KJ Charles does such a great job writing compelling, complicated characters. This novel sucked me in and got me invested in the Doomsday smuggling family. This m/m romance brings together men from different classes and parts of England, so there is an element of culture shock. I love how Charles has some of their miscommunications be just that the expressions they use are unfamiliar to one another.

There is a lot of plot in this book, some of which actually sort of goes unresolved at the end, though in a way that works. If you enjoy m/m historical romance, this is a great choice, as it takes things outside of London and adds country flare. I love how Charles brings the setting into the plot itself. It is really lovely.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

I have to start by saying what a fan I am of Will Darling, how much I adore him and enjoyed the first book in his series, Slippery Creatures. Hence, why I was keen to read Charles’s trad-pubbed romance, The Secret Lives of Country Gentleman. Would her unique voice and style be “standardized” for a wider audience, or could Charles retain everything that makes her self-published m/m romance unique? Also, with a selling point of “Bridgerton meets Poldark,” I was doubly intrigued. (I’m still mulling how much I liked this. But let’s consider Secret Lives on its own merit.) The publishers’ details for our orientation:

Abandoned by his father, Gareth Inglis grew up lonely, prickly, and well-used to disappointment. Still, he longs for a connection. When he meets a charming man in a London molly house, he falls head over heels—until everything goes wrong and he’s left alone again. Then Gareth’s father dies, turning the shabby London clerk into Sir Gareth, with a grand house on the remote Romney Marsh and a family he doesn’t know.

The Marsh is another world, a strange, empty place notorious for its ruthless gangs of smugglers. And one of them is dangerously familiar…

Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. When the new baronet—his old lover—agrees to testify against Joss’s sister, Joss acts fast to stop him. Their reunion is anything but happy, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. Soon, all Joss and Gareth want is the chance to be together. But the bleak, bare Marsh holds deadly secrets. And when Gareth finds himself threatened from every side, the gentleman and the smuggler must trust one another not just with their hearts, but with their lives.

Charles’s strengths in Secret Lives are her characterization and setting. Like Will Darling, Sir Gareth Inglis is diffident and humble…until he isn’t. That’s what I adore about both. Like Will, Gareth is infused with delightful humour and caustic banter (also his funny asides to the reader, yay for asides!). I chuckled at Gareth’s first glimpse of arriving in his newly-claimed inheritance: “Romney Marsh was hardly Kent; it was hardly anywhere at all. The population of the whole place looked to be about thirty, plus sheep.” I was, of course, fascinated, as I love desolate, flat landscapes with lots of weather, so I went down a Google rabbit-hole of Romney Marsh images. I thought it was beautiful! There truly are many, many sheep.

Charles makes initial impressions shift and change over the novel’s course, as Gareth discovers the marsh’s infinite variety of flora and fauna, paralleled to a sense of being home, for a character who never had a home, a neglected, rejected child and lonely adult. When Gareth muses, “He preferred his own home, and the little family that was forming there,” it was cause for reader-celebration. As Gareth bonds with the people his father left behind, mistress-and-SIL Catherine and daughter, Gareth’s half-sister, Cecilia “Cecy”, his sense of belonging grows. As he discovers his father was as awful as he first thought, he does take one thing from him, a natural historian’s fascination with the marsh insects; as Gareth builds interests, family, purpose, it’s easy to feel joyful for him. Charles’s descriptions of the marsh were beautifully rendered, evocative, and atmospheric. Gareth also shares a lovely friendship with Catherine and a humorously fraught one with his temperamental 17-year-old sister. Cecy does some growing of her own and it’s wonderful to see, by the end, Gareth gains family bonds, strong ones.

I have to admit I was less enamored of Charles’s romance: was it the romance, or was it Gareth’s love interest, Joss Doomsday. Joss never quite “came alive”. However, when Gareth gave him a piece of his mind, it’s a delight: ” “How the devil was I supposed to know someone I’d ‘met’ in London was living less than a mile from me, a fact you hadn’t troubled to communicate to me in the entire time I’ve been here, and Josiah Doomsday of all things? Why would I imagine anyone would be called that?’ ‘It’s a perfectly good name,’ Joss said, stung. ‘It’s an utterly ridiculous name. It sounds like a Gothic villain.’ ” Joss is, in so many ways, Gareth’s opposite; he has more family than he knows what to do with, he’s garrulous, popular, good-looking, assertive and, as Catherine calls him, a “prince” of the marsh. I enjoyed Joss’s struggle with family obligation even while Gareth develops family bonds: it was a lovely paralleling of the characters. I thought how Joss and Gareth worked out their roles in their relationship well done: Joss has to learn to trust Gareth’s ability to take care of himself and others and not be a control freak; he has to learn to stand up to his family and depend on someone other than himself.

