Title: Standish
Author: Erastes
Genre: m/m historical fiction
Print length: 268 pages
Publication date: February 6, 2013
Rating: Four Stars
Blurb: A great house. A family dispossessed. A sensitive young man. A powerful landowner. An epic love that springs up between two men.
Set in the post-Napoleonic years of the 1820s, Standish is a tale of two men—one man discovering his sexuality and the other struggling to overcome his traumatic past. Ambrose Standish, a studious and fragile young man, has dreams of regaining the great house his grandfather lost in a card game. When Rafe Goshawk returns from the continent to claim the estate, their meeting sets them on a path of desire and betrayal which threatens to tear both of their worlds apart. Painting a picture of homosexuality in Georgian England, Standish is a love story of how the decisions of two men affect their journey through Europe and through life.
Second edition, newly revised by the author.
Review:
Sex, love, drama, mystery, pain, it's all in here.
I'll start off with the things I didn't like. Emotional upheaval. It's a little much. I can't help but compare it with the other work this author has done and find it lacking in precision and finesse. Although, I was informed that this is actually the first book this author had published, and as such, can be considered an admirable beginning for an impressive legacy of m/m fiction.
The supporting characters were lacking. A few came very close to being flesh and bone but never quite got there. And to be honest, I didn't like Rafe. Fortunately, I didn't need to like him to keep reading, and that brings me to all of the good things about this book.
Love the descriptions. There is something very 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' about the setting of the story, the emotion, the descriptions of the landscape. Maybe I'm wrong, but even Rafe struck me as slightly Heathcliffish in nature. The result, of course, was that the story sucked me right in. I've always been a sucker for a decent Bronte misery. Even the love between Ambrose and Refe could be described in a famous Bronte line, “It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn.”
Did I throughly enjoy reading it? Yes. Is it my favorite work by this author? Not even close. But I was entertained, swept away in the love, sex and pain of the novel none the less.
I'll start off with the things I didn't like. Emotional upheaval. It's a little much. I can't help but compare it with the other work this author has done and find it lacking in precision and finesse. Although, I was informed that this is actually the first book this author had published, and as such, can be considered an admirable beginning for an impressive legacy of m/m fiction.
The supporting characters were lacking. A few came very close to being flesh and bone but never quite got there. And to be honest, I didn't like Rafe. Fortunately, I didn't need to like him to keep reading, and that brings me to all of the good things about this book.
Love the descriptions. There is something very 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' about the setting of the story, the emotion, the descriptions of the landscape. Maybe I'm wrong, but even Rafe struck me as slightly Heathcliffish in nature. The result, of course, was that the story sucked me right in. I've always been a sucker for a decent Bronte misery. Even the love between Ambrose and Refe could be described in a famous Bronte line, “It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn.”
Did I throughly enjoy reading it? Yes. Is it my favorite work by this author? Not even close. But I was entertained, swept away in the love, sex and pain of the novel none the less.
Buy it from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Standish-ebook/dp/B00BC9NG9K/ref=cm_cr-mr-img
More titles by Erastes:
Title: Mere Mortals
Author: Erastes
Genre: m/m historical romance
Print length: 256 pages
Publication date: March 24, 2011
Overall reviewer rating: Four Stars
Blurb: Orphaned Crispin Thorne has been taken as ward by Philip Smallwood, a man he’s never met, and is transplanted from his private school to Smallwood’s house on an island on the beautiful but coldly remote Horsey Mere in Norfolk. Upon his arrival, he finds that he’s not the only young man given a fresh start. Myles Graham and Jude Middleton are there before him, and as their benefactor is away, they soon form alliances and friendships, as they speculate upon the sudden transformation of their circumstances. Who is Philip Smallwood? Why has he given them such a fabulous new life? What secrets does the house hold and what is it that the Doctor seems to know?
Review by Elliott Mackle:
The conventions of Gothic romance are endlessly adaptable. While elastic enough to please fans of low-rent bodice rippers and highbrow fiction alike, the Gothic pattern of moves, symbols and character types can be woven by expert hands into something new and surprisingly contemporary. "Mere Mortals," by Erastes, is such a one.
The novel opens with a journey, first by coach, then boat, across the Norfolk Broads, a network of marshy rivers and lakes, ending at a large and mysterious mansion on a remote island. Young Crispin Thorne, a penniless orphan, having been removed from boarding school, arrives at Bittern's Reach, the seat of wealthy, well-bred Philip Smallwood, his newly named guardian. He is accompanied part of the way by another local worthy, Dr. Baynes. The latter, surprised to hear Thorne's story, indicates, without much explanation until later in the book, that neither he nor most members of the community are on close terms with Mr. Smallwood.
