Read This Book: The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Lucy is a young lady who has spent most of her young adulthood assisting her father, an astronomer, with his research. No one knows that she is the mathematician behind his groundbreaking research, but now that he is dead and Lucy’s former lover has married a man, she feels more alone than ever and is uncertain how to make a name for herself int he scientific community.

Catherine is recently widowed, and secretly relieved to have her freedom from her scientist husband, who was very exacting. She’s determined to see a manuscript he acquired before his death translated, and then she plans to step away from the scientific community for good. When she sets out to hire a translator familiar with with French and astronomy, she doesn’t expect Lucy to apply. But she can’t help but be intrigued by the woman, so she not only hires Lucy but invites her to stay with her while she completes the work…and it’s not long before they begin falling for one another.

I adored this book, because it’s not only an amazing romance, but an incredible historical novel. It’s set in the early 1800s and really captures the spirit of the time in London, when scientific discovery abounded and the art scene flourished and people were interested in and valued both. Lucy and Catherine have experience in both of those communities, but as women they aren’t always taken very seriously. I loved how this novel demonstrated the men weren’t the only ones interested in art and science and influencing those discoveries and movements, but women had to be smart and strategic about how they participated lest they be told they didn’t know what they were talking about.

The romance is also a delight! I think a lot of times people assume that queer people in history weren’t ever able to have their happily ever afters in the past, or that their lives must have been very sad, and I love how Waite shows that’s just not true. While it is true that queer people could not be open about their affections, and that they took to speaking in veiled meanings and perhaps struggled to connect with like-minded people, this series is overall light on queer-related trauma. There is grief and sadness and deep disappointment, but mention of horrible things happening off page in the past (content warning for some colonialist violence) have nothing to do with the women being queer. I think that’s so wonderful, and essential to reframing the narrative that all queer relationships before 1969 ended in tragedy or at the very least, separation and longing.

Overall, this is a delightful romance with lots of steam and tenderness, grounded in a fascinating time period with exciting artistic and scientific subplots! I highly recommend it if you want to fall into something happy this weekend!