Reviews

Sailor's Delight by Rose Lerner

hamalee's review

3.5

Sweet, low angst. I wish they had more time together before the end of the book.

gillianw's review against another edition

4.0

Lovely hisrom with some wonderful low-angst pining, a loving family, and some neat information about navy agents. I love it when you get a side of learning with your heaping of romance!

coffeeintherain's review against another edition

3.0

2.5 stars

brims's review

2.5

For the life of me I couldn't understand half of what was going on. The way the dialogue was written was incredibly hard for me to follow, everything was spoken about in a frustratingly veiled/roundabout way, and the character’s moods jumped around too erratically for me to keep up with. I could never keep track of what a character was suddenly upset about, why arguments seemed to vanish into thin air one page to the next, and even struggled with things such as who was speaking to who or how much time had passed between conversations.

There were things I liked - the romance was sweet, and the historical detail was incredibly rich for such a short book. The writing style just wasn’t a good fit for me, and I’m sorry to say I felt more frustration than I did enjoyment.

megelizabeth's review

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

"And I just wanted to tell you that if you were like that - if you were like me - it would be all right. You’d be all right."

This was, fittingly, an absolute delight. I adored the characters and the various relationships and dynamics we see. I of course loved the romance and I was particularly impressed with how well pre-existing romantic feelings are depicted. The level of historical detail is incredible; meticulous research clearly went into this. I also really appreciated how Judaism is threaded throughout the story and the additional lens this adds. 

I could have probably done with slightly less work/navy talk, but not so much so that I didn't still thoroughly enjoy my time reading this. It's the perfect mixture of sweet and wholesome on the one hand and sad and angsty on the other, with a wonderfully hopeful yet realistic ending. I love Elie and Brine <3

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Antisemitism and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

netherfield's review

3.0

2.5

lovelyandmorbid's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I don't know much about Judaism or Jewish communities in the Victorian era and I know even less about accounting but I loved the look into both of those subjects, the characters where lovable I just wish it had like 100 more pages and had more a ending and I was disappointed there was no spice. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Antisemitism

shanaqui's review

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Rose Lerner's Sailor's Delight is a slow burn, despite being a fairly short book, helped by the fact that there is a real sense of history between the two right from the start. The fact that Elie is Jewish and Brine is a sailor really shapes the story, through the Jewish holiday and Elie's exploration of his feelings about and obligations toward people are all shaped by his beliefs and experiences as a Jewish man. 

I don't really know how to comment about the portrayal and whether it would satisfy someone looking for specifically Jewish queer romance (especially as Brine is not Jewish), but Rose Lerner has written in the past about being Jewish and the importance of Jewish representation, and I think the whole backbone of this book is about doing that. 

The relationship between Elie and Brine is full of yearning. There's obvious physical attraction as well, but also they obviously think about each other all the time, try to help one another, try to mesh their lives toge­ther, etc. It ends up surprisingly intense very quickly, and yet the steam level for the book is pretty low (no on-page sex). 

All in all, it was one I enjoyed, though I needed the right moment for it -- the intensity of Elie's apparently unrequited longing was a bit much for me at one point, so I took a break from the book!

mitreslupo's review

emotional funny inspiring relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

perfektionaise's review

I was confused and bored most of the time.