Feminist historical romance author Courtney Milan completes her Wedgeford Trials trilogy with THE EARL WHO ISN'T. This series is set in Victorian England, in a small village populated with a large number of Asian characters. This trilogy is written after Milan herself had a Me Too reckoning with the Ninth Circuit judge she clerked for, and also after being kicked out from Romance Writers of America for speaking up about diversity. Her later books are all self-published, and I feel like Milan is done kowtowing to mainstream sensibilities and is writing what she wants to write, about feminist Asians who come into their true selves. It's both empowering and at the same time a little off-putting. I often now finish most current Milan books scratching my head about my complex thoughts about the works. Her romances have a lot of things to recommend them, but they feel less fun and less engaging at the same time. Sort of like changing from eating fluffy mashed potatoes with lots of butter and salt to eating mashed cauliflower with black pepper. Good for you and still tasty, but not as delicious.
There are a lot of complex themes here! Neurodivergence and social anxiety. Women's suffrage, particularly universal suffragism outside a white gaze. Race and racism, as well as British imperialism. Patriarchy. Radical feminist literature, and feminism in general. The inclusion of these themes sometimes feels heavy-handed, but sometimes oddly hopeful. If the world functioned with the progressive and enlightened principles espoused here, there would be so much less pain and suffering, and wouldn't that be a cherished outcome?! One of my favorite quotes from the book, from the hero's musings, is "What would it look like, if he actually protected Lily the way she wanted, rather than the way he had believed necessary?"
The hero Andrew is the son of an earl and is the rightful heir, but his father cowardly bowed to familial pressure and disavowed his first wife. The earl's family tried to kill Andrew's Japanese mother, so she took her small son Andrew and fled to Wedgeford, a multicultural village where no one asks about your past. Andrew doesn't want to be an earl, he just wants to grow non-English produce that reminds people of far-way places that they had to leave, like Asian long beans. Andrew is a bit of a milquetoast, but he is endearing. Lily Bei is an ardent feminist who has been friends with Andrew her whole life. After sleeping with Andrew to make herself ineligible to be married off, her grandfather ships her off to her grandmother's in Hong Kong where she learns to run a printing press and the related business. Lily comes back to Wedgeford in possession of the ship's log that will prove Andrew is the rightful heir to the earldom, and shenanigans ensue.
Lily and Andrew's resumption of a romantic relationship is threatened by misunderstandings and by what appear to be differing life goals, but overall it's a pretty gentle romance. More of the action is in all of the little side plots. Andrew eventually meets his father the earl for the first time, because he's trying to stand up for his half-brother. The earl, who is held out to be the evil villain of the book, is such an over-the-top buffoon that it took me aback. THE EARL WHO ISN'T is the weakest of the Wedgeford Trials trilogy, and I found myself highlighting many fewer things in delight than is usual for a Milan read. Still, historical romance readers who appreciate subversive characters who triumph against the patriarchy and against other oppressions will enjoy Milan's THE EARL WHO ISN'T.
Nobody knows that Andrew Uchida is the rightful heir of an earl. Not his friends, not his neighbors, not even the yard-long beans growing in his experimental garden. If the truth of his existence became public, the blue-blooded side of his family would stop at nothing to make him (and anyone connected with him) disappear. He shared one passionate night with the woman he loved…and allowed himself that only because she was leaving for Hong Kong the next morning.
Then Lily Bei returns, armed with a printing press, her irrepressible spirit, and a sheaf of inconvenient documents that prove the very thing Andrew wants concealed: that he is actually the legitimate, first born son of the Earl of Arsell.
What’s Andrew to do, when the woman he’s always desired promises him everything he’s never wanted? Andrew’s track record of saying no to Lily is nonexistent. The only way he can avert impending disaster is by stealing the evidence… while trying desperately not to fall in love (again) with the woman he shouldn’t let into his life.
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