Band Sinister

Well this was just delightful. The banter was top-notch. The utter ruination of the virginal Guy by rake Phillip was freaking hot. Guy's sister Amanda and her wish to write novels, and damn the gossip that has plagued their family for decades. The unfolding of all the relationships, slowly and surely was very satisfying, and standing up to their aunt in the end and telling her off and refusing to marry for forgiveness was chef's kiss.

I mayyyyyybe didn't love the whole polyamory aspect, but everyone was consenting adults and seemed to be cool with it, so that might just be a me thing. And there were maybe a few too many extraneous characters. But overall this was great fun.

How much I enjoyed this book! Had it on my virtual shelf for quite a long time, maybe even a year, but I misjudged it and what I imagined this book to be had nothing to do with the actual story. There is a downside to not reading synopsis, but at the same time I got such a pleasant surprise.

Having barely read over the past few months and having read a historical book ages ago, it was a bit difficult to get used to the writing style, the unfamiliar words, but not for a second did that take away from my enjoyment. I loved the book from start to finish.

The characters are great, I loved everyone's personalities and I absolutely loved how chaotic it was at times. K.J. Charles always manages to paint such a fun world in her books and create such interesting and lovable characters. I won't go into each character and why I liked them, that's best discovered while reading the book. That being said, highly recommend it!

i bought this book on a whim because someone complimented the smut in it. i was not let down; indeed, i was very much satisfied by the smut. i feel this book had a very perfect balance of love and lust, also to love and lust at the same time. it was so romantic yet slutty. JOHNVIN 4 LIFE!!!! it almost felt like second-hand yearning: i was so immersed in the book that i felt it was me there, wishing i could be with my gay lover in freedom, without judgement. i loved when guy went in depth about such things, but what i loved more is how phillip didn't promise him anything fairytale-like. he didn't promise guy a happy ending: he said they could have something, yet there'd be a price. i felt for them so much because whilst nowadays it's more open, there's still the inner guilt of being gay and being viewed as different and separate from the world.

I think I must've been in the wrong state of mind for this book, because I didn't really enjoy it. I don't know. This is the first of her books in a long time that I didn't love, so it's actually a little difficult to admit my dislike to myself, as silly as that may sound. But I wasn't enchanted.

Overall, this book includes a lot of emotionally fraught themes - family devotion, polyamory, virginity, internalized homophobia, sexual consent, living outside of societal norms, choosing to control one's own life - and in my opinion, most of those topics weren't given enough attention in the narrative. It needed more focus.

I loved Guy and wanted him to be happy, but I didn't like Philip much at all. Every other character in the book was more appealing to me. He's in the same vein as Lord Crane, who was hard for me to like at first too, but he won me over eventually because of his devotion to Stephen. That isn't the plot here, which is fine, but I didn't like the way this romance played out. Philip's primary flaw is his difficulty understanding other perspectives, which is a big flaw in a romance hero. The plot does address this problem, in the end. But to also make him unable to give all of himself to Guy seemed like an odd choice. He was still emotionally unavailable in some ways, at their happy ending.

More damningly, I can't pinpoint the moment when Philip and Guy fell in love with each other. There was a lot of introspection and talking about their relationship; those parts of the book really dragged for me, probably because I didn't like Philip. But despite all Philip's waffling, I still didn't feel like I understood his feelings.

I like reading about polyamory, and when I figured out that's what was going on, I was interested to see how everything would resolve. But I don't feel like we got a resolution. I think it would've been more emotionally satisfying for Guy to definitively say that he wanted to have sex with the others, or to see that happen. Instead, this part of the story was left up in the air.

I'm annoyed, also, at the audiobook narrator, for giving John a Caribbean accent. Here's John's introduction:

Guy had never in his life seen a dark-skinned man except in pictures [...]. This one wore breeches and a coat like any gentleman might, and was smoking a cigarillo. He pitched it away as Guy approached and said, in a voice that had nothing of exotic shores about it, “Here you go, Phil. Outraged brother. Have fun.”

Philip used his respect for consent as a weapon against Guy in their argument before storming off.

Georgette Heyer, minus the anti-Semitism, and with extra bonus gay romance! This book is a delight from start to finish (more so once you get the names of all the minor characters in order) and I hope there are plans for a sequel, because I love this lighter and less murder-y KJ Charles.

(Update 4/7/21: reread, loved it even more, pretty sure this is one of my favorite romances of any subgenre. So good.)

To my fellow KJ Charles fans: you already know how awesome she is, this is one of her best, aren't we lucky to live in her world?

To anyone who isn't familiar with her work and is wondering whether you should read this book: YES OMG what are you waiting for hit that one-click purchase button RIGHT NOW.

I'm not sure what else there is to say but I will mention a few of my favorite aspects of this near-perfect novel. It's funny. It's smart (next time someone tells you romance novels are trash, ask them to use the words “farrago” and “propitiate” in a sentence). It is diverse. It deals with consent in a way that feels true to both its time and our own.

Of course none of this would matter if the romance didn't work, and KJC doesn't let us down. Guy Frisby may start the book as a prudish “plank” but he comes out of his shell and becomes a passionate, thoughtful and brave man. Helping him along his journey is the “fair-haired, scientifically minded libertine” Philip Rookwood, whose hard-hearted cynicism melts pretty much the first time he realizes how much Guy loves and takes care of his sister Amanda. His seduction of the virginal Guy is eye opening for both parties, and features a unique lesson in Latin verb conjugation.

Frankly, the secondary characters almost run away with the book, most notably the other hellfire club members: the notorious rake Lord Corvin and the talented, bitter John Raven (it's probably not a coincidence that the book is called Band Sinister and not “Philip and the Plank”). The scenes with the three of them together fairly crackle with energy, and it's almost a disappointment when Charles returns to the main love story. Fortunately she knows what a treasure she has created, and leaves open the possibility that Philip and Guy's HEA might not necessarily be a completely monogamous one.

I can tell a book should be awarded 5 stars from me, because as I approach the end I read more slowly, not wanting the experience to be over; and then I immediately start a re-read. No question that Band Sinister deserves every one of its stars.