K.J. Charles's Reviews > A Liaison with Her Leading Lady

Love the cover. Love the fact that M&B are doing sapphic historicals. Love the setting in British regional theatreland, it's nice to get out of London. Liked the set up a lot--fresh-faced Ruth, dumped into becoming manager of her father's failing theatre, gets grumpy reclusive playwright Artemis to write them a hit play.

Sadly this didn't come together in a satisfactory way, despite all the potential. There's a lot of internal narrative which kind of feels like filler in the middle section, and the romance is uneventful after a strong beginning. (It also doesn't engage at all with any issues of a sapphic romance in the 1830s--not in a Bridgerton TV way, because nobody else in this theatre set book seems to be queer, just not mentioning it.)

However, the main issue is the editing, which is dreadful. One woman is repeatedly addressed as Ms in 1832, people do things "carefully but perfunctorily" or have no appetite while being ravenous, several sentences just don't make sense, and mostly, something absolutely hatstand is going on with dashes, commas and especially ellipses. The following extracts are transcribed exactly as they appear in the book (Kobo ebook).

I don't know how--and I do know it will be...the worst thing I've ever written, that will likely ruin us both, but I will write her a play.

And one of the most exceptional things was that... Unlike other encounters she'd had--Thomas being the exception, not that she was comparing--it didn't feel as though... There was any pressure of time, for her to reach her peak. The sounds Artemis was making... The way she left no spot--save for those Ruth didn't react well to--untouched...

What the Emily Dickinson fuck.

I don't know what the hell is going on in the editorial department but this is not a state in which you let a book go out. This had a massive amount of potential and I am really unimpressed for the author. (It's also the second shockingly edited f/f book from M&B I've read in a few days. I am *side eyeing*.)