As we approach the end of Pride month, Dayton Metro Library presents the second edition of Reading Books with the Rubi Girls, in which Jonathan McNeel (AKA Leasa Plymouth) and I discuss Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield.

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program and contains spoilers.

In 1854, Emily Dawson travels with her cousin and his wife to Barbados to examine and, probably, dispose of a sugar plantation she has just inherited from their grandfather. The house has lain in ruins since 1816. There are rumors about the ghost of a child and a slave uprising, and old stories that don't match with what Emily knew of family history. In alternating chapters, we follow life at the plantation in the 1810s, where Charles Davenant has returned to take control of the plantation from his younger brother after their father's death. The owner of the neighboring plantation, Mary Anne Beckles, is in need of a husband to get control of her property back from her uncle. It seems like a logical match, except that Mary Anne had a previous connection with Charles's younger brother, Robert, and Charles has developed feelings for Jenny, Mary Anne's enslaved maid and cousin. Charles and Jenny bring Mary Anne back together with Robert, but it doesn't solve their problems the way that they hoped.

This is a sweeping historical epic with a touch of the Gothic: the ruined house, the mystery and hint of menace in Mrs. Davenant's attentions to Emily. Both of the timelines are full of dramatic twists, and if the reader understands the secrets of Emily before she does, they're still surprising (just earlier in the book for us than for her), and one hangs on the question of when the truth will appear to her.

I debated whether or not I ought to reveal the details of Charles's relationship with Jenny, and that it's Robert whom Mary Anne marries, but I decided that the fact of a relationship between an enslaved woman and a plantation owner was not something that I could leave out of my review. The relationship itself is as non-coercive as I can imagine such a relationship being depicted in fiction- the fact that Jenny is never Charles's slave is key. Seeing Charles through Jenny's eyes also serves to acknowledge his complicity. Yes, he's formulating a plan to free the slaves on his plantation and giving them a stake its earnings, but not with enough urgency to have moved ahead on it; his feelings that natural law is being violated are a lot stronger when it comes to someone he loves than when it comes to those in his own fields. It's a weakness in him that could become a weakness in the book if it hadn't been faced. Grappling with it adds a satisfying moral complexity along to the emotional drama, romance, and mystery.

Overall: A

And now for something a little different: the Dayton Metro Library was looking for something to do with The Rubi Girls, a local comedic drag troupe that's raised over a million dollars for HIV/AIDS and other charities. Presenting the first installment of Reading Books with the Rubi Girls, starring me and Joshua Stuckey, in which we tell you about The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig.