashionable Indulgence

“If one Regency rake isn’t enough for you, check out A Fashionable Indulgence, a rollicking tale from the deft pen of K. J. Charles. I’ll read anything she writes!”—New York Times bestselling author Kate Pearce

Pre-order links: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / ARe / Publisher

Enjoy an exclusive exceprt of A Fashionable Indulgence.

Young radical Harry Vane is being turned into a gentleman. Julius Norreys, exquisite, has the job of making Harry fit for society, and isn’t very happy about it.

“Mind your seat.”

Harry adjusted his position hastily. If Julius was a strict taskmaster in other areas he was impossible when it came to horses. But Harry could feel himself improving, his body learning the required posture and movements under Julius’s laconic instructions. It was obvious even to his ignorance that Julius was a magnificent horseman. He seemed brighter on horseback, warmer, less untouchable, and his body moved as though it was at one with the powerful beast that surged between his legs.

Harry had a certain amount of trouble not staring at Julius anyway, and it became particularly difficult when they rode. The regular motion of the bay mare under him was stirring, granted, but there were also the soft, close-fitting doeskins that outlined Julius’s thighs, and the fact that his daily habit of riding had given him a remarkably taut arse.

That was not something Harry should be thinking about. He was living in a dream of wealth and privilege, and he couldn’t imagine a worse awakening than to be packed off in disgrace for making an ill-judged approach. Sporting with men had to be left in the past, along with poverty and politics. Harry wasn’t going to do anything about his errant urges except in the privacy of his bedroom, where he had spent furtively and frantically into a handkerchief more than once to thoughts of an imaginary Julius. Still perfect, still crystalline, still relentlessly commanding, but in Harry’s fantasy he was all the things the real man would never be. Willing and hot and wanton and needy, and—

“Seat.”

—and a great deal less critical of Harry’s abilities.

Historical Romance

Waiting on Wednesday: A Fashionable Indulgence by K. J. Charles

21:30

Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it features books that we are eagerly awaiting to be released.

Title: A Fashionable Indulgence (Society of Gentlemen)
Author: K. J. Charles
Genre/Themes: Historical romance, M/M
Release Date: 11 Aug 2015

Add on Goodreads

Pre-order: Amazon

Synopsis

In the first novel of an explosive new series from K. J. Charles, a young gentleman and his elegant mentor fight for love in a world of wealth, power, and manipulation.

*** *** ***

Why am I waiting for this? - I've only read the first of the Magpie books and I was intrigued by the mixture of fantasy and historical fiction. A Fashionable Indulgence is the first book in a new historical m/m romance series and I looking forward to reading it this summer.