Thorne is greeted not by the master but by servants and by news that two other orphans, Myles Graham and Jude Middleton, have also been installed as Smallwood's wards. A program of gentlemanly education is begun forthwith. Each is given a valet, tailored clothes, handmade boots and other accouterments for every occasion, expensive watches, lessons in riding, fencing, music and dance, and tutoring on a variety of more academic subjects.
As individuals, the boys are almost entirely unalike. Where Thorne is shy, Jude is sly and sexually aggressive and Myles an athletic, more manly man type. Differences aside, what they have in common is at least a passing acquaintance with male-male desire or, to use their term, "inversion." Taken together, the trio stands in for the maiden in distress of Gothic convention. What's unconventional is that they not only discuss their previous experiences but begin to experiment among themselves.
Smallwood, all steely charm, returns, tutoring his wards further in the niceties of polite society. At odd moments, the boys explore the huge house, discovering secret doors, hidden passageways, forbidden rooms and evidence that all is not as it seems, either in their good fortune or in the mansion in which they have come to dwell. Smallwood decides to give a party, a sort of debut, to introduce his new wards to the neighboring gentry. There is a storm, a quarrel between the host and Dr. Byrne, the revelation of long buried secrets as well as new ones and ... enough! No spoilers here.
Erastes is a master of gay historical fiction. This is one of her best tales. Enjoy the ride for yourself.
Buy it from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Mortals-ebook/dp/B004TSC8XQ/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368144811&sr=1-6&keywords=erastes
More titles by Erastes:
Title: Mere Mortals
Author: Erastes
Genre: m/m historical romance
Print length: 256 pages
Publication date: March 24, 2011
Overall reviewer rating: Four Stars
Blurb: Orphaned Crispin Thorne has been taken as ward by Philip Smallwood, a man he’s never met, and is transplanted from his private school to Smallwood’s house on an island on the beautiful but coldly remote Horsey Mere in Norfolk. Upon his arrival, he finds that he’s not the only young man given a fresh start. Myles Graham and Jude Middleton are there before him, and as their benefactor is away, they soon form alliances and friendships, as they speculate upon the sudden transformation of their circumstances. Who is Philip Smallwood? Why has he given them such a fabulous new life? What secrets does the house hold and what is it that the Doctor seems to know?
Review by Elliott Mackle:
The conventions of Gothic romance are endlessly adaptable. While elastic enough to please fans of low-rent bodice rippers and highbrow fiction alike, the Gothic pattern of moves, symbols and character types can be woven by expert hands into something new and surprisingly contemporary. "Mere Mortals," by Erastes, is such a one.
The novel opens with a journey, first by coach, then boat, across the Norfolk Broads, a network of marshy rivers and lakes, ending at a large and mysterious mansion on a remote island. Young Crispin Thorne, a penniless orphan, having been removed from boarding school, arrives at Bittern's Reach, the seat of wealthy, well-bred Philip Smallwood, his newly named guardian. He is accompanied part of the way by another local worthy, Dr. Baynes. The latter, surprised to hear Thorne's story, indicates, without much explanation until later in the book, that neither he nor most members of the community are on close terms with Mr. Smallwood.
Thorne is greeted not by the master but by servants and by news that two other orphans, Myles Graham and Jude Middleton, have also been installed as Smallwood's wards. A program of gentlemanly education is begun forthwith. Each is given a valet, tailored clothes, handmade boots and other accouterments for every occasion, expensive watches, lessons in riding, fencing, music and dance, and tutoring on a variety of more academic subjects.
As individuals, the boys are almost entirely unalike. Where Thorne is shy, Jude is sly and sexually aggressive and Myles an athletic, more manly man type. Differences aside, what they have in common is at least a passing acquaintance with male-male desire or, to use their term, "inversion." Taken together, the trio stands in for the maiden in distress of Gothic convention. What's unconventional is that they not only discuss their previous experiences but begin to experiment among themselves.
Smallwood, all steely charm, returns, tutoring his wards further in the niceties of polite society. At odd moments, the boys explore the huge house, discovering secret doors, hidden passageways, forbidden rooms and evidence that all is not as it seems, either in their good fortune or in the mansion in which they have come to dwell. Smallwood decides to give a party, a sort of debut, to introduce his new wards to the neighboring gentry. There is a storm, a quarrel between the host and Dr. Byrne, the revelation of long buried secrets as well as new ones and ... enough! No spoilers here.
Erastes is a master of gay historical fiction. This is one of her best tales. Enjoy the ride for yourself.
Buy it from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mere-Mortals-ebook/dp/B004TSC8XQ/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368144811&sr=1-6&keywords=erastes
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