Charles offers wonderfully rendered secondary characters, especially the sympathetically drawn Catherine, who forges a friendship with Gareth, who understand the marsh, its people, and Gareth too. Officer Bovey, the smugglers’ enemy, who turns out to be more decent and true than at first appears. Cecy, who runs like a bull and bursts into gulping, messy tears at the drop of a hat, also becomes a true and loving sister to Gareth. Gareth who deserves it all. And the marsh, changeable, dangerous, and beautiful all at once. And the ever-present danger of what it means to be a gay man in Regency England: the threat of exposure, fear combined with desire: I thought this was terrific. As were the politics: this is where Joss shines, where the local meets centralized power, where the weak meet indifferent authority, where fellow-feeling meets expedient:

…nobody gives a damn for the Marsh except Marshmen. The government and king don’t care if we starve. They put on the blockade but charge their rents and taxes same as ever, and they’ll let the sea or the French take us if that preserves their skins for another day. So we look after ourselves. And that means trading, and selling wool — some of it wool off the sheep that are going to be saved when old women and children will be let behind…

This is where the narrative is at its best, how Joss’s understanding of power and vulnerability change Gareth:

Gareth…had a vague sort of idea that country, king, and law were the foundations on which the nation was built, while nevertheless acknowledging that he had no intention of taking up arms for the country, the king was a mad German, and he’d spent much of his adult life happily breaking the law. Still, they were principles, even if they weren’t his principles. He’d thought this would be an easy fight to pick. He’d met plenty of radicals in London — men who wanted wealth redistributed, laws changed, the government made representative. Joss Doomsday, fervent patriot of a hundred square miles of marshland, was perhaps the most radical man he’d ever met.

As Gareth is transformed by Joss, Joss is by Gareth: “…the lanky outmarsh [Gareth] had made him see his own beloved home with new and sharper eyes. There was a whole world on the Marsh he’d never known and that they’d explored together, alone in their waterlogged Eden and sharing its discovery.”

In the end, Secret Lives dragged its resolution and Joss remained etiolated, but Charles is a fine writer, elegant and clear, a great “world-builder” (I’m looking forward to book 2), Gareth is wonderful, and the marsh drawn in its infinite variety and wild beauty. I don’t know if Miss Austen would be scandalized by queer Regency romance, I suspect not, as there’s an earthiness and truth to her that Austen prigs never quite get, she’d agree Charles’s Secret Lives is “a mind lively and at ease,” Emma. (Also, what a beautiful cover!)

KJ Charles’s Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is published by Sourcebooks Casablanca and was released on March 7th. I received an e-arc from Sourcebooks, via Netgalley, for the purpose of writing this review, which does not influence my opinion.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is my very first of KJ Charles books, but it certainly will not be the last. I took one look at this cover and instantly felt drawn in. I've been looking for historical romance that feel similar to Alexis Hall's, Something Fabulous, and while this is not quite as rollicking as that, it certainly fit the bill. Gareth and Joss were such an unlikely pairing and it was an interesting dynamic to have the story opening with them already being lovers, even though their arrangement was anonymous.

Having them meet again in unlikely circumstances gave this one very much a second chance romance feel, which is one of my favorite tropes. Seeing Gareth and Joss grapple with their feelings in their real lives added a layer to their story that felt very tangible and realistic. Gareth's longing to see Joss smile at him again the way he did in London felt like a gut punch.

I was a bit unprepared for the violent side plot of this one, but the villains were so well written and I vehemently loathed them. Overall, this was such a sweet, adventurous romance that I highly recommend. Thanks so much for the chance to read and review this early copy!

I’ve yet to meet a book by K.J. Charles that I haven’t at the very least liked – or more usually, loved – and her latest title, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is no exception. The story is set in and around Romney Marsh in Kent – a fairly desolate part of the country even today and one that from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, was something of a smuggler’s paradise due to its topography, location and isolation. TSLoCG is a fabulous mix of frenemies-to-lovers romance and mystery boasting a wonderfully evoked setting, lots of interesting historical detail and plenty of the wry humour and sharp observation that I so enjoy about the author’s work.

