This was my latest audio book and I listened to it because of The Storygraph genre challenge. The prompt was to read a sapphic romance. I actually had to look up what that meant. It means a romance involving two women.
I was a bit stuck for this one, as the issue with these prompts can be simply finding one that grabs your interest. Until my e-library came up with Infamous, saying that the two leads practised kissing with each other and listed LGBTQ+ as one of the themes. The plot intrigued me because Eddie is a writer and anything where the lead is a writer intrigues me. So it seemed ideal to help me get through the challenge.
Rose and Edddie, short for Edwina, have been friends for most of their lives. They've done everything together.
But now aged 22, there are certain expectations on them. Rose announces she is getting married and Eddie is devastated. Then famous poet Nash Nicholson takes an interest in Eddie and offers to help her become a writer.
There is an invitation to go to Nash's country home, with Nash, his wife, several friends and Rose and her fiancé go along too.
In a run down house on an island, the normal rules don't seem to apply. Everything is different.
Everyone has to untangle their feelings and decide what it is they really want.
I found the plot quite captivating. I wanted to know which direction it would all go, who and what Eddie would choose. I wanted to understand Rose and what she wanted too.
For much of the book I actually thought Nash Nicholson was a real person, a historical figure, then realised he isn't. This is because part of the plot involves some pretty bold claims and it would be far too risky to say that about an actual person. Nash Nicholson is made up purely for this story, but I think little things might be based on real poets and authors. Many were known to have been married, and in certain ways loyal to their wives, but still to have strayed to other women on a regular basis. I don't know of any who treated anyone as badly as Nash does. I have never really been into poetry and don't know much about poets in general, as the only time I studied the subject at all was for my exams when I was about fifteen, so it is no surprise really that I had no idea this was a fictional person, not a real one.
The two main characters and the journey they go through is interesting. Primarily, Eddie has the interesting journey. She comes across as gullible and easily led. True, she's young and inexperienced. Perhaps she pays attention to the wrong feelings. Or just doesn't know how she feels. I don't find her dislikeable at all. As someone who has vague dreams of being a writer but not sure how to do it, I sympathise with her.
I also think she was a bit of an idiot with the way she behaved but of course that's a major part of her journey. Learning what she wants, what is important, how she feels.
It is historical fiction, set in the 1800's I think, at a time when same sex relationships were seen as deadly sins and between men carried a death penalty. Between women, though it was considered unnatural, it was not condemned or punished in the same way. I know this from what I learnt about Anne Lister. So this naturally was part of the challenges faced in the book.
I will certainly consider reading more from this author.
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