This historical romance is a very good surprise
Sometimes review requests turn out to be excellent surprises. Sixpenny Octavo is my first book by Annick Trent and, I believe, the author’s first f/f story (there’s an m/m book set in the same universe but both are standalone so far). I loved it and am looking forward to a novella coming out this summer in the same series.
In the 1790s, Britain is a country torn apart by suspicion and distrust, the men in power wary of contagion from the rebellious French neighbour. Hannah Croft’s best friend and business partner Molly is in jail after the pub where their book club was meeting at the same time as Jacobins was raided. Lucy Boone’s testimony could save her, but the housemaid is reluctant to put herself in the spotlight of Justice again, after having been called on for her employer’s trial.
Sixpenny Octavo would make an excellent historical film or TV series, someone at the BBC should take a look. It reads extremely easily, and the characters are sweet and relatable. The nice ones. The villains are despicable, but not all are in plain sight.
The romance grows organically, slowly, with angst mostly due to the times, not so much because of morals as the lack of representation. In that regard and in others, the importance of books in this story, of reading, to oneself or to others, is one of the things I loved most. It also resonates in a deeper manner at a time when in some places, books are again getting banned.
I also appreciate that most of the characters are ordinary people, working-class people. Lucy is a housemaid (at least at the beginning of the book), Hannah is a clockmender. The book club treasurer is a tailor. Each character has a raison d’être in the story and even the most secondary ones are sufficiently fleshed-out. The pacing worked perfectly for me, as well. In other circumstances, I probably would have read this book in one sitting, it flows so smoothly, even with the details necessary to establish the era and surroundings. And despite the dire circumstances in which the characters meet, the book itself and the romance arc are heartwarming. 4.5 stars.
