{"id":19725,"date":"2022-01-29T20:18:57","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T01:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=19725"},"modified":"2022-11-22T08:27:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T13:27:58","slug":"something-fabulous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19725","title":{"rendered":"Something Fabulous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something Fabulous<\/a><\/em> (2022) Alexis Hall<\/a> (Something Fabulous)<\/p>\n

\"Something<\/a>Set in Historical England.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I don’t think this is historical England as much as fantasy historical England. Which is fine, since as he says in the author’s note, almost everyone in the story is queer.<\/p>\n

Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern is expected to marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. It’s what their fathers’ wanted and he will do his duty.<\/p>\n

Arabella, however, has no desire to be a duty. <\/p>\n

So she runs away. And Valentine and Arabella’s twin brother Bonny must go after her.<\/p>\n

This is a very, very silly story.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see,\u201d Tarleton pressed him, \u201cwhy I\u2019m concerned?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAs it happens I do. I\u2019m relieved that one of you at least is blessed with some modicum of sense.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, she could be captured by pirates or highwaymen or . . . or vampires or anything.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cForgive me, I spoke prematurely.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be honest, I need to reread this book with the initial mindset that it is a comedic historical fantasy. I was expecting it to be one thing, and it was completely different, and I failed to wrap my head around that. <\/p>\n

Which is why I’ve been rereading so much for the past two years.<\/p>\n

Valentine is in the category of demi \/ gray ace , which is why he has such a difficult time with, well, almost everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d said Valentine slowly, and with a vague sense of dread that perhaps he was going to be peculiar even by the standards of people who were peculiar. \u201cI have never felt that sort of inclination towards anyone, man or woman.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think part of what I had a difficult time with is that I identified with Valentine on that level so much that I had a hard time sympathizing with Bonny at times, and Arabella at all.<\/p>\n

I mean, yeah, Valentine is an arrogant and entitled ass, but he really doesn’t know any other way to be. <\/p>\n

While Valentine had been nebulously aware he was considered handsome, he had never quite known what to do about it. Grown increasingly taunted by it across the years. What, after all, was the use of being pleasing to the eye when he had found in himself only an obscure hollowness? A well of waiting and searching and wanting but never finding in which he had drowned a little deeper with every day that passed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The world is an incredibly strange place when you don’t understand most of what goes on around you.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Montlake<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something Fabulous (2022) Alexis Hall (Something Fabulous) Set in Historical England. To be honest, I don’t think this is historical England as much as fantasy historical England. Which is fine, since as he says in the author’s note, almost everyone in the story is queer. Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern is expected to marry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,189,30,292,2,33,148,26,56],"tags":[227,50,197,175,544],"class_list":["post-19725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10","category-ace","category-british","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-queer","category-romance","category-sexual-content","tag-alexis-hall","tag-boinking","tag-demi","tag-gray-ace","tag-mm"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-589","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25811,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25811","url_meta":{"origin":19725,"position":0},"title":"Something Fabulous","author":"Michelle","date":"February 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Something Fabulous (2022) Alexis Hall (Something Fabulous #1) I struggled the first time I read this, partially because I was having a difficult time reading anything, and partially because I went into it thinking \"historical romance\" instead of \"fantasy rom com\". This time I went in thinking fantasy rom com\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Something Fabulous","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Something-Fabulous-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25817,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25817","url_meta":{"origin":19725,"position":1},"title":"Something Spectacular","author":"Michelle","date":"February 9, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Something Spectacular (2023) Alexis Hall (Something Fabulous #2) I was somewhat hesitant to read this book as I thought it was Arabella's book, and I'm not sure I can handle an entire book with her as the main characters (Bonny was difficult enough and that book wasn't from his point-of-view)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Something Spectacular","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Something-Spectacular-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":24075,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24075","url_meta":{"origin":19725,"position":2},"title":"Confounding Oaths","author":"Michelle","date":"November 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Confounding Oaths (2024) Alexis Hall (Mortal Follies #2) Set in England in 1815. Mr. John Caesar wants his sisters' coming outs to go well, so they can make good matches and be taken care of. But it won't be easy, because they aren't quite like the rest of society. Alexis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Confounding Oaths","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Confounding-Oaths.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Confounding-Oaths.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Confounding-Oaths.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21489,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21489","url_meta":{"origin":19725,"position":3},"title":"There Will Be Phlogiston","author":"Michelle","date":"January 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"There Will Be Phlogiston (2014) Alexis Hall (Prosperity) Anstruther Jones is the Phlogiston Baron. Wealth beyond imagine from ignominious beginnings, he wants to be accepted not because he admires society, but because he wants to find companionship. Lady Rosamond Wolfram is on the marriage mart because it is expected of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"There Will Be Phlogiston","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/There-Will-Be-Phlogiston.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23157,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/23157","url_meta":{"origin":19725,"position":4},"title":"Mortal Follies","author":"Michelle","date":"February 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Mortal Follies (2023) Alexis Hall Set in alternate England in 1841. This isn't just a story of love and curses and betrayal and hot springs and sacrifices. It's a story of all those things told by the most unreliable of story tellers. I am that knavish sprite that frights the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mortal Follies","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Mortal-Follies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Mortal-Follies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Mortal-Follies.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13637,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13637","url_meta":{"origin":19725,"position":5},"title":"The Affair of the Mysterious Letter","author":"Michelle","date":"December 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Affair of the Mysterious Letter (2019) Alexis Hall Captain John Wyndham has returned to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years of war. He needs rooms, but anything nice is beyond what he can afford--until he sees a posting. Co-tenant required. Rent reasonable to the point of arousing suspicion.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Affair of the Mysterious Letter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/The-Affair-of-the-Mysterious-Letter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}