The Slightest Provocation Book

I have that tingly great book feeling. As I write this I can't help but smile and sigh, I'm positively preening with post-read satisfaction. Pam Rosenthal really is something. This should be read by everyone who has any affection for historical romance. 

So, let's start with hero and heroine. And you can't really talk about their characters without explaining their love story because it's affected their development. They're the children of neighbouring landlords. They came of age together. They explored their sexuality together and in the throes of heady, optimistic, adolescent love they elope to Gretna. And for a year or so, it's great. Fantastic sex and lives without any real direction, save for the satisfaction of one another. But Rosenthal is nothing if not an adult romance writer and far from living HEA they end up hurting one another as they try and work out the muddle of being young and in love. They both cheat on the other and so begins a ten year separation in which their lives are largely shaped, particularly in the case of Kit by trying to hurt the other, best the other, or conceive of ways of getting one another back.

Kit turns into a government man, a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, then a spy of sorts and then a Home Office official in the repressive post-War government. He thinks himself on the side of right. Mary has gone the other way, and thrown her lot in with some radical thinkers. 

They come back together and continue to combust in bed but reconciling their competing belief systems and forgiving one another for their youthful transgressions is a difficult and fascinating journey. PR weaves in the historical background beautifully (there's an afterword which explains the fact behind the fiction she's created) and with her masterful grasp of language and scene setting she brings these two back together. It's just brilliant to read. 

And, as ever, there's a whole cast of secondary characters who are all engaging and interesting in their own ways and who get their own romances. They also serve to shed light on the main romance which is important in this genre.

This is a proper, grown up, expertly written novel and I enjoyed every minute of it.