The Blossoms of Summer: A Tale of the Forbidden Flowers by Cecilia Tan
Self-published, 2024
When botanist Robert Meriwether is tasked with a perilous air journey to the forbidden inner reaches of China, he expects to return with rare specimens that will make his scientific name and ensure his material fortune. Little does he know that the legendary summer blossoms nurtured by the mountain monks are like nothing he’s studied before. Keeping the “flowers” blooming turns out to require skills he has not previously had to exercise in pursuit if his scholarly career. Fortunately the young naturalist possesses the flexibility, curiosity, resourcefulness and masculine endowment to successfully fulfill his commission.
The Blossoms of Summer is a sly, clever erotic nugget couched in the euphemistic prose of the Victorian period. Narrated in the epistolary style so popular in the nineteenth century, the story unfolds with grace, boldness and not a little humor. Cecilia Tan is one of my favorite authors. This tale showcases her versatility. It is erudite and politically astute, as well as great fun, though it would have had more of an erotic charge if we readers had been there to observe the action, rather than simply reading about it second hand in Robert’s letters.
On the other hand, in that case the story might have felt less authentically Victorian. One can almost imagine this journey to paradise might really have happened – much to the Robert’s delight.
This book is very short, thus the rather brief review. If you'd like to experience Cecilia Tan's novel-writing talent, I highly recommend her Secrets of a Rock Star series - some of the most honest, nuanced and arousing D/s romance I've ever read.
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