Author: KJ Charles

Review – All Of Us Murderers

Posted November 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Review – All Of Us Murderers

All of Us Murderers

by KJ Charles

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 343
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

A genre-bending Gothic mystery with a strong LGBTQIA+ romance from beloved, award-winning author KJ Charles.

When Zeb Wyckham is summoned to a wealthy relative’s remote Gothic house on Dartmoor, he finds all the people he least wants to see in the world—his estranged brother, his loathsome cousins, and his bitter ex-lover, Gideon Grey. Nothing, he is certain, could possibly be worse.

Then the grizzled old patriarch announces the true purpose of the gathering: He intends to leave the vast family fortune to whichever of the men marries Cousin Jessamine, setting off a violent scramble for her hand and his wealth. Disinterested in being tied further to a family he can barely stand, Zeb tries to leave…only to realize that he’s been trapped. The walls are high, the gates are locked, and when the mists roll in, there’s no way out.

And there may be something trapped within the dark monstrosity of a house with them.

Fear and paranoia ramping ever-higher, Zeb has nowhere to turn but to the man who once held his whole heart. As the mists descend, the gaslight flickers, and terror takes its hold, two warring lovers must reconcile in time to uncover the murderous mysteries of Lackaday House—and live to tell the tale.

It took me a bit to get into KJ Charles’ All of Us Murderers: I was pretty sure I would enjoy it, because I’ve really enjoyed almost all of her books, but the opening has almost the whole cast being really unpleasant to each other. Which I should’ve perhaps expected, given that it’s heavily gothic in inspiration, but I guess it felt like a bit of added nastiness than the main character plainly has ADHD, and that’s used as a weapon against him.

That said, once Gideon and Zeb actually start talking to each other and not just sniping, and especially as they work through what happened and start working together, it becomes a lot more fun. It isn’t just Zeb with a massive target on his back, but the two of them against the united forces of Zeb’s horrible family, and you can be pretty sure they’ll win out in the end.

It didn’t take me long to figure out basically what was happening, but it was still interesting to be along for the ride and watch Zeb steadfastly refusing to believe in supernatural occurrences… and it was still fun to have the dramatic and very gothic reveals of what exactly is going on, and what the plan is.

Gideon and Zeb — once they’re talking to each other — make a good team, and I love that (despite his self-recriminations) it’s really plain that their break-up wasn’t all Zeb’s fault. There’s a bit of sharpness round the edges with how they’ve handled Zeb’s ADHD together in the past: Gideon covering for him and taking care of him, but also sometimes getting exasperated and seeming to treat him like a child, or sniping at him because of it. The relationship feels so vivid and realistic, even (or especially?) against the ridiculous gothic background.

To clarify: when I call it a ridiculous gothic background, I say this with affection. Charles was clearly having fun with the setting and genre, and I enjoyed it very much. But it’s ridiculous all the same, if you try to explain the plot outside of the story itself and all the atmospheric trappings it builds up.

I was a bit surprised by how it ended for Zeb and Gideon, because that felt pretty un-gothic — but then, they could hardly have had a happy ending if they’d let the gothic story decide their fate, and this was the best way for them to be happy. I was very pleased by that part!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Duke at Hazard

Posted November 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Duke at Hazard

The Duke at Hazard

by KJ Charles

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 336
Series: The Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

The Duke of Severn is one of the greatest men in Britain.

He's also short, quiet, and unimpressive. And now he's been robbed, after indulging in one rash night with a strange man who stole the heirloom Severn ring from his finger. The Duke has to get it back, and he can't let anyone know how he lost it. So when his cousin bets that he couldn't survive without his privilege and title, the Duke grasps the opportunity to hunt down his ring-incognito.

Life as an ordinary person is terrifying... until the anonymous Duke meets Daizell Charnage, a disgraced gentleman, and hires him to help. Racing across the country in search of the thief, the Duke and Daizell fall into scrapes, into trouble-and in love.

I don’t why it took me so long to get round to reading The Duke at Hazard, because I pretty much always love KJ Charles’ work — I think it’s mostly that my expectations are always so high now, I get a little nervous that it won’t stand up… and/or I try to save it for “the right moment”. Anyway, I’m glad I stopped hesitating about/saving The Duke at Hazard, though I wish I’d read The Gentle Art of Fortune-Hunting again first, since there are cameo appearances it’d have been nice to fully appreciate. It’s not necessary, though, and I enjoyed this very much.

Cassian’s a sweetheart. He needs a backbone (which he develops) and the strength to speak up about his own preferences, and fit himself inside the role of the Duke of Severn (or fit the role inside of him), but he genuinely adores Daizell and always means to do well by him. And Daizell… has been dealt a bad hand, isn’t entirely a gentleman, but deserves so much more than he’s had so far. Together, they both get chances to prove themselves, and it’s lovely — even if the inevitable misunderstanding part was unavoidably awful, and Daizell’s absolutely right that Cassian owed him more of the truth.

My favourite part was probably Cassian’s enthusiasm about churches etc, and Daizell finding them interesting because of Cassian’s joy in it all. Now that’s a love language I know well!

The supporting characters are quite fun too, like Miss Beaumont and Leo, and Cassian’s character shines through there as well. I especially love the affection between him and his family, though: it would be easy to villainise them for the ways they messed the poor guy up, but it’s clear they did it with the best of intentions, and with true affection for him.

