Prosperity

Wow! Reading this book was an amazing experience. It's a fantastic book, with a lot of depth, and I'm sure I'll be rereading it many, many times. I'm so happy that a book like this even exists.

It seems like a lot of the other reviewers here found the language off-putting. I loved the narration style and thought it was a lot of fun, but English is my native language and I've been devouring British historicals lately, which gave me a pretty good handle on things. But I still googled a decent amount of words, and I can definitely see that the style wouldn't be for everyone.

Piccadilly was absolutely lovable, but I enjoyed all the characters, even Milord, but especially Byron Kae. The plot and world-building were both top-notch. The sex scenes were long and extraordinarily hot, yet I wouldn't classify this novel as erotic romance. To me, it's primarily an adventure story.

Finally, while there was a lot of humor in this book, I have to take a moment to recognize this hilarious reference, which made me laugh out loud for a solid ten minutes:

“Many harpoons,” called out Miss Grey. “Handle them.”

Yeah. (video has NSFW language).

What a unique, funny, poignant book - all delivered in an unforgettable (although sometimes difficult to parse) voice. After reading Alexis Hall's debut, Glitterland, I can easily say he doesn't write the same character twice! This is an author who loves language and uses each word brilliantly. At various times I felt like I was reading Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange and Oliver Twist if any of those classics featured people of color, homosexuals and genderqueers (if that's the correct term).

I read a review on a romance novel blog that indicated this is not a romance novel. Well, not on a traditional level that involves the protagonist, but there is a beautiful, tormented love story between two secondary characters, and our singular narrator finds his own happily ever after, if your definition of HEA means finding your place in the world and people who make you want to become your best possible self, whatever that may be.