I feel like I’ve been a rabid KJ Charles fan forever, but the truth is it took me a minute to catch on.
The first book purchased was Think of England, which I have now read at least six times. That was back in 2015, which amazes me. What is chiefly amazing is that I didn’t fall completely down the KJ Charles rabbit hole until 2019.
I now own everything she’s published and have read almost every title more than once. Am about to re-read a bunch of them, in fact, because after writing this there is no denying that I would rather re-read these books than pick up anything new. At least until her new one comes out later this month (I have it on pre-order).
A few key things about KJ Charles:
she was and is a professional book editor. So it’s no wonder her books are well-put-together.
she writes historicals, queer, with paranormal elements in several of her series.
she writes some characters who are absolute shitbags (in her own words) and yet who are somehow engaging main characters in books that are unquestionably romances.
Put KJ Charles and Alexis Hall together and you have an interesting sample of English writing. Both of them are every bit as profane as I am, which I find refreshing; both of them deal with real (and in the case of KJ Charles, unreal) conflicts so well that they’ve inspired me to dig deeper in my own writing. They are both what I consider to be really good writers: literate, crafty, thoughtful, and original.
Because there are quite a lot of KJ Charles titles, I have to focus here on only a few. Or actually no. What I’m going to focus on is three sub-groups of titles.
The first is the The Magpie Lord and its connected books. These are hella violent M/M paranormal romantic suspense, set in the age of gaslight and steam locomotives, when being gay in England was a crime. That reality lives in all of KJ Charles’ books, because the latest of them are set post-WWI, when men caught in a sexual situation together could be sentenced to two years’ hard labor. (In 1873, setting of the ‘Sins of the Cities’ series, it was ten years of prison.)
The setup: Hero (antihero?) Lucien Vaudrey (Earl Crane) has returned to England from Shanghai, where he could live and love openly. He’s only in England because his older brother and his father have died, leaving the title to Lucien, who really doesn’t want it. He was shipped off to Asia as a teenager, by his father, who blatantly hoped Lucien would die at the hands of the minion sent along. Instead they became friends, allies, and partners-in-crime as well as legitimate business partners. Lucien comes home rich. He also comes home to a near-fatal curse, which is why he meets Stephen Day.
Stephen is a magical enforcer, a justiciar in the language of these books. It takes three books for Stephen and Lucien to vanquish various evils, deal with the competing facts that Lucien sincerely hates England and Stephen’s entire identity is tied to his role as a justiciar in England, and arrive at a compromise that gives them a shot at a happy-ever-after. (Thoroughly earned, if you ask me, and we get to see it in a free story provided with the KJ Charles newsletter.)
What I love about these:
First, the use, abuse, and regulation of magic make sense in a human and political context that is quite solidly historical. (A bit like the Harry Potter world, in fact, and I mean that in a good way. Ordinary people can and do recognize magic in the Magpie world, but they prefer not to, so a lot of them simply … don’t.)
Second, the damage accrued by the main characters in all the connected titles is not damage that can be waved off or worked around. Whether it’s physical injury, job loss, betrayal, friends alienated or injured or killed, the risk inherent in a nonconforming relationship, or violent mischief wrought on unsuspecting civilians, there are consequences.
Third, the fact that the main characters reach a point at which they believe their chance at love may be gone, and yet they fight on. Sometimes by having a fight, or some very fighty sex, or by joining forces to battle evil. They don’t give up, and they don’t walk away from each other for longer than it takes to cool off.
The next group of books are the WWI titles (some set before, some after). Some of these are paranormal and some of them aren’t. Think of England is a spy thriller wrapped around a M/M romance (or vice versa). Proper English is an English country house mystery wrapped around a F/F romance (or vice versa). Spectred Isle is a conspiracy thriller and a M/M romance in a magical England (and please note ‘magical’ does not mean fairies and unicorns, it means bog monsters and malevolent ghosts); Slippery Creatures is also a conspiracy thriller and a M/M romance, set in a decidedly un-magical England. There are others, and there will be more, though not soon enough to suit me.
What I like about these:
First, the historical period is one of my favorites for genre fiction. I’ve read all the Mary Russell books by Laurie R. King, and all the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. Both series take the lead-up to, and consequences of, WWI very seriously indeed (it took a while for Ms. Peters to get serious, but once she did she did not mess around). I can’t think of any M/F romances set in this period that I’ve read, and precious few set in the WWII period. It’s fresh ground, is what I’m saying. And it was enormously consequential. WWI literally changed the world in a way that the English Regency did not.
Second, the sociopolitical context of the books presents opportunities for fresh characterizations. It was a time of change, so behavior that would be anachronistic in a book set in Victorian times (to say nothing of the Regency) is allowable here. When you have cars, trains, and telephones to work with, a lot is possible.
I’ll mention one last book as a demonstration of range. Band Sinister is a classic Regency romance, only it happens to be a M/M romance. Everything about the historical context, the setting, and the language feels right (and that’s based on me reading a ton of stuff written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and a lot of history about that period, not simply on me reading a lot of Regency romances). This book is a wonderful romance novel that also has a lot to say about the options that were, and were not, available to men (and women!) in that period. The relationship at its heart is so well-paced, and the resolution so satisfying, that I can easily imagine reading this as regularly as I watch ‘Die Hard’ (every year, in other words). I’ve already read it at least four times and would recommend it to anyone who can handle dirty talk and on-the-page M/M sex.
And, as with many of the KJ Charles books, there is a character in Band Sinister who I would really like to see get his own book. But I’ll take what I can get.
