I set out to read Slippery Creatures thinking I would only read the first book of KJ Charles’ Will Darling Adventures series, and save the others for later. Cut to a few days later, and I had not only read all three installments in the trilogy, but was also putting more KJ Charles books on hold in Libby. All this is to say, I like these books.
Slippery Creatures begins in a bookstore. Will Darling’s first adversary: The books. The shop and its contents were left to him by an uncle he only got to know in the years after returning from the World War I trenches. After realizing that his country has made no provisions for soldiers returning from war, he is grateful to have a home and a livelihood. But the store is dusty and disorganized, and bookselling is not something he ever thought he’d be doing.
Will finds more actively dangerous adversaries when it turns out that there is something in his bookshop that has sparked the interest of both the War Office and Zodiac, a mysterious anarchist organization. Will trusts neither, and is being threatened by both.
His most significant adversary, however, is the handsome, charming, and all-too-tempting Lord Arthur “Kim” Secretan, a helpful customer who is quickly drawn into the intrigue. Kim is, of course, more than he seems. He is more interested in the mystery surrounding the bookshop than he first lets on—and he is more interested in Will, too.
There is a parallel between the kind of cloak-and-daggers intrigue surrounding Will and Kim and the caution they must use as they feel each other out on a more personal level. Although Will is quickly taken with Kim, he is aware of a number of barriers between them, including class disparities, very different experiences of the recent war, and a society that does not look kindly on romances between men. But their chemistry is undeniable, and Charles excels at showing the way Will and Kim slowly reveal their vulnerabilities to one another and grow closer together—even as they fend off the War Office and Zodiac.
Also, for all of the conspiracies and danger confronting the two men, and for all of the romantic and sexual tension between them as they circle each other, there is little melodrama on the page. Instead, Charles maintains a dry humor throughout. After their first sexual encounter, Will finds himself at a loss for words. “Thank God they were British,” he muses to himself before offering to Kim, “‘Cup of tea?’’
There are also a couple of wonderful secondary characters in Phoebe, Kim’s “Bright Young Thing” of a fiancé, and Maisie, Will’s best friend and an aspiring fashion designer. When Phoebe meets Will, she has great fun with the fact that his last name is Darling, given how often she peppers her speech with “darling” as an endearment. Maisie catches Phoebe’s eye with her innovative fashions, and the two of them form an attachment that would be worthy of its own series.
Will and Kim are the heart of this series, though, and while each installment has its own happy ending of a kind, to truly enjoy the full arc and resolution of their relationship, it’s necessary to read all three books. And then, like I’m doing, read everything else KJ Charles has written, too.
Read this if you like:
An Heiress's Guide to Deception and Desire by Manda Collins (for the mystery)
Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall (for the British banter)
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (for the 1920s London setting)
More from KJ Charles:
The other books in the Will Darling series:
Books from other series that I would recommend: