Ami's Hoard

4.5 stars

For the past year, gentleman official Dominic Frey meets his brute every Wednesday and embraces his submissive nature -- of wanting to be dominated and controlled with pain and rough sex. For the past year, Radical idealist Silas Mison meets his Tory every Wednesday and gives in what they both what in a darker kink side of sex. They don't share each other names. Until Dominic's job to capture the pamphleteer who wrote sedition under the pseudonym of Jack Cade brings Dominic into Silas's bookstore...

K.J. Charles opens this book with a bang! That first chapter alone, my GOSH *fans self* Personally, I thought this book was better than the A Fashionable Indulgence, the first book in this series, in both characters and story-line. See, I'm a very character-driven kind of reader. Once I feel emotional connection with characters and their inner struggle (of romance, of family, of life, of dreams, of everything) I will be easily pulled in by their story.

For me, Dominic and Silas have that compelling struggle -- their job and principles basically make them enemies of sort. Dominic is a Home Office official. He believes in rules, order, and laws, because without that, it will be riot and chaos. Dominic doesn't believe that people can govern themselves. People needs government. Meanwhile for forty-year-old Silas (I love older men in my romance, don't you?), he wants to see people to have a choice, to have a voice. He will fight for that, writing his pamphletes, sharing his thoughts to the people of his class. On the other hand, they also have their Wednesdays, where they connect intimately (despite the strong D/s nature) and not just intellectually, where they start to care for one another in the matter of the heart. I found both their politics and sex to be stimulating and captivating at the same time.

Then, we also have the backdrop of the Cato Street Conspiracy as part of the story, which for me was more exhilarating than Julius trying to teach Harry about the importance of garments and the color puce in book #1 (yes, the PUCE made strong impression *laugh*). Although I'm not very much aware about the event (thank you Wikipedia for all your help!) but I found the progress to that final climax of the Spencean Philanthropists' attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister to add the thrill of the story. Even if sometimes, the real history/politic part still feels a little too distant for an Indonesian like me (and my eyes started to glaze over) but I was literally biting my nails near the end because I fear for Silas' fate, him being friends and part of this group. I know that this is romance, and it will end happily, but I still couldn't stop worrying. It is a proof of the mighty talent of Ms. K.J. Charles, to make me feel so involved and cared with the life of this fictional characters.

Simply put, I found A Seditious Affair to be a mesmerizing and satisfying romantic fiction entwined with real historical events. Despite the differences of their social class economy or the dominant/submissive nature of their sex life, Dominic and Silas are both strong characters, equals in every other thing that matters. It is one of my best reading experience of the year for sure. Now, I cannot wait until April next year for the conclusion of the trilogy, in which it will be with delight to see how Cyprian finally takes that stick out of Richard's (lovely) arse *laugh*

The ARC is provided by the publisher via Netgalley for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.