First impression review: The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite
I am not really a romance novel reader – no shade to those who are, it just usually isn’t my thing! But how could I resist one that is about women in STEM in a historical setting?
Setup: Lucy Muchelney is feeling really low because her lover jilted her for a man and, due to her father’s death, she’s not sure she’ll be able to continue her astronomical work. But then she gets a letter from her dad's former patron, Lady Moth, looking for a translator for a French astronomy text. Lucy shows up in London to request the job, and she and Lady Moth (Catherine) end up falling for one another. I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed this, with just a few nitpicks.
Lucy and Catherine’s relationship is well-written. They each have psychological wounds – Lucy the rejection by her first serious love, Catherine the abusive behavior of her deceased husband – that impact them and their interactions in believable ways. This slows things down enough to not feel too insta-love…though I must confess being a little confused about whether Catherine already knew she was bisexual or not. Some details suggest “no”, but she also immediately identifies her feelings for Lucy as attraction and doesn’t seem surprised by that. Which doesn’t really jive with my experience of figuring that out that part of myself1…but maybe it reflects the author’s! Anyway, the main misunderstanding that arises makes total sense given their histories and their difference in social status. However, they are never cruel to one another and, indeed, try to be mindful of those issues as much as they can. Catherine being so confused when Lucy said that, if she felt unsure about anything in the bedroom, they could just stop (like “Really? And you won’t mind?”) kind of broke my heart! Speaking of which, this is NOT one of those sapphic books that just fades to black; It had degree of detail that was nicely spicy without getting tedious2. And the way they support each other’s interests and talents is really sweet.
1. There was years of: “Well, sure I think girls are pretty. But I’m sure everyone thinks that – it’s just an objective fact! So, this must be…aesthetic appreciation? Sure, let’s go with that.” And then: “OK, so I’m going to deliberately notice everyone I think is attractive, as an experiment. Oh, HELLO witchy New Orleans tour guide lady! Wait…” (After some pondering, experiment continues, flagging man, woman, woman, man, gender-ambiguous person…) “Huh. Actually, that explains a lot, now that I think about it!”
2. Again, a little confused at how good Catherine is at getting a woman off on her first try…but, then, given how unsatisfactory her marriage was, maybe she got a lot of practice on herself.
However, the character who sold me on this book was actually “Aunt Kelmarsh”. This botanically-inclined widow clever enough to send Catherine coded messages in the language of flowers is the kind of old lady I’d want to be! And finding out that she was in love with Catherine’s mother, and built a memorial grotto for her out of her shell collections3? And that she runs a salon (the Friendly Philosophical Society) that includes some ladies (or maybe not?) more comfortable in waistcoats than gowns? I was like: “Hooray! The MCs actually have a network of queer elders to support them! Hallelujah!” But…then she kind of drops out most of the rest of the story. The same thing happens again with Lucy’s old friend Peter Violet, a low-born artist who is desperately in love with another of her brother’s friends, a Mr. Banerjee. I REALLY wanted to learn more about them…and then we never hear from them again after that exhibit! Maybe that’s because ANY of them, if they knew about the misunderstanding part of the plot, would have been able to explain the issue to the main characters and fix it within about five minutes.
3.“’Mother would love it,’ she said softly, and was rewarded when Aunt Kelmarsh set her mouth and coughed as if to pretend it was not tears tickling the back of her throat. Lucy paused… ‘You must miss her very much.’…Aunt Kelmarsh sent her one flicker of a glance-and straightened, lifting her chin in the air. ‘She was my very soul.’” Gaah! Can we get a prequel with Mama and Auntie, please?
I suspect that is a common feature of romance novels, though; the point of the story is the central couple, so other characters may not get the level of development that is favored in other genres. However, I did like the “talented women supporting other talented women” theme! Besides Aunt Kelmarsh, we also meet Mrs. Griffin, a skilled and very pragmatic print-maker; she and the MCs benefit each other in several ways, and she ends up taking on the butler’s daughter as an apprentice after Catherine notices her skill in graphic design. Lucy also figures out that there are hundreds of women who have been doing science and trying to get recognition for it for years, and she and Catherine start trying to track them down. There’s also a dramatic reveal that fits into this category – but that would be a spoiler, so I won’t say any more here!
Another thing that irked me a bit is that – unlike a straight-up historical fiction - the book never clearly tells us what time period we are in! My initial guess was either Regency or Victorian. I eventually tipped toward early Victorian because of the few references to two actual scientific things. First, someone gets an idea for programming a calculating device with punch cards; That was explored by Charles Babbage in the mid 1800s, though the concept is here credited to a fictional character. And I liked this character, but...damn it, if it was Babbage then we could have gotten a cameo by Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron's daughter and world's first computer programmer)! Second, Lucy refers to a girl who found giant marine reptiles – clearly Mary Anning, who found her first ichthyosaur when she was 12, in 1811. The clothing descriptions were throwing me off, as all the embroidery references felt more Regency, and the women are described as wearing “stays” rather than corsets…but, then, Catherine couldn’t easily admire the curve of a woman’s waist if she was wearing an empire silhouette! I have no idea WHY the author would apparently research the history but then keep the references so vague, though I have to admit that it turned into kind of an entertaining puzzle!
There’s some attempt to address racial prejudices here. There’s a male scholar who is also treated badly by a scientific society due to his Haitian heritage – though his knowledge of “Saint-Domingue4” comes in handy later! Then there’s Catherine’s maid Narayan (implied to be Indian by her name and dark complexion) who, when she learns about Catherine and Lucy, is relieved because she thought some of the changes in the household were a sign that Catherine was going to sack her in favor of a whiter maid! The degree of solidarity between these characters (plus the butler and his daughter) and our main couple feels rather unlikely…but this story is meant to be heartwarming fun, so I’ll allow it!
4. This term also muddies the time period a bit, since I’m pretty sure Haiti has been “Haiti” since the Revolution, which ended in 1804. But, then again, maybe it wasn’t recognized as such in Europe for a while?
Overall recommendation: Jeez, if this blend of spicy
and wholesome were easier to find, I might have started getting into the romance
genre ages ago! Writers of straight romance take note, please5.
Happy Pride Month, everyone!
5. Not that there aren’t some REALLY toxic gay romance stories (though a good chunk of those seem to be written by straight women) but OMG is it weirdly slim pickings to find a M/F romance subplot I like, let alone a romance-focused story!
