Cat Sebastian: Unmasked by the Marquess

The one you love…
Robert Selby is determined to see his sister make an advantageous match. But he has two problems: the Selbys have no connections or money and Robert is really a housemaid named Charity Church. She’s enjoyed every minute of her masquerade over the past six years, but she knows her pretense is nearing an end. Charity needs to see her beloved friend married well and then Robert Selby will disappear…forever.

May not be who you think…

Alistair, Marquess of Pembroke, has spent years repairing the estate ruined by his wastrel father, and nothing is more important than protecting his fortune and name. He shouldn’t be so beguiled by the charming young man who shows up on his doorstep asking for favors. And he certainly shouldn’t be thinking of all the disreputable things he’d like to do to the impertinent scamp.

But is who you need…

When Charity’s true nature is revealed, Alistair knows he can’t marry a scandalous woman in breeches, and Charity isn’t about to lace herself into a corset and play a respectable miss. Can these stubborn souls learn to sacrifice what they’ve always wanted for a love that is more than they could have imagined?

CW: grief, potentially internalized self-loathing or bias about nonbinary identities and bisexuality

I think I have probably already established how much I like a good Cat Sebastian historical romance, but let this serve as another example.  What a delicious, different and truly romantic book.  Laughs, tears (is there an lol equivalent…tof= tears on face), I felt this book in so many ways and the HEA was so satisfying.

What I loved: nonbinary MC meets bisexual MC…explosive chemistry, hot sex scenes, and a real exploration of the gender bending masquerading histrom trope.  I loved the foils/secondary characters, that the “villain” was very human and not a big melodramatic plot point, and I thought the character arcs were truly wonderful.

What I didn’t love: a bit too much hand wringing towards the middle to end about will they/won’t they.  Don’t get me wrong, too easy of a resolution would have been suspect and I do think Sebastian threw out some surprises to provide more context that kept things moving/interesting.  But it did slow the pace a bit, and I see from other reviews that it annoyed other readers so be forewarned there is a fair share of will they/won’t they/how will they work it out.  Not quite misunderstandings trope…but pretty darn close.

Charity/Robert has been living as a man for several years, first to attend University and then to move to London to bring “his sister” out.  Charity/Robert was a foundling brought to the Selby’s at a young age as a servant, and who has become family to them.

It is made pretty clear early on that Charity/Robert is nonbinary, preferring masculine dress.  I really enjoyed getting to explore what this means for a historical character in a way many of the masquerading as men RegRoms don’t…probably because in the past this trope is more comedic than anything.  I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot by talking through Charity/Robert’s character arc, but I will say that seeing the masquerade trope turned on its head via a nonbinary character was brilliant.  As Sebastian’s author’s note points out, there are lots of known examples of women living as men in and around the era, and getting a glimpse into what some of the difficulties would have been makes for a really unique book.  I will also say that, too, that I thought the way it was handled and contextualized, with lots of support from friends and family, really served to make what could have been triggering or trauma inducing feel very uplifting and empowering.

Pembroke has the best character arc.  When we meet him he is almost entirely a Regency romance stereotype: guarded, high in the instep, cold, playing puppet master with his relatives and desperate to suppress his desires in favor of leaving a legacy.  However, when Robert enters his library he can’t help but be enthralled by the blast of sunshine (in fact, there is some fantastic work done by Sebastian of character’s opening curtains and making Pembroke realize how cloaked in darkness he has been).  Pembroke is bisexual, but has but a heavy lid on his sexuality to try and refrain from walking in his disgraced father’s footsteps.

Having him so high on a pedestal makes his fall (into love) just delicious and painful and really beautiful to read.

This book is not without some potential problems for some LGBQTIA+/nonbinary readers.  Xan West did a much more personal, thoughtful analysis of this.  I will say that there is some nuanced self-loathing at play when Pembroke’s bisexuality is discussed and some of the nuances of Charity/Robert’s struggle to name her/their (Sebastian was a bit coy about which pronouns to use) identity are interesting.  Its a bit of the old “historical accuracy” conundrum, in a roundabout way.  I think Sebastian is trying to portray what these identities/orientations would have felt like for characters in the 19th Century when there was no clear discussion, language, and homosexuality (especially for men) carried the added pressure of being a criminal act.  That is a lot to unpack, to explore, to portray…and how you do that while walking a fine line of not hurting readers but  still trying to talk about what it looked like in context is tough.

I have been thinking about this more generally with some of the think pieces or other recommendation pieces surrounding Bridgerton.

Where I am at right now is interesting to me, because I am normally a pretty black and white thinker;  I am thinking that all experiences are not universal and that having lots of different representations and then talking about them is how we really make things happen.  That sounds really simple.  But its actually terribly complicated, because the reality is some representations will be really uplifting to some while damaging to others.  For example, my experience as a woman, what my values are, and how that reads on the page may be very different than your experience and if we extrapolate from my character a proxy for all women, then some women will be hurt because the representation doesn’t represent them.  This is even more delicate business when you are representing an underrepresented population, because I think there is a real need for underrepresented people to see themselves represented…but a one off can’t possible speak to every person’s experience.  How you reconcile that as an author is a bit mind-boggling.

