I have a problem, which I believe is a problem common to any avid reader who isn’t content to just re-read their favorites: my reading demand far outstrips the combined output of the authors whose work I follow. As such, I’m constantly on the lookout for new-to-me authors. Sometimes I find some gems, sometimes I find some awful writing, but mostly, I find stuff about which I say “Yeah, this was fine.”
A Shore Thing by Joanna Lowell is in that last category. I’m so far behind on reviewing that it’s been a few weeks since I read it, and I find that I already can’t remember much about it, good or bad. Like so many romances it’s the sort of thing that you enjoy when you’re reading it, but it leaves very little lasting impression.
So first, the good. A Shore Thing is a historical romance between a cis woman and a trans man. In the author’s note at the beginning, she self-identifies as a queer cis woman in a relationship with a trans man; she wanted to see a relationship like hers in the genre she writes in, so she wrote one. She consulted heavily with her partner, who specializes in queer history. To me, the book feels like it does a good job of presenting the various queer characters and their allies in the ways they would have acted and thought of themselves in that time period, while still trying to be sensitive to our modern ideas around gender, sexuality, and being a good ally.
A Shore Thing leans a bit towards the lighter, rom-commier end of things, but it does deal with some heavier content that at times didn’t quite seem to line up with the rest of the tone of the book. There’s a secondary M/M romance, and one of those characters is dealing with being blackmailed over letters between him and a past lover. There’s also a scene involving a flooding river that was a bit fraught. And our two main characters both have some past trauma that still impacts them in the present.
For the most part though, this is a nice little book about two mostly lovely people riding bikes around Cornwall to prove some manly men wrong. There are some missteps and misunderstandings along the way, but they’re resolved in a timely fashion and a kind manner. Even the obnoxious male cyclists prove to be more than the two-dimensional antagonists they originally seemed.
I seem to recall that the spice level on this one is what I’d consider a medium — the characters do have sex, and it’s not fade to black or closed door style, but it is not as explicit as a lot of romance novels, and the focus felt like it was much more on the emotional arc, and what these more physical encounters meant for that arc.
Over all, this wasn’t 100% the book for me as I found some of the more comedic bits to be a bit too broad, with characters not really acting like believable people, and this jarred against the more serious parts. But I did enjoy reading it and would perhaps read another book by Lowell if it fit a book bingo prompt or had a really entertaining premise. And I’d say it’s worth anyone else considering it if they’re just looking for more LGBTQIA+ representation in historic romance.
CWs and TWs: Bearing in mind that I read this weeks ago and should have taken notes, I recall that in addition to the sexual content and some scenes of flooding-related peril, there’s some sexism, some instances of past and current misgendering of the male love interest (mostly by well-meaning friends trying to get used to the new name and pronouns) and a lot of anxiety about potential misgendering and transhobia when we’re in that character’s POV. There’s mention of past death of a parent. Our female MC also has PTSD from a very traumatic incident involving a dog in her childhood, so I could see this being triggering for anyone with their own phobia of dogs. Gosh, that was a lot of TW discussion for a mostly fluffy book!
Source and Format: I read this as an ebook from Sno-Isle Libraries.
Book Bingo Prompts
SURPRISE! I joined another Book Bingo challenge when you weren’t looking!
SBTB Summer Romance Bingo: Scene on a Boat or By a Body of Water. This book starts with our FMC looking for algae in a tide pool, involves cycling along the Cornish coast, has a flooding river, and a love scene in a unique water situation that I won’t spoil for you. I mean, there’s even a water reference in the punny title!
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 17 out of 25 prompts complete. 2 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 15 out of 25 prompts complete. 1 bingo.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: 11 out of 23 prompts complete, 0 bingos.
SBTB Summer Romance: 1 out of 24 prompts complete, 0 bingos.