Series: Sins of the cities (book 1)

Genre: LGBT (m/m), Historical, Mystery, Romance

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Cover: I love how “in your face” POC it is.

Links: goodreads, publisher

Trigger warnings: none

Description: Lodging-house keeper Clem Talleyfer prefers a quiet life. He’s happy with his hobbies, his work—and especially with his lodger Rowley Green, who becomes a friend over their long fireside evenings together. If only neat, precise, irresistible Mr. Green were interested in more than friendship…

Rowley just wants to be left alone—at least until he meets Clem, with his odd, charming ways and his glorious eyes. Two quiet men, lodging in the same house, coming to an understanding… it could be perfect. Then the brutally murdered corpse of another lodger is dumped on their doorstep and their peaceful life is shattered.

Now Clem and Rowley find themselves caught up in a mystery, threatened on all sides by violent men, with a deadly London fog closing in on them. If they’re to see their way through, the pair must learn to share their secrets—and their hearts.

Review: If this were my first K.J. Charles book, I’m not sure I would read one again. Luckily it’s not!

If you follow my blog, you know I simply love the Society of Gentlemen series (and if you’re not following it you know it now). But somehow everything I love about that series is missing here.

The characters are interesting enough on their own at first. I really enjoyed reading about Clem, who is half-indian and somewhat of a black sheep in his family. And at first I liked his friendship with Rowley, but… to me it stayed a friendship. The romance was neither believable nor interesting. It felt rather forced.

But I can still enjoy a book with a lacking romance if the other parts manage to captivate me. They didn’t here. The mystery soon became boring and felt way to long.

I’ve read this book in december and apart from remembering how I struggled through it and how long it took me to finish it, nothing stands out in my memory. That’s one of the reasons why it took me so long to write this review. I just don’t know what to tell you – aside from ‘meh’ maybe. Of course I tried to take notes while reading but even that was hard.

If you’ve never read a K.J. Charles book before, maybe start with another one and then come back to this one.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.