The second installment in Scarlett Peckham’s Society of Sirens came out this week!! And it was excellent!! And I think everyone should read this series!!
I would love to leave this there, but there’s this word count I’m supposed to hit for this to count, so I suppose I’ll give y’all a little more.
This series is about “fallen” women who have decided to accept, embrace, and use their tarnished reputations to improve the situation for all women. The heroine of the first, the Rakess herself, is loosely based on Mary Wollstonecraft. The lead in the second is Black, the result of an unexpected love match and marriage between a British aristocrat and a formerly enslaved woman from Barbados. Both books deal with society’s expectations and double standards. The women are strong and independent and intelligent and talented. And the men they happen to fall in love with respect and admire them for it, even when every expectation and tradition is thrown out the window.
Both books do contain sexually explicit scenes – I know not everyone’s cuppa, but these are done so well. They are sexy and unconventional and show the many ways people can love each other…and occasionally others. They also serve as important markers for character development, as the best sorts of relationships allow us to become more fully ourselves.
And I suppose that is what I admire so much about Peckham’s work. She always manages to write blisteringly hot couples and swoony romances, but even more, she writes deeply complex and interesting characters. I love a good trope-fest romcom or a quick and filthy novella, but I’ve always felt that some romance novels rise above genre and become genuinely thoughtful studies on people and relationships and vulnerability and love and sexuality and society. This is one of those series for me.
