Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Cambridge fellows Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith become fast friends and attempt to develop a budding romance in violation of societal mores in the midst of a sudden killing spree of gay students in the Edwardian era.

BOOK REVIEW:
Lessons in Love, book 1 of the Cambridge Fellows Series, is an utterly delightful and compelling historical mystery and sweet romance. Dr. Jonathan Stewart returns to Cambridge University's St. Bride's College as a Fellow in the first decade of the 19th century. Encountering Dr. Orlando Coppersmith, a pathologically shy, naive, virginal mathematics professor, Jonty finds both his libido and his heart awakened. Soon the two develop a solid friendship but Orlando's sensitivity and the social mores and legal repercussions of the time mitigate against their budding romance. Then a series of student murders begins, and notes left on the victims clarify that the killer is acting from homophobic motives.

Charlie Cochrane skillfully develops the historical background and the minutiae of British University life, while simultaneously deeply developing her characters, both primary and secondary. Lessons in Love gives an excellent demonstration of the varying paths chosen by victims of childhood sexual abuse: both those who are able to channel their suffering productively and those who are permanently traumatized and consequently lash out. Lessons in Love is only the first in the Cambridge Fellows Series and this reviewer anticipates Lessons in Desire, the second volume, to be published in February 2009. Lessons in Love is a not-to-be missed experience of total reading pleasure.

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