It Takes Two to Tumble

This book ended a little abruptly; it would have been nice to get an epilogue. Maybe the author chose not to because this is the first book in a series, and we'll see Ben and Philip again, but I just wanted a little more resolution.

Speaking of Philip - he is largely why this book is rated so low. While he did eventually grow on me, and I came to even enjoy his point of view, for the first several chapters I actively despised this man. I get that he's all grumpy and miserable, but I honestly wanted to drop kick him all the way back to his ship. Ben and the children caried the story in the early chapters, and the only reason I didn't want to see Philip choke on a cactus was purely for the sake of his children. (I mean, he was mad that his oldest son had a nickname that he didn't know about?! My guy, you weren't there, being a parent to your children, of course you don't know them! And his constant judgement about how wrong things were if they weren't exactly like his experiences on his ship. I can't even... Just no. Boo, Philip. Boo, in the bin with you! And Ben, my sweet sunshine boy, can you stop mooning over the grumpy asshole and just slap him like I know you want to? Please? As a personal favor?) 

Needless to say, Philip did improve (or this would have been a 2 star book, if I hadn't stopped reading altogether) - in that he stopped bossing everyone around, stopped blaming other people for his problems, and stopped thinking military precision and punishment were the only way to manage his children. By the midpoint, I was actively rooting for the pair to be together, though I wasn't sure how the author would manage it when both men seemed to want such different things.

All in all, this was a sweet story and a quick read with enough spice to keep things interesting. My favorite part by far was the familial plotline with Ben and Philip getting to be adorable gay dads, and watching Philip mend the relationship with his kids was heartwarming. I actually wish we'd gotten more of this. 

This isn't as memorable as some other Regency romances I've read this year but the two mains are charming in their own way. It has the typical trope of dead/mangled women in order to establish the romance which I could have done without. How Captain Dacre sees Ben (sunny disposition, always smiling) isn't really what we see when reading from Ben's POV so the disconnect there was a little odd. Almost all the drama is internal with whole paragraphs of dialogue being seperated by internal thoughts so it was a lot of “JUST TELL HIM THAT.” thoughts, but I feel like that's a common trope in M/M romances. The dyslexia seemed like something just thrown in as it doesn't really create much conflict; it was probably supposed to give Dacre some vulnerability but it obviously didn't affect his career that much and just gave him one more thing to hide from the world and something to relate to with one of his kids.
Overall, I'll try to continue with this series but Sebastian didn't make her way into my favourite MM authors with this one book.

Not quite a 4, but rounded up.

I enjoyed this book; it was quite charming and good natured, but I admit it was a little more... seks-yoo-ull... than I had anticipated. It was an almost incongruous blend of the tone and structure of twee Brit dramas like Lark Rise to Candleford and the sex scenes from Queer As Folk. I admit, I blushed! A lot! I'm not entirely convinced that those wildly different flavors quite hung together properly, and I feel like a few emotional beats were ruined by shoehorning in some rudey bits unnecessarily.

But it was fun and sweet, the writing was pleasant if a little contrived, and it all tied up nicely. So, there you have it. I would definitely read more from this author, though my preference would be more toward the Lark Rise end of the scale.

Reread in October 2024

Listened to the audiobook this time around - mostly using it as a relaxing listen right before bed. And I have to say, I like the narrator a lot. He's really talented with different voices and never sounds bad.


Reread in April 2021

I think I enjoyed this more the second time around - would probably give it five stars instead of just four. It seems like my problem the first time was that Ben and Philip are ... mild. They aren't the sorts to have passionate falling outs or passionate love confessions. As a whole, they behave as responsible adults that are a little confused about the adulting aspect but are excellent at faking it. For me, their romance is best seen in the quiet, small moments: holding hands, drawing strength from one another, honesty, the revelation that they are attracted to men before the revelation that they are attracted to one another.

Their romance is quiet, soft and - most wonderfully - there is no misunderstandings between them. (I really cannot wait to continue this series with Hartley's story and then with Martin's.)


Original Review

Absolutely lovely book. Ben is a total sweetheart, Philip, even considering my rather poor first impression, is wonderful. One of my favorite things about this book though was the talk and attention given non-traditional relationships and how difficult - even now, much less back then - they can be to name. One of the very secondary characters had been involved in a poly relationship and that is just about the most wonderful thing for me to hear. (Also, I'm pretty sure Philip has dyslexia and I love it when romances do things like that.) On the other hand, something just kept me from giving this a full five stars. I think it was twofold, actually: the main characters took a while before I started really caring about them and, besides the romance and the related issues, there's really no plot. I'm not used to that and it didn't work as well for me as it could have. (I am very excited to hear that the next book in the series is Hartley's as he totally stole my attention (and my heart) during his scenes.)

3.5 stars. Lots of adorable scenes together but perhaps a little too sweet. But then, I was never a Sound of Music fan. I preferred Sebastian's previous heroes who had a little bit more of an edge (although watching Ben play with ducklings was hard to resist). Looks like the MCs in the next two books will be a little more tortured (yay!) so I am hopeful that this series will get stronger as it goes along.