After the death of his wife, Sir Hugo Inglis sent his six-year-old son Gareth to live in London with his uncle. It very much a case of out of sight, out of mind for Sir Hugo, who married again and ignored his son’s pleas to be brought home. Gareth grew up without love and affection, knowing he was unwanted from the moment Henry Inglis made it very clear to his bereaved, exiled nephew that he had taken him in on sufferance and because he was being paid to. Gareth eventually studied law and has worked as his uncle’s clerk for several years, when, completely out of the blue, Inglis dismisses him for no reason. Just two days later, Gareth learns that his father is dead and that he has inherited the baronetcy, his house in Romney Marsh in Kent and a fairly respectable sum of money.

Going through his father’s books and papers, Gareth finds himself intrigued by his collection of books on natural history, maps of the local area and the collection of notebooks in which Sir Hugo made copious notes about the local birds, wildlife, flora and fauna and his particular interest in insects. Gareth has always been interested in natural history and at first thinks that by reading the notebooks, he might learn something about his father… but there’s nothing by way of personal reflection or insight to be found. Still, his own interest is piqued and he begins to explore his surroundings, starting in his own garden and then going further afield and onto the marshes. Out late one night, he stumbles across a string of ponies laden with packs and barrels; realising immediately what this means, he steps back out of sight, but can’t help overhearing voices raised in argument and then seeing a man pull off the cloth covering his companion’s face. Gareth is surprised to recognise the young woman, but before he can think much about it, she barks a command and the train moves on. The next day, Gareth thoughtlessly mentions this in front of his half-sister Cecilia’s beau, a revenue officer; the young woman is arrested and brought for trial, and Gareth, despite not really wanting to rock any boats, is called to give evidence against her.

The Doomsday family runs a large smuggling operation on the Marsh that provides work, income and goods for many local families, and at its head is Joss Doomsday, who controls the operation with a firm yet reasonable hand. It shouldn’t be his responsibility, though – after his father died, his mother and his uncle Elijah took over, but it quickly became clear that Elijah was reckless, unreliable and too often to be found at the bottom of a bottle, and things were starting to fall apart. So Joss stepped in – much to Elijah’s annoyance – and is now recognised as the “Upright Man”, the de facto head of the family and the go-to for just about everything affecting his family, dependents and those living in and around Dymchurch. Ma Doomsday won’t hear a word against Elijah, so Joss has to put up with the man’s carelessness and his resentment , and his constant complaints to and about him. Joss doesn’t have the time or energy to deal with him once and for all – his responsibilities leave him little time for himself or a life of his own – although when Elijah’s carelessness leads to his sister Sophy’s arrest, Joss has to act quickly to save her. He tries to speak to Sir Gareth privately to ask him to drop the charges, but the man refuses to see him and in the end leaves Joss no choice but to do the very thing he had hoped to avoid. He’s already realised that Sir Gareth is the man he’d known only as “London” during the very pleasurable week of nights they’d spent together some weeks earlier on one of Joss’ regular ‘business’ trips to the city. Joss had felt a real connection with him and had enjoyed his company as much as the sex; he’d even hoped they’d be able to continue to meet on subsequent visits, but those hopes were dashed when his lover became inexplicably cold and dismissive and walked out – leaving Joss angry and disappointed. Since learning the identity of the new baronet, he’s tried to keep out of his way, but now, he’s left with no alternative to a very public confrontation.

When Gareth sees his former lover “Kent” enter the courtroom, it doesn’t take him long to put the pieces together and understand exactly what his presence there means – that he could ruin him with a well-chosen word. Furious and humiliated, he retracts his statement, Sophy is saved and Joss is… tired.

Gareth would be pleased to never see Joss again, but when it becomes clear that he has stumbled into the middle of something both bewildering and dangerous, Joss is the only person he can turn to for help. The Sweetwaters – the gang that operates on the other side of Romney – seem to think Gareth is in possession of something they want, but he has absolutely no idea what it could be and is sure he doesn’t have it anyway. This McGuffin kicks the mystery plot into gear, as Joss and Gareth begin searching for answers, turning up clues and slowly putting the pieces together to reveal a bigger picture that not only reveals what the Sweetwaters are after, but also sheds light on some long unanswered and increasingly disquieting questions about Gareth’s family.

