Review: Seducing Stephen by Bonnie Dee and Summer Devon

As many of you probably know, before I read m/m romance I went through a four year period where I read only m/f historicals (mostly from the 18th and 19th century). I felt a comfortable sense of familiarity then as I started to read Seducing Stephen, one that took a delightful turn into the ususual as the book progressed.

The book begins with our hero, Stephen, being woken up in the middle of the night by a drunken earl, Peter, who has mistakenly arrived at the country house of his friends, the Pratts, on the wrong date.  Peter thinks it's the weekend of one of the Pratt's debauched parties, and that Stephen has been left in the bed of his usual chamber by his hosts for his enjoyment.  Unfortunately this isn't the case as Stephen is actually a friend of the Pratt's son, Brian, and is on a visit from Cambridge.  After beginning a seduction of young Stephen, Peter quickly realises his mistake and attempts to leave.  So far, so familiar.  It's at this point, when usually the shy miss will be left alone in the bed to recover her shocked sensibilities, that events veer off from that familiarity.  Stephen has known for a while that he is attracted to men and now the perfect opportunity to test out that attraction has literally landed in his bed.  He makes it known to Peter that his attentions are not unwelcome and the two men then spend time together over the next few days with Stephen a willing student in the arts of gay sex.  Unfortunately, events conspire against them and the two men have to part.

I have to admit that the greatest attraction of this book for me was in the comparisons I could make between what I know of m/f historicals and how the events in this book mirrored or differed from that knowledge.  I've already mentioned one difference from the first few pages of the book, but there were plenty of other examples.  Stephen seems to be the epitome of the innocent miss.  His sheltered background, pretty looks and innate shyness reinforces that idea.  However, under that exterior Stephen is a man who knows what he wants.  He hopes for an engineering career in bridge building and he wants Peter with a passion that borders on obsession.  When Peter rejects Stephen, he hides his broken heart in work and meaningless sexual encounters, gaining experience of the circumspect life of the Victorian gay man.  I liked the fact that Stephen grew and developed as a character over the course of the novel as he loses the sweet boyish innocence and becomes a man.

This then contrasted with Peter who follows a more traditional and recognisable route.  If Stephen is the blushing virgin miss, then Peter is the wealthy, titled rake who spends his life in the the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure.  Peter's encounter and rejection of Stephen is done for a good reason - to protect Stephen from his poisonous reputation - but leads to Peter becoming disillusioned with his life.  It's the old story of the rake brought low by the love of a virgin, but the m/m setting and complex characters lent this story a freshness which I found quite delightful.  I also liked the way that the two men represent the different facets of society which were prevalent during the Victorian period.  Peter represents the aristocracy whose presence in society is very much on the wane after the excesses of the Regency period.  Stephen is the from the 'grasping middle class' and much of his enthusiasm about life is based on his love of engineering.  There's no longer such a stigma behind the two men being friends as there may have been in the past, but there is a definite feeling that it is Stephen that has the ideas and bright future, whereas Peter is comfortable with his title and old money, leading to a sense of ennui and lack of enthusiasm about life.  The bright spark of Stephen helps to lift Peter out of the gloom, another part of the book which I liked a great deal.

Interwoven with the main thrust of the romantic plot are themes such as duty, reputation and surviving as a gay man in a society where exposure or even a hint of scandal would lead to censure and possibly imprisonment.  It's always difficult in an m/m historical to strike a balance between a romantic HEA and a believable ending for the time period.  I don't want to give too much away but I felt that this book managed to balance that in a realistic way.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and even a couple of annoying US vocab mistakes (bangs instead of fringe and ass instead of arse) didn't dampen my enjoyment of this book.  If you like historicals then I would highly recommend that you read Seducing Stephen, which gets a grade of 'Excellent' from me.  You won't regret it.

Buy this book HERE.