Big Misunderstandings and the hard work of learning that being clever doesn’t mean you know everything.
Plot: Lady Constance was schooled in a convent, and in the most predictable outcome of such an upbringing, has turned into something of a belligerently scandalous adult. She has worked to amass power through one of the only tools available to women – gossip. She wields it for good, or at least what she thinks of as good. In the first book in the series for example, she used it to nearly ruin a young woman her brother was madly in love with (and vice versa) but refused to marry because of social pressure. Her brother, despite being truly overjoyed in his new (coerced) married state, does see that this kind of behavior is wildly problematic, and made Constance agree to stop. But how the hell are women supposed to learn the truth about the men they’re considering marrying without gossip? Not only that, but people like the Earl of Apthorp, smugly morally superior and secretly perverted, deserve to be outed. At least to the woman he’s pursuing. Only it turns out Apthorp doesn’t fit her definition of a pervert, was not interested in her friend, and the gossip has gotten out – ruining him, his family, and possibly her own by association. Oops. Time to fix it before brother dearest finds out. Shenanigans ensue.
Let’s deal with the headline first – this book has not one, but a series of Big Misunderstandings. But this is no cheap reliance on lazy plot devices. Peckham is trying to explore something important here – the stories that we tell ourselves to protect ourselves from hurt, and the damage those stories can cause. The smarter you are, the better you are at lying to yourself, and Constance and Julian are very, very smart. The assumptions that they make make perfect sense and could not be more wrong. Their fear of rejection, and the very real consequences of public censure has forced them both into living diminished lives and losing nearly a decade of happiness. This book is a war-cry not only for radical honesty, but for consistent honesty in both act and deed. And a reminder that sometimes, liberating yourself can liberate others too.
Trigger warnings for some on the page sexual violence, being outed, child abandonment, and religious zealotry.