Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Unfit to Print
AUTHOR: K.J. Charles
PUBLISHER: KJC Books
LENGTH: 185 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 10, 2018
BLURB:
When crusading lawyer Vikram Pandey sets out in search of a missing youth, his investigations take him to Holywell Street, London’s most notorious address. He expects to find a disgraceful array of sordid bookshops. He doesn’t expect one of them to be run by the long-lost friend whose disappearance and presumed death he’s been mourning for thirteen years.
Gil Lawless became a Holywell Street bookseller for his own reasons, and he’s damned if he’s going to apologise or listen to moralising from anyone. Not even Vikram; not even if the once-beloved boy has grown into a man who makes his mouth water.
Now the upright lawyer and the illicit bookseller need to work together to track down the missing youth. And on the way, they may even learn if there’s more than just memory and old affection binding them together…
REVIEW:
Vikram Pandey, a lawyer set on righting the wrongs of the world–especially those against the Indian immigrants who have made their new homes in London–has been asked by a client to help find their missing son. Vikram knows that the chances of the boy being found are small, considering that the young man had most likely been selling himself to help the family get by after his father was injured, but at the very least he can maybe give the family the comfort of an answer. Even in the answer comes in the form of a body to bury. But Vikram was not expecting to have his own past dragged out of the grave in the form of his first love, Gil Lawless. A man who disappeared from his life in a blink over a decade ago, and whom Vikram had thought dead for most, if not all, of the absence. No longer the vivacious boy who lived at Vikram’s side, Gil is far more jaded, carefree in only the way a man who knows what it feels like to lose everything can be, and the proprietor of a bookshop that sells all the risque–and illegal–products on paper you could ever want. Now Vikram has to not only try and find the young man who has gone missing without a trace, but to confront his feelings for the boy-turned-man whose shocking exit can only be topped by his sudden return to Vikram’s life.
Yeah, this is just…*happy sigh*
I’ve long been a fan of K.J. Charles’ historical novels. Her more fantastical works were my gateway drug, but I have come to deeply appreciate and love her more grounded historical stories as of late. Especially when she opens up the time period to lives I find far more compelling than your average surly Duke and love-forsworn Miss…or Mister. Always wonderfully researched, her novels have an excellent mix of historical fact and compelling characters. And, yes, the fact that I can find historical novels set in this time period that are not set on showing exclusively white protagonists is more than enough reason for me to gobble up these stories every time one comes along. That I find the characters well crafted, the stories enticing, the romances electrifying, and the mysteries engaging is probably why they make excellent rereads.
This book is no exception, either.
Both Vikram and Gil made for very inviting main characters. Both have a unique feel to them, and their backstories were well layered into to the story so that it added to the plot and the romance without info-dumping you into boredom. I never once wished we would only stick with one of them, because they were both so easy to read about, and the back and forth between povs felt natural but also knew when to keep certain facts in the background so as to have the reveal come when it was due. And I really liked how the whole “I thought you were dead for over a decade!” thing was handled. Both Vikram and Gil had clear and understandable reasons for doing what they did, and no one person bears the blame for their lost connection. Well…ok, I would totally blame one person, though his death preceding the start of the story makes my desire to brain him with a very large book rather pointless. Also, he is fictional character. That probably doesn’t help things much.
My only real complaint about this story is how light the mystery was here. A lot of the focus was on Gil and Vikram, so the majority of the page time is devoted to them. I don’t exactly want to have lost any of their interactions, but it would have been nice to have just a tad more focus shifted to finding out what happened to the young man Vikram was looking for. The search as is, was interesting enough, but it was clearly the B-plot. And while the romance was absolutely lovely, the mystery could have been a bit better, is all.
If you have enjoyed Charles’ historical romances in the past, I do think you will find this to be yet another enjoyable addition to her back-catalog. And if you haven’t, but are a fan of Regency-era romances, I can easily recommend this. Not a lot of sitting-rooms and balls (erm, not dress-up kind, anyways), but the sense of place and people is incredibly compelling. This was an easy read, and a wonderful story.
RATING: 
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