This is the best book I've read in ages... and a perfect example of the old adage: "Don't judge a book by its cover."
LISTEN TO THE MOON has, hands down, one of the worst covers I've ever beheld. It's halfway between a cheap children's book and a trashy regency title. The fake plastic tiara, the total absence of any attempt at color correction, the bland gaze and awkward pose of the model, the frilly font. And by the way: the cover has NOTHING to do with the actual book. The heroine is a maid, the hero a valet-turned-butler, and I just have no idea why this premise warranted the picture of a girl wearing a dollar-tree prom dress.
Everything in this cover makes me angry, makes my blood boil... because it sits like a turd atop the finest strawberry shortcake, spoiling and concealing the delights that lie underneath.
LISTEN TO THE MOON is one of the best historical romances I've ever read. It's probably now #2 of my personal hit list, right behind DEVIL IN WINTER.
It earns its first star by taking us downstairs for once, as the novel follows the encounter between down-on-his-luck valet John Toogood and no-nonsense, brittle yet plucky maid-of-all-works Sukey Grimes.
Having served an influential aristocratic family all his life, John just lost his job without a character, for abetting his former employer's romance with a commoner. Sukey works long days in a modest boarding house until her bully of a boss fires her for eating--stealing!--not one but TWO brandy-soaked raisins.
When an opportunity arises for John to become the butler of the parish vicar under the condition that he be married, he and Sukey act on their budding attraction in order to get new jobs and a roof over their heads. But John is nearly twice Sukey's age, and they each come with their own emotional baggage, in a world where servants are to be seen but never heard.
The second star, I give to the character study that is this book: I kept wondering, as I read, whether Rose Lerner is a psychologist by day. Everything is just so finely, finely weaved. No shortcuts, no easy feelings: this is one of the most accurate portrayal of humanity I've ever read in a romance, especially for a genre where ham-fisted characterization abounds. John and Sukey are both flawed and likable, and their chemistry jumps off the pages.
Speaking of chemistry: the third star is for the sex: I've grown tired of blushing virgins who supposedly have no idea where their own clitoris is (it's ten inches up their uterus, right next to their hymen). Here are real people. People who think about sex in a realistic way, who masturbate, who have fantastic chemistry but don't always manage to have perfect sex, especially since they have to wake up at 5:30 to get to work.
Fourth star for the overall cast of characters and the way Lerner balances their flaws and always sidesteps clichés. Except perhaps for one character who never actually appears on-page, there's no actual villain in this book: only deeply-flawed people, some weathered by a lifetime of making the wrong choices, others embittered by past trauma, or yet too inexperienced to wrestle their emotions and the scope of their words and decisions.
Fifth star for the writing and meticulous research: Rose Lerner writes life a MOFO, without pathos or purple prose, but always with exquisite accuracy and just the right amount of empathy to make us connect to her characters.
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