The plot is clever and fast-paced, with a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat climax, and the cross-class romance is beautifully done, with lots of tenderness and moments of recognition between Joss and Gareth, who are both thoroughly decent men dealing with the difficult hands life has dealt them. Both have become heads of their respective families at a young age, and are finding that responsibility weighing on them. Gareth has no idea how to be part of a family and struggles to know how to interact with his newly-found relatives, while Joss is the man everyone looks to for help, for guidance, for a plan, and has little to no time to just be himself. Life at the top is lonely and he has no-one to share his burdens, no one who is really “on his side”. Gareth has never had that either; he’s been alone for most of his life – alone or surrounded by those who didn’t want or didn’t care for him. His deep-seated fear of abandonment is what caused him to reject “Kent” and bring their affair to an end, and he believes himself to be weak because he doesn’t like confrontation. Despite the inauspicious beginning to their romance, Gareth and Joss are drawn together, finding a kind of refuge in each other, a respite from the pressures they face in their everyday lives, and I enjoyed watching them learning things about themselves as they question their assumptions about who they are and who and what they can be. The author explores the dichotomy between wanting a life of one’s own while one bears responsibility for others, and I really enjoyed the way Joss challenges Gareth’s perception of himself as weak, showing him that he’s so much stronger than he thinks, and the way Gareth encourages Joss to set down his burdens while they’re together: “if you can just be you with me – I’d love that.”

The historical background is, of course, impeccably researched and integrated into the story, and the way the realities of ‘free trade’ (smuggling) are presented is very thought-provoking. The theme of the commoner who takes care of his people versus the self entitlement of the aristocrat who doesn’t give a stuff for anyone but himself is a recurring one in K.J. Charles’ books, but given the current political climate in the UK, it’s one that is as relevant now – if not more so – as it ever was. That said, the very valid social commentary never overshadows the romance or the plot; this book is absolutely NOT full of intrusive authorial tub-thumping at the expense of the story.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is book one in the Doomsday Books duology, with the second due for release later this year. Gareth and Joss are easy to like and root for, and their romance is warm, tender and utterly charming. The secondary cast is beautifully drawn, the mystery is intriguing and the imagery pertaining to the desolate, forbidding marshland where one wrong turn could spell disaster creates an atmosphere so strong it’s almost a character in itself. The author’s decision to take this series to a mainstream publisher rather than to self-publish has meant it’s been a while since we’ve had a new full-length K.J. Charles novel to enjoy, but I can attest that it’s been worth the wait.

Grade: A-'/4,5 stars

This is the first book in The Doomsday Books series. This is a MM historical romance that was just delightful. The characters were interesting and so opposite it was a miracle they were able to make it work. The pace was terrific, making it hard to put down. I can’t wait for the next book in this series.

I'm squeeing with joy at how delightful I found this book. It's a historical romance with perfectly complicated characters and a gloriously twisty plot.
Sir Gareth Inglis, aka London, wins your heart from page one and continues to prove he's a lovable character as he learns to stand up for himself and those he cares about. Joss Doomsda, aka Kent, has the world on his shoulders and could really use someone who just wants him for himself. They're adorable together. And the dangerous and tragic situation they unwittingly find themselves embroiled in gives them many chances to fight, make up, and be there for each other like no one else can.
It's swoon-worthy and engaging in a way only the best romance can be with the added pleasure of a great mystery to be solved. And that's not even getting into the original setting that takes the gentleman out of his comfort zone and shows a very different part of society through the lives and experiences of a varied and interesting cast of side characters.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the exciting and romantic read!

If you're a KJ Charles fan already, you'll be thrilled with this, because it is a classic historical romance in her style, full of angsty men, high drama, and gorgeous characterisation. I'm not generally a fan of books about smugglers - no real reason, I just never seem to click with them! - but I'll read anything by this author, and I still really enjoyed the tense, growing relationship between Gareth and Joss. Charles writes the horribleness of falling in love just as brilliantly as the delights.

ve not read a KJ Charles book in AGES. I don’t know why this is as she is one of my favourite authors for historical romance and perhaps even in general. SO, when I had the chance to read this, I jumped at it.

As I hoped for, her writing was as brilliant as ever in this book. This story had properly fleshed out characters , great pacing, gripping premise /plot and had an awesome set of protagonists. The sheer connection between Gareth and Joss was palpable and highly believable.

I rooted for them all throughout the book because they just “worked” as a couple. Of course, getting their HEA came with it’s own ups and downs but they managed to come out stronger together on the other side.

