So I finally got my hands on a copy of Michelle Martin's Pembroke Park (Naiad Press, 1986), which holds the distinction of being the first traditionally published lesbian Regency romance.
Here's the back of the book:
When Lady Joanna Sinclair meets Lady Diana March on horseback and clad in male attire, she is outraged. Such bizarre behavior is simply unacceptable in Herefordshire!
But she is irresistibly drawn to the headstrong Diana, whose eccentricity cloaks a mysterious darkness in her past. And Joanna learns that Diana's coterie of "unusual" friends has among them her own brother-in-law, who is in headlong pursuit of the beautiful and elusive Geoffrey.
Under Diana's influence, falling ever more deeply in love with her, Joanna asserts her independence from her brother, the arrogant and overbearing Hugo, who vows to subdue both of these defiant women. But Hugo is up against more than he bargains for in Lady Diana March...
Engaging and erotic, this colorful novel portrays England's regency period when, regardless of wealth or title, to love one's own sex was a risk taken only by the most daring...
Okay, so Joanna is a widow of independent means thanks to her late husband's inheritance and her brother-in-law Richard's continued support. While not wealthy, she does own three small estates scattered throughout England and is able to live comfortably by renting these properties out when she is not occupying them. She has a daughter, Molly, who is in that indeterminate "moppet" age range, and appears to suffer from lying-in-bed-and-looking-wan disease, an affliction that ravaged literary England throughout the 1800's.
When the story opens, Joanna is staying in her family's estate, which is headed by her brother Hugo and a Dreadful Aunt. I don't remember The Aunt's name, but if you put Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha in a Regency gown, that's pretty much how I was picturing her. The entire point of Hugo and The Aunt is to represent The Patriarchy, or, more precisely, The Straights. And no, they are not okay.
Hugo managed to lose Pembroke Park's dowager house in a wager before the book started. And promptly forgot about it, which is why he is so shocked to discover that it has not only been purchased, but is also being renovated -- by a woman! And a wealthy, titled heiress at that! The only thing more attractive than her 30,000 pounds-per-year income is that title, as Hugo is afflicted with a chronic case of Peer Envy. So he sets out to court the scandalous, eccentric, plain-featured Lady Diana.
Meanwhile, Our Heroine Joanna, has already met Diana and been thoroughly shocked by her. Shocked and appalled. Shocked, appalled, and flabbergasted. Shocked, appalled, flabbergasted, and... strangely intrigued? Joanna vows to stay away from her strange neighbor (and the stranger feelings said neighbor stirs up), only her Adorable Moppet daughter thinks that Diana is The Best, and, well, she kind of is...
So, yeah. It was a fun read! The story was straightforward, with the leading ladies' mutual pining doing most of the narrative work. The chemistry between Joanna and Diana felt organic and natural, and Diana's interactions with Joanna's daughter Molly were some of my favorite scenes in the book. There was a strong QUEER GOOD, STRAIGHTS BAD undercurrent, as the only straight person in the entire novel who was given any redeeming qualities at all was Joanna's dead husband, who had loved her in a very devoted but milquetoast fashion until he died of terminal plot contrivances. The men, in particular, were portrayed as particularly loathsome (The author self-describes as a radical feminist in the forward, and in the acknowledgements mentions a male friend as "the only Good Man" or something similar, so I wasn't exactly surprised), and it was really fun seeing them cut down to size in the end.
The sex scenes were... bad. Like, bad-fanfic bad. Trite, emotionless, weirdly described... I mean I was already concerned when one of the ladies had a pining-induced dream in which she went swimming in the ocean and wound up molested by animate seaweed. Which was supposed to be sexy. ...Look, maybe just skip the sex scenes.
The ending was odd. You get your standard Romance HEA, but then it's like the author realized "okay wait but this is still supposed to be actual 1810's England" sothe lesbian couple and the gay couple wind up negotiating to marry and become one another's beards when the book just... stops. Almost mid-conversation. <-- spoiler tagged because ending.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it and would likely read it again if I had it in ebook form instead of having to turn pages like a cavewoman.
