Book 854: The Sugared Game (The Will Darling Adventures #2) – K.J. Charles

After thoroughly enjoying Slippery Creatures, I immediately requested the next one in the series from the library and got it faster than expected! I wasn’t really sure where Charles would take the series, and I’m even less sure having finished this one. Wherever it goes I am ready to be part of the journey!

Picking up a couple months after Slippery Creatures, we once again find Will, WWI veteran and bookseller now with his inheritance, and Kim, aristocratic untrustworthy agent-of-some-sort, thrust together at the mercy of the cult-like Zodiac. This time, it’s both more and less straight forward because at least we know Zodiac exists.

This one brings more maturity to whatever relationship Will and Kim are trying to figure out. Sure, they face the fact that society looks down on same-sex relations and this book brings it front and forward when someone tries to have them arrested for it, but they both are starting to realize they care more about the other than they do about societal expectations.

They didn’t belong together—Will was a plain man with a knack for violence, while Kim was a twisty upper-class bundle of nerves—but they’d fit. (22)

Of course, they are trying to figure this out while there is drama and mayhem happening left and right. The bulk of the story happens around the High and Low night club which Zodiac is using for money laundering, but the big reveal toward the end of the novel has personal repercussions for Kim and Will which is why I have NO idea where this series is going in what I assume is the final installment.

I think—I flatter myself—that you want to know if I care for you. No: you must know that I do, so what you want is for me to say so, and I do, Will. I care for you far more than makes me feel safe. I want you, but you’re well aware of that. I feel at peace with you, and I don’t often feel at peace. And without excusing the trouble I have given you, it brings me to my knees that you’re strong enough to bear it. I wish I were worth you, Will. (267)

Kim and Will’s relationship grows exponentially this book and the last scene in the car when they’re finally acknowledging that they’re both really bad, but also really good together and that they hope they can sort it out was just so well written.

My favorite character might be Maisie. Her deadpan acknowledgement of same-sex relationships just made my life:

As if we never heard of it in Cardiff. Honestly, they don’t half think they invented everything, the smart lot, do they? Always out in front of us provincials. ‘No, no, nobody at home has ever noticed my uncle Dave living with his pal the schoolteacher for the last fifteen years.’ (222)

There was just something about the no-nonsense way she handles herself both around Will’s coming out to her and her introduction to the high fashion world, she just owns it. I’m not sure if she’ll make an appearance in the next book with Kim and Phoebe’s fall out and the way things were left with Will, but I really hope she does.

For the most part the sex scenes took a backseat to the rest of the book and that worked for me. I want to say there was only one scene (I’m writing this a little further away than I usually like to after finishing) and it was well written from what I remember. Sebastian did a great job of keeping the focus on Will and Kim’s changing/developing/evolving/wtf-ing relationship with each other which I think worked out better for the book in the long run.

Recommendation: Another fun and fascinating read! Will and Kim are continuing to navigate the fallout from the first book, even though Kim’s been MIA for months. They’re trying to figure out what they are together and whether or not they have anything worth fighting for. The book ends a little suddenly and I’m not sure where Subtle Blood, what I’m assuming is the final installment will take us, but I’m ready for it!

Opening Line: “Will Darling was going dancing, and he felt pretty good about it.”

Closing Line: “Will put a hand on Kim’s leg for the warmth of contact, and met his eyes as he looked round. ‘We’ll see how it goes.'” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from The Sugared Game
“You need to dress for your own body, not pretend you’ve someone else’s, don’t you think?” (8)

“Of course Kim had buggered off as unpredictably as he’d appeared, because he was an untrustworthy shit and a lord. There had never been any other possible outcome. Only, while he was around, he’d given Will a taste for starlight.” (24)

“‘The best defence is a good offence,’ Kim said. ‘And I am nothing if not offensive.'” (38)

“‘I know you’ve thought about this,’ Will said. ‘But there are men in the world who aren’t queer or arseholes. Have you considered marrying one of them instead?'” *(46)

“The blood-red uncivilised streak of his nature that had blossomed in the war didn’t want them. That streak wanted someone who would ask him to infiltrate night-clubs and kick people’s heads in. That streak wanted Kim, who offered none of the things that appealed to Will’s respectable ambitions and everything that fed the wolf.” (72)

“‘Scars are always beautiful,’ Kim said. ‘They’re proof we lived.'” (92)

“If what you believe in goes wrong, either you let go the belief, or you believe even harder.” (101)