I got After the Wedding from Courtney Milan when I donated to a trans rights charity she was matching donations for. It was very exciting! And it’s signed by her! It’s a Courtney Milan book, so it was a very interesting historical romance, set right after the Civil War.
The book takes place in England, Adrian Hunter has a black father and a white mother who sound devoted to each other but are not introduced. Maybe in a future story? Camilla Worth is high society who has a very dramatic falling out with her family and now works as a maid. They are set up to be compromised and forced to marry. Then they can’t have fun sexy times or the marriage won’t be able to be annulled.
I really like that Adrian is a working man with a factory producing china and employees and not just a gentleman. And I LOVED the plates that he designs for Camilla. Who knew that plates could be so romantic? I really liked the interactions Adrian has with his design team.
I didn’t like reading about how Camilla is repeatedly gaslight and browbeaten to feel like she is not a person worthy of a loving marriage, but it was interesting. There is an entire interesting discussion to be had about how the church used religion and virtue to subjugate women. It wasn’t pleasant, but of course her triumphing above that made it worthwhile.
The book seems to set up two future books, one with Camilla’s younger sister looking for her long lost sister, and one with Adrian’s brother, Grayson. Theresa, Camilla’s sister is off on an adventure with her grandmother. She has also been lied to her entire life. There is a lot of gaslighting in this book. But it also has two main characters who take their time falling in love and have sizzling chemistry. I really liked it.