Click! Judging By Its Cover

As much as I say, never judge a book by its cover - there are some cases where you just can't help it.

Through chance, I was browsing through stories on Instagram and a targeted ad caught my eye. Before that, I had not heard of The Woman Who Fell Through Time by J.M. Fry. It's rare that queer historical fiction shows a same-sex pairing on its cover as - well a romantic pairing. Through reading the brief blurb provided, I was hooked - Jane Austen vibes, queer romance and time-travel! - to say I clicked fast was an understatement. I immediately found it on Waterstones and waited the fifteen days for them to get a copy of this indie book sent my way. It was worth it.

Armed with a newly minted university degree and a plane ticket to Paris, Jessie's plan was to celebrate graduation in the City of Love, kissing as many drunk French girls (or boys, she's not picky) as she can. Only, she never makes it. When her plane goes down mid-Atlantic she's pulled from what should have been a watery grave by an intriguing British Naval Captain-in 1805!

Stuck in Regency-era England, Jessie is left with no choice but to enter into the services of the Captain's sister as a lady's companion. But she didn't reckon on the sister being Margaret Goodenough, the world-famous authoress whose yet-to-be-completed novel was the first lesbian kiss in the history of British Literature.

And Jessie's not just entranced by Margaret's powerful words...

As their attraction grows, Jessie must tread the tenuous line between finding her own happiness in a world where she is alone, and accidentally changing the future of the queer rights movement. Is Jessie's duty to preserve Margaret's history-making book? Or to the happiness of its author, the woman she's learning to love?

J.M. Fry was completely unknown to me and yet, those three aspects just instantly made me want to read this independently published book and dive into the unknown of this historical romance. Like I said, it's rare to find a gay romance that is not hinted at or implied, but proudly displayed on its cover. Without a doubt, more queer books need to publish more romantic pairings on its cover, similar to heterosexual pairings. Love is love and the fictional world should be just as diverse as it is in the real world.

So I am very excited to be reviewing Fry's novel - it looks like the perfect combination of Jane Austen meets Back to the Future!

Another case of buying a book based solely on a target advert was Brigid Kemmerer's retelling of Beauty & the Beast "A Curse So Dark and Lonely". Initially I was like "Okay... Another retelling" and was on the verge of clicking past, but I thought I'd give it a read before totally dismissing it. Due to the fact it was Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, this book was making the rounds and the reason, this modern day Beauty was a character with cerebral palsy.

Here was my initial Goodreads review back in 2018: So, after just finishing “A Curse So Dark and Lonely” I can safely say the wait for the sequel is going to be torture - this book had me gripped from the first page and everything from the world-building to the characters flowed effortlessly throughout. The characters were truly spectacular and I felt a particular connection to Harper’s character - as a writer with cerebral palsy, it’s a real shame to say that disability representation throughout all mediums of fiction hasn’t been great and usually disabled characters are victimised, have no agency or their disability is ignored completely. Harper goes against all these negative stereotypes - a fully fleshed out character who is fine with her disability and just gets on with it, this shouldn’t be a massive thing in 2019 but it’s so refreshing to have a CP protagonist who is just a well written and active character and the themes of disability are actually addressed without undermining or belittling the character. The story itself was just superb and I could definitely see this being a great film or TV series - so anyone who’s got this far, I’d highly, HIGHLY recommend this Beauty & the Beast retelling and it’ll be an excellent read for Cerebral Palsy Awareness month.

Again, I feel that these types or stories are what make audiences really think about representation and even better normalizing it. I may not have even heard about these books, but thanks to Instagram - never thought I'd be writing that in a sentence - these books were put in my path.

So as much as I say "Don't judge a book/film by its cover" - sometimes you just have to just jump in blind and it may be worth it.