I love the way it all works out as the people Cassian cares for — and has stuck his neck out for — each bring a piece of the puzzle to get the truth out there. It’s all very satisfying.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Copper Script

Posted October 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – Copper Script

Copper Script

by KJ Charles

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 269
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Detective Sergeant Aaron Fowler of the Metropolitan Police doesn’t count himself a gullible man. When he encounters a graphologist who reads people’s characters and even actions from their handwriting with impossible accuracy, he needs to find out how the trick is done. Even if that involves spending more time with the intriguing, flirtatious Joel Wildsmith than feels quite safe.

Joel’s not an admirer of the police, but DS Fowler has the most irresistible handwriting he’s ever seen. If the policeman’s tests let him spend time unnerving the handsome copper, why not play along?

But when Joel looks at a powerful man's handwriting and sees a murderer, the policeman and the graphologist are plunged into deadly danger. Their enemy will protect himself at any cost—unless Joel and Aaron can come together to prove his guilt and save each other.

I’m a bit torn between a 3-star and a 4-star rating for this: I’ve enjoyed everything KJ Charles writes, but Copper Script isn’t a favourite. On the other hand, I did tear through it, and stay up to finish it: I don’t think it was bad.

So I guess I’ll mostly let my review speak for me! I enjoyed Joel’s character a lot, his lack of apology for everything he is, but was less taken with Aaron, who was… well, as Joel tells him, he’s very buttoned up. The chemistry between them worked quite well, but it felt like Aaron still kept a lot bottled up, and wasn’t entirely fair to Joel in the way he was blowing hot and cold (even if it was partly due to circumstances and not wanting to lead trouble to Joel, he clearly already was leading trouble to him).

Mostly, it felt like there was one pace at the start and then everything flat-out accelerated, and the pacing didn’t quite work for me as a result: the eventual ending felt like it happened way too fast after the build-up, and thus kind of fizzled. It’s not that it was totally lacking in consequences, since Aaron’s job is affected, Joel’s plan to get a prosthetic arm, and of course their relationship… but the tension and danger just sort of fizzled, and felt solved very conveniently. On the one hand, how it resolved makes sense — we know Joel can glean a lot from someone’s handwriting, that’s been kind of the whole thing — but it did somewhat shortcircuit some of the drama, I guess?

That said, I did love Joel, and here’s hoping he can undo all Aaron’s buttons, I’m sure he wants to!

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel

Posted August 11, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel

The Nobleman's Guide to Seducing A Scoundrel

by KJ Charles

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 400
Series: The Doomsday Books #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Major Rufus d'Aumesty has unexpectedly become the Earl of Oxney, master of a remote Norman manor on the edge of the infamous Romney Marsh. There he's beset on all sides, his position contested both by his greedy uncle and by Luke Doomsday, son of a notorious smuggling clan.

The earl and the smuggler should be natural enemies, but cocksure, enragingly competent Luke is a trained secretary and expert schemer-exactly the sort of man Rufus needs by his side. Before long, Luke becomes an unexpected ally...and the lover Rufus had never hoped to find.

But Luke came to Stone Manor with an ulterior motive, one he's desperate to keep hidden even from the lord he can't resist. As the lies accumulate and family secrets threaten to destroy everything they hold dear, master and man find themselves forced to decide whose side they're really on... and what they're willing to do for love.

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel is a delight, as usual with KJ Charles’ work. Some years have passed since the previous book, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, and Luke Doomsday is all grown up and embarking on some scheme of his own. Meanwhile Lord Oxney died, and the new Lord Oxney was raised as a draper’s son and went for a soldier, and Oxney’s family had no idea about the existence of such an heir. Into the tangle go our leads, Rufus and Luke, and of course if they’d communicate properly the story would get resolved far too fast.

Rufus is a delight. He has too much of a temper, of course, and allows himself to explode at people — some of whom richly deserve it, others who don’t (though to his credit he tries very hard not to explode in that case, and to apologise when he’s done wrong).

Luke is a lot less straightforward. Profoundly scarred, inside and out, he doesn’t much trust people and he doesn’t have much of a place in the world (except for in Sir Gareth’s household, where he grew up after his father’s death). He’s pretty amoral by most standards, but he does have his own deeply-felt convictions, once he’s willing to listen to them.

It was lovely to revisit Joss and Gareth a little, through other eyes, and lovely as well to enjoy Luke and Rufus’ story, and get some closure on other characters’ stories from the first book. I did stall a bit in the middle, because I could tell something was about to Go Down, and I wasn’t interested yet. The story obligingly waited for me, and then I tore through it to the end.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A Queer Trade

Posted January 24, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Queer Trade

A Queer Trade

by KJ Charles

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 53
Series: Rag & Bone #0.5
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Apprentice magician Crispin Tredarloe returns to London to find his master dead, and his papers sold. Papers with secrets that could spell death. Crispin needs to get them back before anyone finds out what he's been doing, or what his magic can do.

Crispin tracks his quarry down to waste paper dealer Ned Hall. He needs help, and Ned can’t resist Crispin’s pleading—and appealing—looks. But can the waste-man and the magician prevent a disaster and save Crispin’s skin?

A Queer Trade is a fun introduction to two characters who star in one of the few KJ Charles books I’ve yet to read, Rag & Bone. It gives a bit of context to how they met and what they’re like, which feels like a solid way to start off if you’re interested in reading Rag & Bone. It doesn’t give a lot of detail about the judiciary who operate throughout the Charm of Magpies world, so it doesn’t stand on its own very well without having read those, I’d say.

The romance is cute and hopeful, without going too far — it’s not straight to love, but straight to solid attraction, and a connection formed through weird, alarming circumstances that the two of them managed to figure out together.

It’s a quick read; I’m not in a huge hurry to read Rag & Bone, but I’m more tempted to pick it up now than I was before: I love the original trilogy in this world, but I’m not a huge fan of Jackdaw.

Rating: 3/5

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