Like I said, Right from the onset, the story grabs you and does not let you go until the end. Honestly, I had thought it would be a simple love story between two people from vastly different backgrounds but this story was so much more. It had intrigue, humour, mystery and so much heart. Also, after I’ve read this, I love the cover more than ever!

As the book ended, I was about to lament about missing all the wonderful characters in this book but a quick check on GR indicated that this was book 1 of the Doomsday Series. This news makes my heart so happy because it means we get to go back to the Marsh and I, for one, cannot wait!

I liked this novel. Really. But I liked it a lot less than some of KJ Charles' other works. It just was not as captivating. Maybe it was because the crime story was a major plot line which I didn't care about too much.
On a more positive note: I really liked both MCs, how they interacted, and how their relationship developed.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Q: if you had to put these in order of preference how would you do it?: historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance. This is actually an impossible question I think . It would be contemporary & paranormal tied for me & then historical.
​

Well KJ Charles’s The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen was basically a little slice of heaven. My enemies to lovers greed was quenched by this lovers to vague dislike to lovers again story, I got my steam wants met, & I think this is definitely one of the more romantic KJ Charles books I’ve read…

All of which makes for a very happy Jess.

Gareth Inglis & Josiah Doomsday are anonymous lovers who have a bit of a bitter break-up thanks mostly to Gareth’s past trauma.

Then they unexpectedly meet again when Gareth—now a baronet after the death of his father—moves to his family home & into the life his estranged dad left behind. Unbeknownst to him, his former lover is the leader of a smuggling family within his new community & Gareth has gotten himself involved in a bit of a mess.

I just adored how sweet the relationship between Gareth & Joss is. They both want & need certain things from each other & it’s lovely how they make their relationship into a refuge—or maybe just embrace it as one. There are some lovely speeches & a symbolic gesture with pieces of grass *weeping* & it was all what I wanted.

There’s plenty of family drama & thrills in this one too & Charles captures this life & these characters so vividly. Can’t wait to return for more books—this was a good one!

5⭐️. Out 03/07.

CW: attempted murder. One of the leads was abandoned by his father. Reference to losing loved ones and grief. Child abuse on page. Reference to rape & assault is threatened against secondary character.

4.5 stars. I’m a huge KJ Charles fan and I’m always amazed that she keeps coming up with these creative stories. This one is set in a smuggling town on Romney Marsh in Kent in the early 1800s. It’s a plot-heavy romance between a reluctant baronet new to the area and the head of a smuggling family. I felt it started off a bit slow, but once it got going I couldn’t put it down. It got quite exciting and very romantic. I loved the colorful cast of characters and am looking forward to reading more about this smuggling family and a new romance in the second book.

<i>“I said I wouldn’t leave you … I won’t. Not till you make me, and you’ll have to try middling hard on that.”</i>

I believe this is KJC’s first trad pub release, and I really hope it does well and she gets a lot of new fans. And although I really enjoyed this book, I couldn’t help but think about what other KJC books I’d recommend to a first time reader, or someone who enjoyed <i>The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen</i> and don’t know where to start with KJC’s backlist. So here is my short list of recommendations:

If you like badass magic practitioners, rebellious gentry, excitement, mystery, size difference, and high heat with D/s elements try <i>The Magpie Lord</i>.

If you like humor, snappy banter, spy vibes, secret plots, the 1920s, and a slow burn romance set over 3 books try <i>Slippery Creatures</i>.

If you like sizzling attraction, morally gray characters, and heists try <i>Any Old Diamonds</i>.

If you want a lighthearted stand-alone with fun characters and banter try <i>The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting</i> or <i>Band Sinister</i>.

If a sapphic murder mystery interests you try <i>Proper English</i> which has an MM sequel <i>Think of England</i>.

Two young men in England find themselves entangled when one inherits a title from the father that abandoned him.

Joss Doomsday runs his family smuggling business and keeps his short-term liaisons with other men to his trips away. Sir Gareth Inglis has fallen for Joss but refuses to admit it after a lifetime of being shoved aside and considered worthless. When his father dies suddenly and Gareth discovers he now has a house, a title, and an unknown sister in a part of the country that he has never even visited, he also finds that smuggling is a part of his new home and has to decide how he feels about it. The complications of Gareth and Joss' earlier meetings deepens the danger they find themselves in when strange events start to haunt Gareth in his own home.

