Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander
by Ann Herendeen
published by Harper Paperbacks

This book, whose tagline is “A man in love with his wife and his boyfriend,” wouldn’t normally catch my eye because m/m isn’t my kink. I bought it for an entirely different reason. So now that I bought it and read it and thoroughly enjoyed myself (oooh, have you noticed this trend about what I review?), I must speak my piece.

Here we are in Regency England (and those of us in Romancelandia are more or less completely and totally comfortable in Regency England, Heyer or no Heyer) and a sodomite wishes to marry to fulfill his duty to his family name while still continuing his unabashed lifestyle. He finds the right chick, marries her, figures out he so really doesn’t mind doing her, thinks she’s refreshing and falls in love with her blahblahblah (yeah, you know how it goes), then meets the male love of his life and we all end up happily ever after in the same bed with nary a menage a trois to be had. Of course, what would a Regency romance be without a little spying here and there?

After some reflection, I have to admit that the mixed third-person omniscient and third-person limited points of view was fun and refreshing.

Now, one more thing I found interesting: A review of the book on Amazon, wherein the reviewer—who gave it 3 stars—says:

The book is…okay. It is not stunning, nor is it horrible.

Well, okay. That’s 3-star worthy right there. A 3 is a C. A C is perfectly average. No harm, no foul. But then the reviewer goes on to say:

I stayed up all night to read the last two hundred pages, because I was engrossed with the characters’ stories. However, I don’t think I’ll be borrowing this from the library again, nor will I be purchasing it any time soon.

Color me highly amused. I stayed up all night to read the last two hundred pages because I was engrossed with the characters’ stories.

Yeah. Okay. That’s called “the mother lode.”

Good show, Ms. Herendeen.