perkynihilist

Two recent historical romances, both featuring two working class protagonists. I know both authors, which I take to be a sign of my exquisite taste in friends and acquaintances.


Alison McKenzie, The Blacksmith's Bride (2025)

Elizabeth finds herself pregnant by her local lord, and thereby at grave risk of punishment for bearing a child out of wedlock. Happily, her childhood friend Matthew, who works in the nearby town and has been carrying a torch for her for years, is willing to marry her, thus kicking off a quiet and lovely marriage-of-convenience to love-match arc. Elizabeth, who has endured years of emotional abuse at her mother's hands, and who has poured all of her wherewithal into protecting her younger siblings from their mother, has to learn to make herself open and vulnerable to love. Meanwhile, Matthew, has to learn to temper his protective streak: when it is wise to speak out and when it isn't, and to respect his loved ones' decisions on their own behalves, however much he yearns to thrash anyone who is cruel to them.

Set two years after the Peasants Revolt of 1381, there's a good deal here about trying to safely navigate the whims of those with wealth and power. To marry, Elizabeth must first get the permission of her lord, who stands to lose both her labor and that of her future child. Likewise, Elizabeth's efforts to save her younger brothers from their mother's abuse must take into account their lord's interest in the boys' economic value. Meanwhile, Matthew's sister, who married up into the merchant class, is thrown upon the mercy of her husband's family after his death. But while everyone is subject to the whims of wealthy and powerful men, no one is powerless, either: there is space for cleverness, and the possibility of carving out a tolerable space for oneself in the larger system.

The Blacksmith's Bride is billed as the first in a series, and I'm looking forward to reading the next, whoever it centers. But I'm hoping the second book will feature Matthew's sister and his best friend: I'd enjoy seeing Isabel's pov centered and her getting a happier ending than she manages here; I'd likewise enjoy seeing the feckless Roger buckle down to the task of making Isabel happy -- God knows, she deserves some happiness.


Annick Trent, By Marsh and By Moor (2025)

Jed is a deserted pressed sailor, desperate to return to his family, village, and former career. Within minutes of washing up on the beach, he falls in with Solomon, who, in addition to aiding Jed in his escape, is also helping a friend escape an abusive former lover. Unhappily for all, the former officer turns out to be in charge of the local press gang.

I've been eagerly looking forward to this volume since I first learned it would be about a pressed sailor, and it did not disappoint. The textural details are lovely, as is the lived-in-ness of their lives. Both Jed and Solomon have prior lives and entanglements, so no matter how smoothly and naturally they come together in the liminal in-between now, they each have loyalties and desires that complicate a more lasting partnership.

Along those lines, I liked how messy things got:

spoilers

At a key moment, Solomon betrays Jed, giving way his position to the press gang, but it holds up as a tactical calculation: Jed would likely eventually have been found in any case, but by giving up Jed right then, Solomon created a distraction for Wallace to get away -- and Wallace having his liberty ennabled him to rescue the other two later. One of the three having his liberty is undeniably a better tactical position than none of the three, and it's easy to see why Solomon chose it -- even if he didn't already feel protective of Wallace, even without a solid plan in mind for Jed's own escape, it was still the smart move.

And yet there is no denying how cold-blooded a betrayal that felt to Jed, hearing Solomon choose Wallace's liberty over Jed's; no denying how it intensified every weakness and insecurity in the relationship between the two. Jed, after all, didn't see them as a trio. Instead, ever since they first met, Wallace had been Solomon's first loyalty, sometimes to the detriment of his relationship with Jed. Of course this felt like more of the same!

Naturally, that moment sandbagged any further opportunity for Jed and Solomon to work as a team during their capture and imprisonment -- especially with the pressers determined to prevent them working as a team! But I did like how things ultimately worked out -- and liked, likewise, Solomon acknowledging that it had been hugely presumptuous for him to make that decision for all three of them, and that Jed had every right to feel as he did.

While we're talking about spoilers:

a man and his horse

I did very much want a tender reunion between Jed and Bess. I'm down with Jed not returning to his former village and profession -- he had been fantasizing about a world in which those five years of impressment had never happened, and I'm glad he finally came to grips with the impossibility of that. But I would have liked him to have a tender moment alone with his horse.

ETA: Bess is okay! She seems to be well taken care of by the guy who currently has her. No need to worry about Bess! I just wanted Jed to feed her an apple and share a nuzzle with her -- whatever it is you do with horses.