Review: I liked this one a lot
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 24, 2010
POSSIBLY VAGUE SPOILERS INSIDE.Blurb refers to the time period this story is set in as victorian, so I will go with it, although I was just about ready to refer to this one as Regency, because if there were any specific references to the time frame, I missed it. I mean, obviously two guys are nobles and class system is indicative of 19 century England, but what else was there I am not sure. (EDIT: See author's comment below. It is Victorian because of Christmas trees) Ah, also there are enough references in the text that men who want to be with another men should be careful or risk imprisonment, hard labor and sometimes even death, so this is also an indicative of England past, but I am not sure about specific time frame.In any event, everything that I said above did not diminish my enjoyment of this story, quite the contrary. It is in essense "two friends finally realizing their attraction to each other and becoming lovers" trope and the writer executed it very well in my opinion. I guess I should say one friend finally realizing his attraction to another, because Andrew is perfectly aware of his attraction to Thomas, he had just been hiding it for years in order to preserve their friendship intact. Thomas had to realize more about himself in order to act on what he feels and wants. I also quite enjoyed the circumstances under which they finally realized what they truly want and meant for each other. I do not remember reading many 19 century romances where heroes had to be in charge of Christmas Ball preparations in his family home. I mean it is not unique, I am sure, but for me it was different enough from many similar books that I have read and I liked it.I liked many secondary characters too, Thomas' father was unexpected surprise and I liked how what became of his relationship with Thomas at the end made sense and did not make me cringe my teeth and think that it is unrealistic and anachronistic. Kuddos to the writer.