I really enjoyed this story set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Seeing how the people in this particular setting were affected by the rules of their country was an interesting way for the author to add color and depth to the romance of these two men.

This was a good start to a new series, with relatable characters. Joss, the overworked leader, who everyone comes to for solutions, and who just wants a moment to himself. Gareth, the “outmarsh” man trying to find his place in the world. They find each other, lose each other, find each other again.

There is a good group of side characters, one of whom gets his story next. I can’t wait to spend time with the Doomsdays again.

An absolutely delightful historical romance with a dash of mystery and humor. I read predominantly contemporary romances but KJ Charles is one of the few regency romance authors that I really enjoy and who embraces the feel the time period without making the reader feel overloaded on historical facts. This is the first book in the series The Doomsday Books.

When the reader first meets the main characters, Gareth and Joss, they are known to each other as London and Kent - strangers that share a week of romantic encounters while Kent is in town. They part on less than fantastic terms and go back to being themselves. Fate has a funny way of bringing these two back into each others lives under bumpy circumstances. Gareth faces the challenges of a complicated family situation and being thrown into a town he doesn’t know and doesn’t quite fit into with his London ways.

After their rocky reunion, I really felt for Gareth and Joss. I think both men wish to get back to that easy feel of being London and Kent without all the responsibilities and expectations of who they are in real life. They come from completely different worlds and who knows if they would have ever crossed paths or if they had in their regular roles as smuggler and baronet, would there have been that connection and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book. The mystery and suspense aspect of the book meshed well with the romance storyline. Both storylines kept me turning the pages and a couple of a-ha moments. For a historical romance, there was definitely a fair amount of steam.

I absolutely enjoyed this introduction into The Doomsday Books. If this first book is anything to go by, the series is sure to be interesting with some swoony and steamy romance and hopefully some twists and turns along the way. I enjoyed the side characters and witty banter. The Doomsday family has a fair amount of interesting personalities and look forward to reading more about them.

I wish I could say I loved this book. I was so excited by the description of this book because I thought it would be right up my alley, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype for me. The first half was extremely hard to get through. I almost put it down and stopped reading all together several times. The characters weren’t loveable and I just feel like it took a long time to get anywhere in the plot. The second half did redeem itself once the action begin. It held my attention and I did find myself rooting for the characters. I wish I could have felt that the whole way through.

In some romance novels, the love story overshadows everything else. But in this book, the plot and the setting grabbed my attention as much as the romance did, which made for a completely satisfying read. I loved it!

The plot, which revolves around smuggling in an area of England known as Romney Marsh, has an element of mystery to it. One of the leads, Joss Doomsday, is the head of his family’s smuggling operation. His love interest, Gareth, comes to the Marsh when he inherits his estranged father’s title and property. Gareth has no intention of getting involved in the trade himself, but unfortunately, that’s easier said than done in a place where smuggling is a way of life. When a group of rival free traders threatens Gareth’s family, he and Joss must figure out why Gareth has become a target.

Their attempts to do so are complicated by Gareth being “outmarsh,” an outsider to life on Romney Marsh, which as described in the novel seems like a fascinating corner of England. The thinly populated and desolate marshlands are the perfect environment for smuggling, which is a profession for most of its residents. The people who live on the Marsh seem alien to Gareth, who struggles to understand their mores and even their words. But in following in his father’s footsteps as a budding naturalist, Gareth comes to love the spare beauty of the marsh and the creatures that live there, even as he’s also falling in love with Joss.

Which brings me to the lovely romance at the heart of the book. On the face of it, Joss and Gareth don’t belong together. Gareth is a wealthy, educated baronet, and Joss is common as muck, not to mention engaged in an illegal trade. At a deeper level, though, they’re a perfect match. Gareth’s father abandoned him to his uncle’s less-than-tender care when he was six, and he’s been made to feel like an unwanted burden all his life. Joss has all the burdens of being the head of both his family and their business, the person everyone else goes to with their problems. What both Gareth and Joss need is someone who will stand by their side providing unconditional support and love, and they find that in each other. The way each of them cares for the other and the delight they find in being together had me swooning, while all their bantering kept me laughing, too.

This book is just terrific, well deserving of the attention it has been getting. I’ve been a fan of KJ Charles for years, and it’s great to see her excellent writing reach a wider audience. I can’t wait for the second in the Doomsday series, and whatever else she has planned—I’ll be reading!

