A-Z Romances: Cat Sebastian and Independent Heroes

My favorite book by Cat Sebastian is You Should Be So Lucky. I love it so much, I usually read it in less than a day (so I have to set aside a day to read it). 

For this list, I read Two Rogues Make a Right. The book belongs to the Seducing the Sedgwicks Series. Of the nineteenth century historical romances, I prefer Sebastian's Turner Series. But one purpose of this list is to read what I don't usually read--or don't read that often. 

Two Rogues Make a Right is one of those books, rather like McCall Smith's Mma Ramotswe mysteries, that I can read a little bit, then put down, then read a little more. Sometimes, this approach backfires (I forget to pick up the book again before I have to take it back to the library) but sometimes, as with McCall Smith, the little bit gives me something to look forward to over a few nights. 

Sebastian is a very good writer and can create gentle, slice-of-life moments within a larger plot. She is also quite skilled at creating damaged characters in which the plot is not about how damaged they are. 

I've discussed elsewhere the problem of tying violence (even remembered violence) to romance. The characters in Two Rogues are not meant to save or fix each other. They can't. The past can't be undone. Certain conditions can't be cured (in the nineteenth century). But they can meet each other halfway. 

Will and Martin are a little different from other such characters since they are both, being rogues, willing to burn down the world for each other. But that burning-down-the-world doesn't extend to riding inside someone else's skin. Love--as I point out often on this blog--is about accepting a person where/who that person is, not trying to mold them into something else for their own good. (I separate "interventions" over drug addiction from "but I wish you had a different career"--see below.) 

There is a line (as when Martin is too sick to make decisions) and Sebastian honestly tackles that line as well as honestly tackling the problem of status and money. Like KJ Charles, Sebastian doesn't present love as so grand, lifestyle disappears as a factor. It must be tackled directly. 

Martin accepts that his skills and health only take him so far. He also learns, however, that he can live on £50 a year (historical "salaries" are incredibly difficult to figure: £50 a year is about $5,000 - $10,000, so not a great deal but more than enough for someone living in a cottage who doesn't have to pay rent for the cottage itself and who spend that same amount on buy 7 bushels of wheat, which is equivalent to 30 bags of flour. And since he is living with Will, who may bring in about the same amount, they will do fine! 

But they had to learn they could, not assume they could.