Heart of Stone

This is a beautiful and very slow-paced romance novel, and I recommend it enthusiastically. It feels luxuriant. Two interesting characters surprise themselves by falling in love with each other, and there is a lot of very intense and detailed pining.

I can't really speak to the ADHD or autism representation, because I have neither diagnosis, but it seemed very respectful, as well as affirming, in that both MCs love aspects of the other that society tends to pathologize. I also liked all the side characters; this is the kind of book where it's easy to imagine them all living full lives off the page. I always enjoy that.

I think this author is at the start of his career and I know this is his first full-length novel. I enjoyed it very much, but I feel it would've benefited from better proofreading and possibly better editing. I'm not sure on that last point, because I was fully on board for the whole thing, personally. But it really is an extremely slow-burn romance.

Man, I wish more romance novels was written like this one. This book is the epitome of slow burn romance and while I could wish for a slightly earlier resolution (more on that later), I still gotta say I loved the slow burn. For all its supernatural and period trappings, this was at its heart (hah) a novel really about two people trying to fall in love from a great distance, and how they overcame each hurdle along the way.

The writing was indeed beautiful and while it probably wasn't particularly true to a 18th century writing style, it was just elaborate enough to set the tone but without being distractingly obnoxious about it.

But the best part of this book is really its character work, and especially surrounding our protagonists, Henry Coffey and his secretary Theophilus Essex. Finally, we have a romance novel that isn't just about insta-love or insta-lust. We have time to get to know our protagonists slowly but engagingly. We see their initial relationship, the coldness and austerity of Theophilus contrasted against the bouncing cheerfulness of Henry, and we're there on the journey as the ice between them thaws.

The side characters are really just afterthoughts here but I have no complaints about that. This is a romance novel after all and I have no issue with the romance taking all the time and attention in the story, rather than sacrificing development time just to build up side characters.

The ending was satisfying enough, although I did have some issues: I actually would've preferred it if Henry and Theo had instead gotten together perhaps around the 75% mark or so instead of right at the end. While I enjoyed it, I didn't just want to see them physically get together at last by the end. I wanted to see how they would navigate through the idea of being in a relationship, with one immortal who is hardly used to being with anyone at all and another man barely past his mid-20s who is only just coming to terms with his sexuality and then learning about vampirism and the world of magic. Plus, both of them have to somehow reconcile themselves with the fact that their relationship kinda sorta started off as that of an employer and his secretary. That's a whole lot of stuff to work through and unlikely something that gratuitous sex can just magick away. I'm personally also invested in not just the way a relationship starts but also how it continues, and would love to see that in more romance novels. However, that doesn't quite detract away from the merits of this novel and I'd heartily (hah) recommend this to really just about anyone who loves some slow burn romance.

Far better than I was expecting; a very readable romance. Definitely a slow-burn, but one that the witty dialog easily carries the reader through.

One oddity worth mentioning is the page layout, which presents each paragraph almost in isolation, with only one or two per page. Although this initially seemed an idiosyncratic choice, I actually found that it worked in the book's favour as it gave each paragraph greater emphasis, which in turn gave the dialogues added weight.