There’s been a trend- not a huge overwhelming trend, but a noticeable one- of heroes in historicals to have some form of neuro-atypicality. Sometimes it’s OCD (The Duke’s Holiday) sometimes it’s dyslexia (Unveiled); sometimes it’s handled well and sometimes it’s cured by the love a good woman. Like pretty much anything in any genre, it’s a mixed bag.
In this case, Quint (er, Damien Beecham, Viscount Quint) thinks he’s going insane. His father did when he was the age Quint is now, and Quint has gotten to the point where he can’t leave his house without going to pieces.
This is the third book in Joanna Shupe’s Wicked Deceptions series. Kensington sent me all three books at once and I devoured them like my roommate’s brioche rolls (she needs to take these things away from me). Her heroines are strong, her dudes are a little dim (but they get better), and her plots are lots of fun.
The heroine in The Lady Hellion is Lady Sophia Barnes, the daughter of a Marquess… and sometimes known as Sir Stephen Radcliffe, a young pup of a dude who shows up at gaming hells and brothels while investigating missing women. (YES IT IS A CROSS-DRESSING TROPE YAY). She’s known Quint forever, and held a torch for him for at least that long. He’s also held a torch for her, so we also have two idiots who can’t use their fucking words.
I love a good “Can’t use their fucking words” story in the hands of a good writer.
Anyway, Sophia has been looking into the disappearances of a number of lower-end prostitutes while (successfully) masquerading as a man. She accidently got herself challenged to a duel, as you do, and wants Quint to be her second, but he can’t leave his house.
That’s just the first chapter.
Sophia is asked to find out about the prostitutes by other women who are the sisters or friends of the missing women- women who would not get help from anyone, even if they could afford to hire someone. Sophia has money and connections and a lot of guts. Her father has been very permissive, and when she was a child, he let her sit in with him as he did his work as a magistrate. When she found out she couldn’t be a magistrate when she grew up, it was a total betrayal. She still wants to save the world, but being a woman in Regency England doesn’t give her that opportunity.
Early on, Shupe talks about the process of getting Sophia’s man-costume- her boobs are bound, things have been carefully tailored, she has a fake peen to pad out her trousers, and even then one of the prostitutes she talks to figures out she’s a woman right away: “You walk like there’s nothing between your legs.” It works on most people because the thought that a woman might dress up as a man doesn’t even enter into most heads. It never occurs to them that it could happen.
Shupe also deals with the double standards women face when it comes to rumors, sexual pleasure, and agency. Sophia had been about to be engaged before, but her intended convinced her to “anticipate the wedding night” and when she showed more interest in the proceedings than was seemly, he told her she obviously wasn’t a virgin and wouldn’t marry her. Because of that, she’s refused to entertain the idea of marrying anyone at all- partly because she doesn’t want to deal with assholes who think like that, and partly because she doesn’t want to deal with the “you’re not a virgin YOU LYING SLUT” discussion again. I can’t blame her for that.
Quint is helping her sort through clues and her evidence- he’s very smart, he’s worked for the Home Office, and he’s terrified of his brain. He also, as a result of his father’s madness, does not trust physicians at all (Can you blame him, given the state of psychiatric treatment? You cannot).
Honestly, Sophia is way more interesting than Quint. The resolution to his mental problems is a little “Oh, mystical East Asian thing!” (and a little just figuring out what the actual problem is and what works) which works better here than in some other books. Honestly, the resolution is so far beyond “He just needed to boink the right Magic Hoo Hoo to be healed!” that I know I’m grading on a curve, and I know I am, but it’s a solid B+ resolution.
I enjoyed this series quite a lot, and am looking forward to see what Shupe writes in the future.
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This book sounds interesting to me, since it sounds like his issue isn’t magically resolved. Do you think this mini-trend can be traced back to the success of The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie?
Anyone else keep reading Shtup for Shupe?
I received her email this morning–I’m just a reader, not a street team–and she had a link for a bonus epilogue in it.
@kkw
No schtuppin’, “makes me wanna shoop. . . shoop ba-doop”
I think the popularity of the trope goes right back to Flowers from the Storm.
Aww yiss. I preordered this ’cause it’s right up my alley (disguises, yay!) and I may or may not have read the previous 2 books simply in excitement for this one… I actually didn’t care for the first 2 books. I thought both heroes were straight up douchey and when they came around, they sort of magically turned into perfect husbands. Especially the first book. I also felt like there was no chemistry between the characters in the first and found it hard to be interested in their love-making because it was all front loaded and before you get to know the characters. The premise was also a little too far fetched even for me. I liked the second one a LOT more, so I’m glad I stuck around, but man that hero was a tool. Sigh.
I hope this one turns out to be the best in the series.
The heroine of this book sounds fantastic, I’ll bite!
And Anna – yes – I thought of many of Kinsale’s books immediately too. Currently listening to My Sweet Folly on audio, the hero believes he is going mad.
Do I need to read the first two books to enjoy this one?
As we die-hard romance readers know, physical infirmity for the hero has been around since Mr. Rochester made us swoon. And Charlotte’s sister Emily certainly ramped up the antisocial behavior when crafting Heathcliff. Scarred (physically and or emotionally) heroes are, for good AND ill, a time-honored trope.
Laura Kinsale, in her awesomeness, explored mental illness in several excellent books. As have a host of other authors, both good and bad.
But I believe that the specificity of Redheadedgirl’s comment in this review is worthy of note, and am curious. She uses the term neuro-atypicality, and it seems to me that this term is indeed something relatively new to common usage.
My internet research of “neurotypical” has compiled a list of some conditions considered to be “not”neurotypical: such as autism, Asperger’s, dylexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, and bipolar disorder to name but a few.
Are these conditions relatively new fodder for romance novels? I’m thinking the answer is yes, but am curious if there are other books, either new OR older which explore these subjects? If you know of any, I would be grateful for a recommendation.