I think some authors get stuck there…not wanting to touch difficult stuff because its difficult.  And it does take a lot of energy to constantly battle against the historical accuracy criticisms, for starters, that happen when you introduce new types of representation to a genre (like the Regency) that in a lot of respects believes its own hype.  What I mean by hype is made up history.  Because the Regency romance canon is fictional and in many cases not accurate, although readers are now frequently going to the mat to defend that made up history.  The way we continue to challenge that is through representing underrepresented populations, but that also carries with it a lot of pitfalls.

In addition to the problem of trying to use representations as a proxy to “cover” all people within that marginalized group, its also a fine line between taking up space where cis, white, hetero authors shouldn’t be/marginalized authors should be and doing a disservice by white/cis/hetero/ableist/etc washing.  As an author, I have been thinking about this a lot for the last few years.  Sometimes it feels like an either or (be inclusive and risk doing it wrong/taking up space or be exclusive and risk promoting further harming the history and people through incomplete representation).

But I don’t think it has to be either or.  I do think there is somewhere in the middle we can land..lifting up underrepresented voices/authors while also supporting more diversity in stories by privileged writers.  I also think broadly Romancelandia is doing better at having these conversations and setting some goal post but this has got to be praxis, not destination focused.  And authors who are cis, white, hetero, etc. have a LOT of work to do to reset the default on a lot of these issues.  I think if we all work a bit to redefine the default maybe those once difficult things no longer become difficult (I am thinking about how much consent, for instance, has changed in the 20+ years I have been reading romance).

I had an interesting Twitter conversation recently with an author about fat rep and men in romance that was another example of how you don’t really grapple with these issues as an author…until you grapple with these issues.  And that means you aren’t going to be flawless, because in most ways writing is a practice.   The praxis is influenced by culture, our conversations, and our biases…and that is why representation is hard to make everyone safe.  But supporting a variety of authors/voices, especially OwnVoices, can really make that praxis and dialogue so much richer, effective, and helpful.

For Xan, the portrayal of Pembroke’s bisexuality was self-loathing and a bit painful, particularly in relationship to Charity/Robert being nonbinary.  I respect that reaction, which is why I wanted to share a link to Xan’s review.

I had a different reaction.  Pembroke’s self-loathing about his sexuality resonated with me, particularly knowing how many people in my generation were breaking new ground but also experiencing a lot of self-loathing about their sexuality.  That fear and trauma is a real lived experience that I think it worthwhile sharing, and I think Sebastian does this in a way that is not exploitative but gentle and ultimately uplifting.

I viewed Pembroke’s ambivalence about Charity/Robert being nonbinary not so much as a “hey, bisexuals like it all” to being more an expression of pansexuality but without a deep understanding of it…because the language wasn’t there.  That language not being there is REALLY hard to understand if you haven’t experienced it…naming something provides a tremendous amount of empowerment and agency.  So much that its hard to effectively articulate.

It would have been disingenuous for these characters to not have to grapple with their sexuality as unknown and therefore, a bit terrifying.  But that also can be harmful to some readers on their own journey.  I think it can also be healing to others.  So please know that from that perspective, this book could be a challenge to you.

I think if you are a reader who likes the masquerading trope this plays with that in a new way…for Charity/Robert isn’t playing or masquerading so much as living her/their truth.  It almost puts a new spin on some of the classic heroine dressed as man books (including Heyer), if you want to stretch your imagination a bit.

I also think this is a great book for some who want to see more representation of nonbinary and bisexual or pansexual (I really think Pembroke was pan) characters in historical romance.  Its not perfect (at least for some readers) but I do think its worthwhile reading and thinking about…and I am interested to hear your take if you give this book a try.

I also want to mention that the class issues are also really interesting, although lightly handled, and probably worth an in depth analysis.  I can see some readers impacted by Charity/Robert being an impostor as the main working class character.  I felt the ending resolved some of the potential squick for me…and it also made me really interested in how Sebastian gently explores the idea of a lower class character not being subject to Society and those rules.  The class issue of the romance is not the central conflict, although it is mentioned a few times by Charity/Robert as an obstacle, so I felt like it was almost a deconstruction of the class culture heavily emphasized in so many Regencies.  I am also interested to hear any readers who have thoughts about this aspect.

There are several sex scenes on the page that range from vanilla to a bit more spicy, but none of the scenes felt overdone or graphic.  Minimal violence, but with a fair amount of adult themes, this book is not traditional or kisses only.  The central conflict really is to resolve a heart’s desire/love against societal constraints…so this is rich and interesting territory but definitely not for every reader.

5 out of 6 A stiff upper lip is challenged by a sunshiney schemer