A new spring (FINALLY THANK GOD), a new Beauty and Beast book!  Yay!

This had so much going for it.  Just barely pre-Victorian/tail end of the Georgian era!  Non-nobles!  Slums!  Delightful references to the Disney animated B&B!  Other references to La Belle et La Bete!  Turning other references on their heads!  An exploration of where the line between “victim” and “survivor” is!

This is the second book in Erica Monroe’s Rookery Rogue series (and I apparently bought the 1^st one?  But never read it?  I’ll have to fix that) which is historical/romantic suspense (genre mashing EFFTEEDUBS).  Abigail was the attempted victim of a serial killer, and has major scarring and permanent damage to her hand when it was shoved into a jacquard loom.  She also has grown up in the slums of Whitechapel, so she has some physical effects from a lifetime of hard work, not enough food, and general stress.

Michael is a police inspector in the newly formed Metropolitan police. He was instrumental in catching the guy who tortured and tried to kill Abigail.  He’s got a fucked up family, likes math, and does statistical mapping of crime.  Basically, he’s there to get my nerd-heart going pitter-pat.  Oh, he’s a rake, too- lot of women, little concern about their pleasure or anything else, mostly there to get his rocks off.  So, he’s not perfect.

When Abigail’s father gets himself into a gambling debt of 200 pounds, Michael agrees to forgive it if Abigail stays with him for two weeks.  Money problems have gotten so bad for Abigail, her father, and her little sister that she’s pondering the various methods of prostitution, and agrees to this plan so Michael will teach her what she needs to know to become a courtesan.  It’s maybe not the most thought-out plan.

But Michael has his own ulterior motive- the guy who tried to kill Abigail escaped while they were taking him to a transportation ship (Hey Australia! You need settlers, so have another psychopath who likes to kill women.  It’ll totally work out because you don’t have a lot of women, right?), and the killer has explicitly threatened Abigail and Michael.  Michael wants her to be safe, and he wants her, so two birds, one stone.

It doesn’t really work out like that.  It never does.

Now, I like the ballrooms and the Dukes that are so ubiquitous in historicals.  I do!  But I also like it when authors go beyond those walls and focus on ordinary people.  The reality is, the lives of the poor in this era kinda sucked, and there’s a limit to how much depressing one can take, and I think that scares some authors off.  Monroe isn’t afraid of saying “Look, this life?  This life when you can’t work and there’s no social safety net and you have your nine-year-old sister as being one of the primary breadwinners in your family?  THIS IS LEGIT TERRIBLE.  And I can’t make these be a happy ending for everyone, but you have to trust me there will be a happy ending for Abigail.  This is a fairy tale.”

Abagail and her sister have a hard life and they do the best they can.  Michael isn’t a duke. He’s not an earl.  He’s a working man who also inherited some money, but he is still a working police officer.  There isn’t a life of leisure for him. He’s got a nice enough house, but it’s not Grosvenor Square.  But he has a library and lots of food and can afford to buy Abigail more than three dresses.  He does okay.  (They get her wedding dress from a used clothes dealer.  How many romances have that layer of reality?)

I loved beyond words how Monroe wove in references to the Disney animated film – I didn’t realize (SPOILERS AHEAD) until five outfits in that everything Abigail wears is based on Belle’s clothes (it was the ball gown that twigged my memory).  Michael has a ball of just the two of them because she’s never been to one, and he wears a blue coat, just like the Beast.  He gives her free reign over his library (even the porno section in the back) (That’s not in the Disney). Plus, there’s a ridiculous unseasonable snowfall that is sustained enough for a snowball fight.  Abigail has lost her support network through trauma and not reacting well to changes; Belle’s only true support is her father.  Sure, the town likes her well enough, but they all think she’s weird.

There’s a gift of a rose- Abigail’s sister wants her to bring one back with her. The original La Belle et La Bete has Beauty asking for the gift of a rose from her father.  Abigail is determined to find one.   Abigail ends up in Michael’s house because of a stupid thing her father did.  That’s true in pretty much all Beauty and the Beast variations.

The most interesting thing, though, is that both of them think of themselves as the Beast.  Michael is emotionally broken and doesn’t think he can be a person in a relationship, so why bother?  Abigail is scarred, traumatized, and been betrayed by everyone she ever loved except her sister.  She wears gloves to hide her scars.  She’s certain there’s no happy ending; she’s just looking for a less terrible one.

Also, and you may remember my penchant for self-rescuing and self-avenging heroines, it’s delightful (SPOILER AHEAD) that it’s Abigail who takes down her attacker.  Michael doesn’t do it for her, she finds the strength to avenge herself.  I LOVE THAT.

Finally, the entire story is Abigail finding her way from “Victim” to “survivor.”  I think there’s a number of stories that are hitting that plot point currently- we talked about The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt recently.  There’s a point where each heroine has to decide that she won’t be defined by what’s happened to her.  She can’t ignore it, she can’t hope it’ll go away, but it’s still only a facet of her life.  If living well is the best revenge*, then Abigail wins everything.

*(I don’t always agree with that, because sometimes revenge is the best revenge)