Sleight of Hand by Katrina Strauss

[reviews_and_ramblings]

At the beginning of the twenty century a family of three, mother, brother and sister are travelling by train to reach the future husband of the young woman. It's not a marriage of love, but an agreement: the older man will provide a comfortable home to the two women and will pay the tuition for the young man, too weak and bad illness to sustain himself and his family. It's years that Edwin is weak in body as in mind, having continuous nightmares that don't allow him to sleep and subsequently worsening his health.

Then at one of the stop the train couples up a private car, that of Sir Marco Sartori, "illusionist, hypnotist and spiritualist extraordinaire", who also offers "tonics and restoratives to cure what ails you". Edwin is drawn both by the man than by his written promises: maybe if this man could heal him, his sister Alma would be not forced to marry a man older than their late father.

Indeed Sartori takes good care of Edwin, immediately understanding what is the "disease" of the young man, and what causes him to not sleep at night; with a simple hypnosis, Edwin reveals his desire for men, and for Sartori in particular, and Sartori is more than ready to seduce Edwin and to benefit of his innocence.

Till now the story could be well a nice and interesting historical gay romance, but there is the problem of Edwin's family, of its maintenance, and the other usual problem in tales like this of the quite impossible situation of living as two male lovers in that age. Katrina Strauss chooses the paranormal way, and I don't spoil the story, since it's in the blurb of the book the publisher decided to post, but for me it's only a nice and "believable" end (for how much believable could be a paranormal twist) to a very nice story. Truth be told, I didn't feel necessary the paranormal twist, probably I would preferred an improbable happily ever after for a "pure" historical romance.

Anyway the setting in a travelling train, and the description of Edwin's past life are really interesting and original, being Edwin not the usual strong and invincible hero, but not being neither a "female in disguise" type of character; on the other hand, Sartori is only hinted (don't forget that the story is only 50 pages long), but when he enters the scene I almost could see the colors and the sparks, and the cheering of the public... he has all the fascinating aurea of Houdini, maybe helped in this by the really nice cover by Anne Cain, almost too pretty for an ebook short story... I hope that the publisher will release something else by the same author and will use that cover for a print edition, it's not often that I see covers that deserve a space on a bookstore shelf.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/sleight-of-hand

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain

Comments

[aelfwitchfic.livejournal.com]

Your review on this story intrigued me...I love historical romances, even more so if they are combined with some male/male characters.

You are right, sometimes in historical dramas, it is difficult to picture the happy ending since realistically their type of affair would not be tolerated in society's eyes...few have been able to maintain that level of relationship without being ostracized...

Im not sure if Holmes and Watson count, but they would make an adorable couple and they did many things together during that era yet no one really questioned it...of course, it was not really implied they were lovers either...am I making sense? *laughs*

So those two living together did not really raise too many eyebrows, but I see your point on how in norm society, it might.

I too enjoy the happy endings and those are my favorite kind of conclusions, even if they arent realistic...the sad, despairing ones just leave me feeling depressed and I want so much for the characters to get back together...not sure how you feel about that? :) So I agree with you on maybe not historical correct but yeah for happy ending :)

I also agree with you on the cover art for this story, its what drew my attention to your beautiful review.

I will definitely be putting this on my list of 'to get'

Akasha ^V^

By the way, the art for your icon...do you have the graphic book that came from? There are some beautiful illustrations in that art book :)

[byanca-silver.livejournal.com]

This was a really interesting review. I'm so happy that I found your page with such yummy treats.
I have to read this story.

Thank you.

[muroku.livejournal.com]

I just got a postcard featuring the cover of SLEIGHT OF HAND (^_^).

http://yaoiandyuri.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/my-collection/