Here's the back of the book:
When Lady Joanna Sinclair meets Lady Diana March on horseback and clad in male attire, she is outraged. Such bizarre behavior is simply unacceptable in Herefordshire!
But she is irresistibly drawn to the headstrong Diana, whose eccentricity cloaks a mysterious darkness in her past. And Joanna learns that Diana's coterie of "unusual" friends has among them her own brother-in-law, who is in headlong pursuit of the beautiful and elusive Geoffrey.
Under Diana's influence, falling ever more deeply in love with her, Joanna asserts her independence from her brother, the arrogant and overbearing Hugo, who vows to subdue both of these defiant women. But Hugo is up against more than he bargains for in Lady Diana March...
Engaging and erotic, this colorful novel portrays England's regency period when, regardless of wealth or title, to love one's own sex was a risk taken only by the most daring...
Okay, so Joanna is a widow of independent means thanks to her late husband's inheritance and her brother-in-law Richard's continued support. While not wealthy, she does own three small estates scattered throughout England and is able to live comfortably by renting these properties out when she is not occupying them. She has a daughter, Molly, who is in that indeterminate "moppet" age range, and appears to suffer from lying-in-bed-and-looking-wan disease, an affliction that ravaged literary England throughout the 1800's.
When the story opens, Joanna is staying in her family's estate, which is headed by her brother Hugo and a Dreadful Aunt. I don't remember The Aunt's name, but if you put Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha in a Regency gown, that's pretty much how I was picturing her. The entire point of Hugo and The Aunt is to represent The Patriarchy, or, more precisely, The Straights. And no, they are not okay.
Hugo managed to lose Pembroke Park's dowager house in a wager before the book started. And promptly forgot about it, which is why he is so shocked to discover that it has not only been purchased, but is also being renovated -- by a woman! And a wealthy, titled heiress at that! The only thing more attractive than her 30,000 pounds-per-year income is that title, as Hugo is afflicted with a chronic case of Peer Envy. So he sets out to court the scandalous, eccentric, plain-featured Lady Diana.
Meanwhile, Our Heroine Joanna, has already met Diana and been thoroughly shocked by her. Shocked and appalled. Shocked, appalled, and flabbergasted. Shocked, appalled, flabbergasted, and... strangely intrigued? Joanna vows to stay away from her strange neighbor (and the stranger feelings said neighbor stirs up), only her Adorable Moppet daughter thinks that Diana is The Best, and, well, she kind of is...
So, yeah. It was a fun read! The story was straightforward, with the leading ladies' mutual pining doing most of the narrative work. The chemistry between Joanna and Diana felt organic and natural, and Diana's interactions with Joanna's daughter Molly were some of my favorite scenes in the book. There was a strong QUEER GOOD, STRAIGHTS BAD undercurrent, as the only straight person in the entire novel who was given any redeeming qualities at all was Joanna's dead husband, who had loved her in a very devoted but milquetoast fashion until he died of terminal plot contrivances. The men, in particular, were portrayed as particularly loathsome (The author self-describes as a radical feminist in the forward, and in the acknowledgements mentions a male friend as "the only Good Man" or something similar, so I wasn't exactly surprised), and it was really fun seeing them cut down to size in the end.
The sex scenes were... bad. Like, bad-fanfic bad. Trite, emotionless, weirdly described... I mean I was already concerned when one of the ladies had a pining-induced dream in which she went swimming in the ocean and wound up molested by animate seaweed. Which was supposed to be sexy. ...Look, maybe just skip the sex scenes.
The ending was odd. You get your standard Romance HEA, but then it's like the author realized "okay wait but this is still supposed to be actual 1810's England" sothe lesbian couple and the gay couple wind up negotiating to marry and become one another's beards when the book just... stops. Almost mid-conversation. <-- spoiler tagged because ending.
Overall, I quite enjoyed it and would likely read it again if I had it in ebook form instead of having to turn pages like a cavewoman.