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tshepiso 's review for:
The Companion
by E.E. Ottoman
The Companion might be my first polyamorous romance and definitely my first T4T romance and I'm happy to say overall it was it hit. While It took me a bit fully get into the story and I do have my critiques it was overall a solid read
The Companion follows Madeline a trans woman wrung out from the gruelling New York literary scene of the late 1940s. When a friend pushes to live with reclusive fellow author Victor upstate Madeline jumps on the chance. She soon finds herself entangled with both Victor and their neighbour Audrey.
While I eventually found the flow of The Companion I'll be honest it took a bit for the story to click for me. My first hurdle was the mismatch of tone and pacing. The measured and reflective writing style of this book to me was completely at odds with the flash-bang pacing of the story. The opening chapters of the novella suggested to me that it would be a slow burn romance but to my surprise by chapter 6 Madeline had already gotten hot and heavy with Victor and Audrey.
E.E. Ottoman throughout the book seemed to skim over character detail that would have enriched the story. His writing was a little too blunt for my taste and lacked emotional layers. character emotions and were directly told to the audience and never effectively conveyed through scenes making the connection between Madeline and her lovers as well as the history between Audrey and Victor feel shallow.
Another one of my disappointments with this novella was the lack of historical detail throughout. It never quite felt like we were rooted in 1948 in this story. The war is mentioned once off-hand and no other aspects of the story reference it. To be clear i wasn't looking for moments where our character read the newspaper and recited the facts of the day but i wish a little bit more go their lives and backstories referenced back to the historical period the story was set in. The biggest missed opportunity of this front was the shallow and vague details given about the new york literary scene all three of our characters were involved in
Despite my complaints I did actually enjoy The Companion. I had to reorient myself to expect mainly a smut heavy affair but I'll be honest The sex was probably the best part of the story. As much as I think more could have been done with these characters they were satisfactorily rendered and I was eventually swept away by the romance. Ottoman also shined at atmospheric detail. If you're looking for a cottagecore romance with copious detail about walking in the woods, making your own preserves and writing novels in sunlit Victorian manors this is definitely the book for you.
This book got me suitably curious to put more of E.E. Ottoman's work on my radar. i'm hoping a full length novel will give me the detail and measured pacing I was hoping for next time.
The Companion follows Madeline a trans woman wrung out from the gruelling New York literary scene of the late 1940s. When a friend pushes to live with reclusive fellow author Victor upstate Madeline jumps on the chance. She soon finds herself entangled with both Victor and their neighbour Audrey.
While I eventually found the flow of The Companion I'll be honest it took a bit for the story to click for me. My first hurdle was the mismatch of tone and pacing. The measured and reflective writing style of this book to me was completely at odds with the flash-bang pacing of the story. The opening chapters of the novella suggested to me that it would be a slow burn romance but to my surprise by chapter 6 Madeline had already gotten hot and heavy with Victor and Audrey.
E.E. Ottoman throughout the book seemed to skim over character detail that would have enriched the story. His writing was a little too blunt for my taste and lacked emotional layers. character emotions and were directly told to the audience and never effectively conveyed through scenes making the connection between Madeline and her lovers as well as the history between Audrey and Victor feel shallow.
Another one of my disappointments with this novella was the lack of historical detail throughout. It never quite felt like we were rooted in 1948 in this story. The war is mentioned once off-hand and no other aspects of the story reference it. To be clear i wasn't looking for moments where our character read the newspaper and recited the facts of the day but i wish a little bit more go their lives and backstories referenced back to the historical period the story was set in. The biggest missed opportunity of this front was the shallow and vague details given about the new york literary scene all three of our characters were involved in
Despite my complaints I did actually enjoy The Companion. I had to reorient myself to expect mainly a smut heavy affair but I'll be honest The sex was probably the best part of the story. As much as I think more could have been done with these characters they were satisfactorily rendered and I was eventually swept away by the romance. Ottoman also shined at atmospheric detail. If you're looking for a cottagecore romance with copious detail about walking in the woods, making your own preserves and writing novels in sunlit Victorian manors this is definitely the book for you.
This book got me suitably curious to put more of E.E. Ottoman's work on my radar. i'm hoping a full length novel will give me the detail and measured pacing I was hoping for next time.