I like that this exists!

It is incredibly rare to find romance novels with characters over the age of 40 most of the time, so to have this story in and of itself is awesome for the romance community! This novella focuses on Beatrice (73) and Violetta (69), two women who are unfortunately raised in a time period when women are often controlled by men and the patriarchy. This isn’t to say that doesn’t happen now, but for these women, the extent of what they’re able to do is much more limited than in our contemporary time.

This whole book is basically two badass older women who hate men because they’ve always been looked over and despises the honor they’re forced to give men. Violetta deserves to collect the money in her pension but she is barred from doing so, and Beatrice has a real piece of shit nephew who is building up debts under the assumption he will get everything when she dies.

The pair decide to take revenge on the terrible nephew, as he’s also caused trouble with Violetta, and bond and fall for one another while working together on their revenge plot.

I generally like Courtney Milan, but this one wasn’t really for me. I admit I don’t read a ton of lesbian romance, but I do read it, and for me, this couple didn’t have any of the chemistry I really wanted out of a romance novel. I don’t know why, for being such a short book, there needed to be so many overly complex plot points in which these two very rich, very white women set fires and do things that could be legitimately damaging to others (even if they planned against anything too bad happening) in order to show that the nephew is a garbage person? Like, it completely makes sense that the patriarchy is to blame in this book, and believe me, I am all about that life, but it felt like Milan was constantly trying to remind us “by the way! All the men in this are awful!” I know, we get it by now! It felt like the revenge plot was the star of the show and the romance was just a byline.

Courtney Milan is a good author who knows her way around a historical romance, but there was just something missing here for me. There wasn’t much when it came to sex between the two; it’s a very short scene. I don’t need sex scenes in my romance novels but I wish this could have had been just a little bit longer so we could have gotten more between the couple as I think it would have helped sell their chemistry to me. I do however give it more points because it’s hard to find romance for women in this age range so I am all about popularizing this in the hopes that more is written in the future.

Title: Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure
Author: Courtney Milan
Format: Paperback
Pages:  154
ISBN:  9781075978418
Three Descriptors: Light-Hearted, Heartfelt, Romantic
         

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