Epistolary Elements
Primary source documents are the sexiest kind of documents
If you’re unaware, “epistolary” as a literary format refers traditionally to stories told in letters, but the definition has expanded to refer to any work with primary source documentation as a narrative device. So when you get to read the emails two characters send back and forth, rather than simply hearing about them, that’s epistolary! I wrote my college thesis on epistolary YA novels (and wrote an epistolary YA novel myself that’s… probably libel if I were to try and do anything with it so maybe I’ll revisit in another decade) so anytime a romance features a major epistolary element, I get very excited. These three recommendations, in particular, utilize primary source documents masterfully AND romantically.
The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan. I think this might be a perfect book? Courtney Milan truly does not miss.
The central premise of this book (the third in her Worth Saga, my favorite of her series that I’m BEGGING her to give us the next book in) is that Captain Grayson Hunter, son of a Black American abolitionist and the daughter of a British duke, is trying to build the first worldwide telegraphic network in honor of his brothers who died in the Civil War. A hero motivated by and working himself to death as a way to deal with his survivor’s guilt and trauma? Why, I never!
The way he plans to build this network relies on finding a cheaper way to encode messages, especially for Chinese characters which obviously require a different system from the Latin alphabet. He hears of a reclusive genius in encoding who might be the key to this, but it turns out that the genius is a woman (gasp), which makes things complicated for many reasons.
Amelia Smith is a Chinese “adoptee”, raised by white missionaries after, according to her adoptive mother, being abandoned by her birth mother because of how much better of a life she could have with the missionaries. I think you see where this is going, and because it’s Courtney Milan, she’s not gonna let that pass with a “oh it was a different time” and “let’s just try to all get along and be empathetic.” What Amelia’s adopted family does to her, especially making her feel like her heritage and race are problems, is violence, and the narrative does not flinch about this.
There’s a lot more here that I think you just need to read, but let’s get briefly to the epistolary element: once Grayson convinces Amelia to join him in this quest, there’s this extremely fucking romantic thing they do where, because she’s feeling a little insecure for a lot of reasons, he leaves her a stack of letters after he heads off to sea to keep laying cable, and whenever she’s feeling some kind of way he sends her a number via telegraph that lines up with one of the letters, which leads to encouragement. And later, she does a similar thing for him.
Usually I don’t like it when our hero and heroine are separated for too much of the book, but this book only makes sense if that happens, but they remain connected by the very thing that brought them together in the first place. It’s perfect. It’s a perfect book.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein. I don’t know if I’ve recommended a Charlotte Stein book yet, though I’ve read most of her backlist. She’ll be appearing more in this newsletter as a result of that, but just to get it out of the way: while this book is definitely in her voice, it’s very different from a lot of what she’s written in the past (darker more erotic stuff to this fairly classic rom com set up). So if this book is your FIRST Charlotte Stein you might be a little alarmed. I did the opposite; finishing her backlist and then devouring this as soon as it came out, which I think is the correct order.
Anyways. This is a ghost writer book, which is always fun (remember Business or Pleasure?). Our ghostwriter is curvy, bright, lovely Mabel, who is brought in to help famously grumpy footballer (they’re in the UK) Alfie write a memoir, who is also famously tight-lipped about literally everything. He once walked out of an interview because they asked him some benign question about like a food preference or something.
Things begin badly, because Alfie is a maniac and Mabel’s been hurt before, but eventually they find some common ground and begin their writing process. Then the paparazzi catch wind Alfie’s hanging out with a mystery woman (who looks very unlike his usual “type”) and begin to speculate (cruelly) and Alfie lashes out at their rude statements by bellowing they better not talk about the love of his life like that!!!
Reader: I laughed so fucking hard upon reading the newspaper recounting of this incident I had to read it twelve more times before I could continue. The man is a menace. I adore him.
Now we have to add some accidental fake dating into the mix while they try to finish his book and sort out their feelings for each other while still technically being coworkers. We learn a lot about both characters that is heartbreaking, we get some tremendously hot sex, and we have a whole lot of epistolary elements to pour over (newspaper clips, notes they leave each other, notes on the book they’re co-writing, etc) to keep things even spicier. This is a great book. If anyone who knows me personally is reading this right now, this is a great gift idea for me or anyone in your life who has a heart.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Exception To The Rule by Christina Lauren. A novella! This is from a collection of Valentine's Day themed novellas by famous romance authors published by Amazon (yuck) and it follows two people who connect via email because of a typo on Valentine's Day. The hero (a high school junior I think) is trying to contact a teacher but because of the way emails are formatted in their school district accidentally ends up emailing another student (the heroine, a freshman). After the heroine (we don’t get names for most of the story so you don’t get them in this recap!) corrects his mistake and makes a sad little comment about how at least one guy wished her a Happy Valentine’s Day, he decides to reach out one year later as well just to ensure she doesn’t spend the day sans interaction again. Thus begins a yearly routine that gets more in-depth every year, though they remain anonymous to each other and only reach out on that day, and eventually, they decide that maybe this crazy connection is worth taking into the real world, if they can only work up the courage to ask.
A love story told entirely in emails and an arbitrary set of rules to maintain anonymity and structure to the odd relationship they develop? It’s like Christina Lauren ripped my heart straight out of my chest and made it an Amazon-exclusive novella.
How hot? 🔥 (not closed door, because there’s no in-story sex since it’s just a novella)
Next week, I’ll be sharing an interview with Christina Lauren to celebrate their latest release!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
Your substack once again lengthens my endless library hold list!