(as usual this is for fellow readers, I don't think either author is on here, but if they are do not share this with them)

Finished the later book (A Gentleman and His Vowsmith) last night and was disappointed. I finished it, so clearly not bad, but I was promised very queer and based on the description I expected some interesting poly dynamics and it was instead a very conventional m/m romance with an ace female sidekick. And the ace-ness was written as an "unusual" thing (also her being sex-repulsed AND possibly having a horror of pregnancy made her more than a bit of a caricature). I get that allo people don't always understand, but the writing made it seem like the characters couldn't comprehend that ace even existed in their "queer" world. And somehow while gay relationships were ok in their society we got zero mention of either lesbians or bisexuals (that I noticed anyway).

I think because I went in with expectations that it would be queer in a way similar to how The Naturalist Society was written (poly relationship between three people, but neither a standard V or triangle type thing) I was also expecting a similar quality of the writing and was disappointed. There was far too much "we met the principle subject of our suspicions and they explained things to us in detail". Maybe that's a standard gothic locked room mystery trope, but I really didn't care for it.

Also a kind of big flaw where "stud clauses" in marriage contracts existed in a highly patriarchal society that clearly cares about "blood lines", which started driving me to distractions every time it was mentioned. It was just a problem with the world building where it was never explained how that made sense.