WhiskeyintheJar Romance

I'm pretty sure I've said this before but if you like Courtney Milan, then you should read Rose Lerner's books. Milan leans better on the focus of the romance between the main couple and Lerner leans better on overreaching story but they are both top contributors in historical romance, in my humble opinion.

I swear the next time I read a Lerner book, I'm buying an extra copy for a friend so I can call them up every time I come across a line and theme that hits me hard in the feels and I feel like I'll explode if I don't get to discuss all angles of it. I think I've read three books by Lerner now and she seems to touch on classism quite a bit, and does an excellent job of it. I posted some quotes from the book in my reading updates but I had to wrestle myself down from quoting many longer passages. I'm not sure if I just don't have the time to write her books proper reviews or I simply don't have the ability. As with Milan books, they hit me on very personal levels and all I want to talk about are my feelings and my back and forth on the ideas, issues, and themes in the book. Gah, is there a strictly Lerner book club?! 

I'm telling you people, if you find yourself complaining about wallpaper historicals, TSTL heroines, over abundance of Dukes, and an overall feeling of sameness in historical romance (specifically in the regency time period) you NEED to be reading Lerner. 

*I did think this one had a bit of slow start with the politic focus but things smoothed out around the 20-30% mark. The story and characters are more subtle in their devastation to your feels and if you like the more overt regency romances (feisty heroines romping around and titled heroes broodingly scared of love, hey, I like those too) then this wouldn't be for you. But if you want something fresh and quietly devastating (the whole scene and speech where the hero says he loves the curtains, I found my eyes watering out of nowhere) then read this immediately.