To Sketch a Scandal is book four in Jess Everlee’s Lucky Lovers of London series, and returns readers to late Victorian London and the convivial safe space carefully carved out for the local queer community at the underground club, the Curious Fox. There are a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me, but I enjoyed the story overall; it’s cute, witty and kind of adorable, the leads are three-dimensional, their chemistry is delicious and I loved watching flirtatious barkeep Warren Bakshi falling head-over-heels despite his avowed aversion to romance and anything that lasts longer than one night.

Warren works at the club to earn enough money to support himself and his mother, but he also loves the job and the casual fun that is one of its perks (as the notches on his bedpost there can attest!) They’re not rich, but he’s content and likes being useful; but everything changes when his long-lost brother, Harry, returns to England having amassed a fortune and gained a wife – arranges for them all to move in to a grand house in a better location and says that Warren doesn’t need to work any more. But for Warren, the Curious Fox is the only place he can really be himself – or at least, the outrageously flirty version of himself that he can safely present there – and he absolutely doesn’t want to give it up. But with their new-found wealth comes the expectation of being more engaged in ‘society’, and of undertaking more… dignified pursuits. Warren’s mother has, for a while, been trying to get him to do something with his artistic talent, and with Harry’s new wife and a new housekeeper now doing most of the household tasks Warren used to do, he realises that perhaps signing up for some art classes might not be the worst idea.

It’s largely thanks to the quick thinking of Inspector Matthew Shaw that the Curious Fox is still in business. We met him in A Rulebook for Restless Rogues when he posed as valet to David Forrester, then the club’s manager, as part of an investigation into Lord Belleville, the nasty piece or work who owned the place and who was threatening to close it down. Matty is good at his job – but of late, he’s begun to feel more and more as though he’s walking a tightrope, and it’s exhausting. Inspector Barrows, who rescued him from the streets when Matty was just fifteen and has acted as a mentor to him – is about to retire, few of his colleagues respect him due to the nature of many of the cases he’s worked, and there are whispers about his sexuality which, if they become more than whispers, will not only spell the end of his career, but could also see him sentenced to two years hard labour. If all that wasn’t bad enough, he’s being passed over for promotion, and his latest assignment – to go undercover as an art student – requires him to display a degree of artistic ability he simply doesn’t have. The only bright spot in all of it is the gorgeous barkeep from the Fox, who, by complete coincidence, has signed up to take the same art class – but whose boss, concerned for the safety of his clientele, has warned him to stay away from Matty who, despite not intending to cause any trouble for the club or its patrons, poses too much of a risk to its security should he be seen there.

I really did enjoy To Sketch a Scandal, but I can’t deny that there isn’t much of a plot. Some serious questions are introduced – is the art studio a front for a forgery/counterfeiting operation? Is Matty’s mentor going to throw him under the bus? Are Matty and Warren being targeted by a blackmailer? But they’re either handwaved away (oops! It was a misunderstanding!) or too easily resolved. I didn’t mind that too much because I was so invested in the characters and their romance, but I couldn’t help noticing when some plot-points just fizzled out or didn’t go anywhere, and that might be frustrating for anyone who comes to this book expecting more of a mystery/detective story.

The romance between Matty and Warren is really well done. They have terrific chemistry, their longing for one another in ways that go beyond the physical leaps off the page, and the quieter, intimate moments they share – such as when Warren helps Matty improve his drawing – are very sweet. They’re both immensely likeable and charming, and are facing upheaval in their lives they aren’t sure how to deal with. Warren has been responsible for running his small household for years and is struggling with new feelings of uncertainty, and Matty is feeling adrift without the comforting presence of Barrows, the man who plucked him from the streets ten years ago, took him in, had him educated and then offered him employment when he was old enough – even though that employment has been, he can see now, somewhat exploitative. Matty’s personal growth as he begins to admit to his doubts about his career and to his crushing loneliness, to his desire to have someone in his life to care for and to care for him in return, is really the core of the story, and Warren is a wonderfully grounding influence for him, offering Matty the kind of caring and support he hasn’t really experienced before. And in Matty, Warren finds someone he can finally be his whole self with – not just the dutiful son or the debauched barkeep – and someone he can talk to, really talk to, about the things that matter to him.

To Sketch a Scandal is a fun and engaging read with a beautifully written romance at its heart, and I enjoyed it a lot despite the weaknesses of the plot. I believe it’s the final book in the Lucky Lovers of London series, and I hope to see more queer historical romances from Jess Everlee in the not too distant future.