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

Gareth Inglis and Joss Doomsday meet in a London pub which is frequented by men looking for discreet encounters with other men. While they are immediately attracted to each other and enjoy a few spicy romantic encounters, they don't even know each other's real names—they go by the geographical pseudonyms "London" and "Kent." Gareth rudely dismisses Joss when he suggests meeting up again in the future, and they part on bad terms.

When Gareth winds up moving to Kent after his estranged father dies, it doesn't take long for his path to cross with that of Joss. However, their lives couldn't be more different—Gareth is a newly minted baronet, and Joss is the head of an unwieldy clan of smugglers, who take advantage of the coastal access and the impenetrable-to-outsiders Romney Marsh to ply their trade.

It turns out that Gareth's father may have been involved in some shady dealings, while Joss's uncle's carelessness and taste for drink is threatening to harm the Doomsday family's position as the county's premier smugglers. The two meet up again, and despite their mutual ambivalence, the wild attraction that brought them together is still very much alive.

There is a LOT of family drama in this book, with plenty of bad actors on both sides to root against. The best things about "Secret Lives" are the great sense of place (Romney Marsh is real, and was "a smuggler's paradise from the 1600s into the 1800," according to Wikipedia) and the sweet relationship between Joss and Gareth. The marsh is described as being very much its own place with its own rules, so a HEA for these two men actually seems joyfully plausible, even in the early 19th century.

After the high praise I felt for the 1920’s era Will Darling Adventures trilogy, I couldn’t keep my anticipation under wraps when I spotted another KJ Charles series set in Regency Napoleonic era rural Kent with another pair of unlikely opposites from different classes. No surprise I devoured it in two sittings.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen introduces prickly Sir Gareth Inglis and laconic and mysterious Joss Doomsday when they have an explosive shocking reunion in a magistrate’s courtroom no less. The pair had met under more clandestine circumstances using aliases when in London. Gareth’s a new baronet and doesn’t look kindly on the smuggling trade in the area of which Joss is the leader. But, then the mysteries start to come up.

As I indicated earlier, this is an opposites- class difference romance set against a lush and vibrant historical setting in the marsh and coastal countryside. The nation is at war and London is not even a day’s ride away. The marsh is an isolated world of its own and a naturalist’s paradise, but also the ideal locale for prime smuggling with the coastal access and hidden paths through the marsh.

Gareth comes to this place as an unwanted and under-appreciated law clerk, now baronet, dealing with family surprises and oddities all around him. He yearns for Joss even when circumstances occur that place them as near enemies. He’s so lonely and unsure, but starts to come into his own as realizes this is his chance to make his own way finally. At first, I thought he was a priggish cranky sort, but then his past is laid out and my heart leaped in and started cheering him on.

Joss’ situation is very different. He grew up with a tough situation and carries the weight of family and all the community on him with lazy charming smile hiding how much it is costing him. Gareth is his secret and only time he can lay aside his responsibilities and just be himself. I enjoyed seeing him protective of Gareth, but more so when he learned to let Gareth get close and be there for him. There were so many close calls for this pair whether it was attacks from those who think Gareth knows something or threats that they might be outed.

Strong action, suspense, and mystery as well as family and spicy hot romance all blend together to make this a well-layered story that was a feast for the imagination and emotions. It starts a series, but this first book wrapped things up neatly when it came to growth of character, relationships, and suspense. I’m not sure if there will be further adventures for Joss and Gareth or if new characters from the larger cast will get their tale.

All in all, it was abso-fab and just the sort of historical adventure-filled male romance I’ve come to appreciate from KJ Charles. I highly recommend this one

I really enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for 19th century romance in all stripes and this fit the bill. Not only were Gareth and Joss good main characters but the book had non-romantic plot. I prefer my romance books to have a least a semblance of external plot and this book definitely had it with the smuggling plot lines.

Honestly, if you like 19th century romances, you'll like this.

I adore this book. It’s an addictive story that takes place in a time I’ve read about a hundred times before but in a setting that was completely new and fresh. It’s so lush, with characters that are multi-dimensional and lovable. Even minor characters were so full - it’s easy to imagine them going about their days in this beautiful setting. I love that the challenges the characters faced were more than just their sexuality in a time period that wasn’t accepting. It’s a historical romance that just so happens to feature LGBT+ main characters rather than a LGBT+ historical romance where the entire plot is their being gay.