Sample-Chapter Showdown: Romance IV

The Gentleman's Book of Vices by Jess Everlee (Carina Adores)
Escape to the Swiss Chalet by Carrie Walker (Aria)
Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert (Sourcebooks Casablanca)

It's time for a sample-chapter showdown! Three romance novels enter the ring, and only one will exit...or more than one. Or—we'll see how it goes, shall we?

The Gentleman's Book of Vices:
They said every copy should be rooted out and burned. Said that they should bring back hanging for sodomites and smut peddlers just for Cox alone. They said all that, and sales had boomed so spectacularly that Miles was still earning on the scandal. (loc. 343)

On the surface, Charlie and Miles don't have too much in common. The one has family wealth and shows it, with the ability to cater to his own whimsy in the weeks before his wedding. The other writes smutty novels to keep his shop afloat. But as it turns out, they share some of the same...whimsical...tastes in books—and other things—and before long things get complicated...

If anything is clear from this preview, it's that the book will be lively and entertaining, with no shortage of wit (and of course no shortage of complication). The late 1800s mean that difference can be risky, and these are characters who have, to varying extents and in various ways, decided to live with some level of risk rather than stuff themselves into the shape expectation demands. I'm very curious about the role of Alma, Charlie's fiancée, in this book, because she's been set up to perhaps have a backbone of steel under that genteel exterior.

If you find The Gentleman's Book of Vices to be a good fit, take heart: it's the first in a series, with book two already out and book three to follow soon.

Escape to the Swiss Chalet:
Wedding bells are ringing, and August is ready...until it all comes crashing down. Forsaking the heat of her namesake, she heads to the Alps for a new adventure...

These two sample chapters don't get into the meat of it—by the end, August is still ready and eager to marry George, and the details of what goes wrong are still a mystery. The seeds of something wrong are there, though: a romantic partner who ridicules the heroine's job and (probably more crucially) hates her cat is only ever going to be a villain. August's voice is strong, though, and these chapters give hope that this will be on the smarter end of romance novels. I'm curious to see where this will go—what will go wrong with George, just how she ends up in the Alps, and what shape her work and private lives take when everything is upended.

Just in time for winter!

Midnight Ruin:
The Greek gods have never been this steamy—or, actually, I rather think they were (the Greek gods were not exactly known for their lack of decadence), but Midnight Ruin puts a whole new spin on it. Here we have Eurydice, who is happily entangled with Charon...but can't quite get Orpheus out of her mind. Charon has given her the green light to do whatever she needs to do in order to get Orpheus out of her system...but none of them anticipates quite how it will feel to be tangled together as three.

Based on the sample excerpts, I'd place this as erotica rather than romance, though it remains to be seen how much the rest of story will focus on carnal pleasure and how much it will focus elsewhere. Either way, the temperature dial has been turned up to eleven—this is not for you if you like your romance sweet and clean, or with just a bit of spice; this is for you if you like your romance raw and explicit and, well, naked.

I love retellings, and while I'm not sure I'll read the full book I'll definitely investigate the rest of the series to see what might catch my interest—this seems like a ton of fun from start to finish.

The Verdict: I'd guess at which book I'm most likely to read, but to be honest, I've already read one of these—I picked up Escape to the Swiss Chalet from the library after it was released. But these are three wildly different books, and it's hard to compare them head-to-head because it depends heavily on what you're looking for: queer historical romance? Light, hetero contemporary with a side of wish fulfillment? Or a particularly smutty take on mythology?

Thanks to the authors and publishers for providing free previews through NetGalley.