G656 Book Review of Oliver and Jack At Lodgings in Lyme by Christina E Pilz
Author: Christina E Pilz
ISBN: 978-0-9897273-3-4
Publisher: Blue Rain Press
Part of a Series: Fagin's Boy
Type of book: homosexual romance, Victorian England, 1832, seaside town, running away from past, connecting on many levels, struggles, morals versus sinfulness, propriety versus pleasure
Year it was published: 2015
Summary:
Genre: Historical, gay romance, adult content.
An ex-apprentice and his street thief companion flee the dangers of Victorian London and the threat of the hangman’s noose in search of family and the promise of a better life.
Back of Book Description
After Oliver Twist commits murder to protect Jack Dawkins (The Artful Dodger), both must flee London’s familiar but dangerous environs for safety elsewhere. Together they travel to Lyme Regis in the hopes of finding Oliver’s family. Along the way, Jack becomes gravely ill and Oliver is forced to perform manual labor to pay for the doctor’s bills.
While Oliver struggles to balance his need for respectability with his growing love for Jack, Jack becomes disenchanted with the staid nature of village life and his inability to practice his trade. But in spite of their personal struggles, and in the face of dire circumstances, they discover the depth of their love for each other.
Characters:
There are secondary characters such as the main maid, other maids, and co-workers, but 99 if not 100 percent of the story is devoted to Oliver and Jack and helping new and old readers get to know them as much as she could. In other words, other characters were there for background noise rather than be drawn as having their own views and being fully human. Oliver is a gentleman's son and he is the type that is proper, well-groomed, well-read and so forth. He struggles a lot with propriety and sinfulness and often fails to grasp Jack's needs and reasons. Jack is a street thief who is best described as loyal, plucky and having little to no propriety. He tends to lie a lot and seems to want to keep Oliver away from his past due to circumstances that I don't know. In other words, he is more of the type to live in the present and for himself rather than turn to others and try to understand them.
Theme:
Love grows slowly
Plot:
The story is written in third person narrative from Jack's and Oliver's point of view. I think it took a little while to tell who's speaking. Usually if its Jack speaking, then he often says "Nolly" when referring to Oliver, and if its Oliver, there is politeness and British? English so to speak. The author really built up the world to cause me to feel as if I was being there, watching the days go by and enjoying the seaside town with Oliver and Jack. I guess its more from modern perspective, but I honestly feel sad for Oliver because of the teachings that existed and continue to exist. I am wondering about why couldn't Oliver and Jack explain their true purpose in a certain deed and that it was a misunderstanding?
Author Information:
(From HFVBT)
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | ITUNES | KOBO
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christina was born in Waco, Texas in 1962. After living on a variety of air force bases, in 1972 her Dad retired and the family moved to Boulder, Colorado. There amidst the clear, dry air of the high plains, as the moss started to grow beneath her feet, her love for historical fiction began with a classroom reading of Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
She attended a variety of community colleges (Tacoma Community College) and state universities (UNC-Greeley, CU-Boulder, CU-Denver), and finally found her career in technical writing, which, between layoffs, she has been doing for 18 years. During that time, her love for historical fiction and old-fashioned objects, ideas, and eras has never waned.
In addition to writing, her interests include road trips around the U.S. and frequent flights to England, where she eats fish and chips, drinks hard cider, and listens to the voices in the pub around her. She also loves coffee shops, mountain sunsets, prairie storms, and the smell of lavender. She is a staunch supporter of the Oxford comma.
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Opinion:
For those that read the book reviews written on my blog frequently, either know or have an inkling that I always search for a unique book or story to read and to review, and this book falls into that category. I think the first thing that intrigued me is the hint of homosexual relationhip between the main characters. I'm not a Dickens fan, and one of the reasons I decided to read the story is the fact it takes place in Victorian England, and I planned on having one of my characters come from Victorian England and be, well, gay. Being heterosexual, I'm not sure how accurate she is with homosexual romance, and if this is truly what it feels like, but all I know is that the romance is genuine, and the author focuses a whole lot of attention on Oliver and Jack as well as their thoughts, views and so forth. At times the story really caught me in its web, and I was shocked to see how much I have finished.
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4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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