An Unusual Courtship was written by Katherine Marlowe. This is a Regency-era m/m historical romance novel, and I first found out about it because of its availability on Kindle Unlimited. If you don’t want to read my entire review, all you need to know is that I enjoyed this book so much that I purchased my own copy.

Percival Valentine likes his quiet life in the village of Linston, where he works in an informal capacity as estate manager. There’s a more detailed explanation, involving an extinct barony and an inherited house, but needless to say, Percival is a gentleman. When he finds out that Linston Grange has been rented to a trio of young people, he looks forward to the new opportunities for socialization.

Mr. and Miss Bolton are delightful, but it is their friend the enigmatic Mr. Everett who really catches Percival’s eye. There is clearly a spark of mutual attraction, but they skirt around it and never talk about it because of the forbidden nature of such a relationship.

But Mr. Everett has secrets of his own- are they enough to doom the potential for anything more than friendship?

This was such a good book. The book moves along at a gentle pace, which suits the bucolic setting. This is definitely a slow burn, and it was utter agony watching Percival and Mr. Everett tiptoe around their feelings. It’s clear that they like other, but neither wants to act on it because of the potential consequences. The ending was simply delightful- I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect resolution to any conflict.

I would absolutely recommend An Unusual Courtship. Aside from what I have already touched upon, I also enjoyed Marlowe’s writing style. It has shades of a traditional Regency novel, and I thought it paired well with the nontraditional (but sorely needed) plot. This is my first experience reading any of Marlowe’s books, but I am definitely going to add her other books to my reading list.