Rec: A Seditious Affair

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Title: A Seditious Affair
Author: K.J. Charles
Format: Novel
Length: 253 pages
Status: Complete
Rating: Mature
Warnings:
Link: Amazon
Summary: (from publisher)

K. J. Charles turns up the heat in her new Society of Gentlemen novel, as two lovers face off in a sensual duel that challenges their deepest beliefs.

Silas Mason has no illusions about himself. He’s not lovable, or even likable. He’s an overbearing idealist, a Radical bookseller and pamphleteer who lives for revolution . . . and for Wednesday nights. Every week he meets anonymously with the same man, in whom Silas has discovered the ideal meld of intellectual companionship and absolute obedience to his sexual commands. But unbeknownst to Silas, his closest friend is also his greatest enemy, with the power to see him hanged—or spare his life.

A loyal, well-born gentleman official, Dominic Frey is torn apart by his affair with Silas. By the light of day, he cannot fathom the intoxicating lust that drives him to meet with the Radical week after week. In the bedroom, everything else falls away. Their needs match, and they are united by sympathy for each other’s deepest vulnerabilities. But when Silas’s politics earn him a death sentence, desire clashes with duty, and Dominic finds himself doing everything he can to save the man who stole his heart.

Review:

The Society of Gentleman series is now complete with three novels (A Fashionable Indulgence, A Seditious Affair, and A Gentleman's Position) and one short story (The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh). I enjoyed all of them, but the short story and A Seditious Affair were definitely the standouts for me.

The sex scenes are seriously hot. Dominic Frey is a masochist, which his closest friends don't understand. He's found his perfect match in Silas, even if he only knows Silas as the man he meets on Wednesdays.

What makes the book so wonderful is that the sex doesn't overwhelm the story, but instead fits into the plot and the characterization.  Dominic's job is to land men like Silas in jail. They might work together perfectly in bed, but they have a serious conflict of ideologies in addition to the differences of their class. K.J. Charles made me believe in the obstacles in their relationship, and that they could overcome them.