A Scandal for Stratford

A Scandal for Stratford (2022) J.A. Rock & Lisa Henry (The Lords of Bucknall Club #6)

Set in England in 1818

James Lewis became Earl of Stratford after the unexpected death of his parents.

It stood empty now except for the servants. Had done for years, ever since Lord and Lady Stratford had died, leaving the estate to sixteen-year-old James.

He did not know how to run an estate any more than he knew how to raise his younger brother, so Frederick was sent off to an aunt and uncle and resented James for years because of that.

Frederick returning to London means a chance for James to mend things with him, except that means James has to hide both his issues, and his unorthodox relationship with his stablemaster, Harold.

Harold has been looking after James since they were both children, despite James being older, and the heir. But in each other they found things they needed, and so their relationship worked, even if Harold feared he was holding James back.

But caring for James could not merely mean insisting that he eat and sleep and write a certain number of pages each day. It had to include making sure he was whole, that he had not joined his life with Harold’s simply because Harold was familiar, because Harold was there.

This is a BDSM story, with the power imbalance between lord and master addressed by their switching of roles in their relationship.

Unsurprisingly, this story was a struggle for me. The boinking was an integral part of their relationship and so couldn’t easily be skimmed. Additionally, since the two were already in a long-established relationship, the boinking appeared right at the start.

Because of this, I stopped and restarted the book several times, finally settling down to skim and finish it. Because I wanted to know what happened, I just wanted to be able to skip the boinking bits entirely.

Additionally, there didn’t seem to be much mystery. We knew Stratford wrote the books. We could see Frederick was going to cause trouble. So much of the story was waiting to see how it was all going to fall down upon Stratford, and that just was not what I wanted to read.

Additionally, Stratford has serious anxiety, and issues being in public because of that, and as with other books that’s nothing something easy or enjoyable for me to read.

Positives: I did enjoy the relationship between James and Harold. And it was a relationship despite the difference in station.

“Another litter means God knows how many more mouths to feed.”

“You don’t need to feed them. Once they’re weaned, they’ll eat the mice.”

“Mm-hmm. That’s what you told me about the last litter. Then I came in one day to find you’d left me a great pot of mutton stew to take to the kittens because you were afraid they’d go hungry.”

“I said you could have some too. It wasn’t all for the cats.”

I also enjoyed seeing the other members of the Bucknall Club.

“It’d be like putting a monkey in a cravat. However good it looked, it would sooner or later just start flinging—”

“Gale,” Chant said, a faint note of warning in his tone.

“Aspersions,” Gale said. “Flinging aspersions.”

“I do not believe that was what you were going to say.”

“It absolutely was.”

Gale is still my favorite character of the series.

But despite the appearances of the other characters, the story was never going to work for me.

Characters: Harold Granger, James Lewis Earl of Stratford, Frederick Lewis, Philip Winthrop Viscount Soulden, Surgeon Edmund Fernside, Lord Christmas Gale, Benjamin Chant, William Hartwell Marquess of Danbury, Joseph Warrington, Mr. Morgan Notley, Loftus Rivingdon, Louis-Charles Aumont Marquis de Montespan, George Darling, Norris, Ellis, Price, Collins, Lord Finchley, Lord Clarence, Mr Lindsay, M Verreau, Lady Karina Bellborough, Lady Rebecca Warrington, Doctor Rudolf Paar

Cover art by Mitxeran

Rating: NR

• Browse the archives:
  
• Death Below Stairs, Audiobook » »
• « « Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea