Sometimes, books are tagged a certain way, and it’s totally wrong, but when this book was sub-tagged as erotica…I should have listened. I mean..Patience & Esther is a romance, yes. It’s got great artistic style and historical competency and amazing end notes…but there’s definitely some erotica in there too. Like…not “two girls making out” erotica…but “here’s a threesome and a penis and XYZ” erotica. Oops.
Nonetheless, I read it, I give it four stars, there’s a sweet love story between two service-workers in the early 20th century. It’s verrry British, they go on many servant-style adventures, it’s “small” in the best ways—not too fantastical–and the way they grow together is nice! Oh, did I mention who they are? Patience and …you guessed it, Esther. They fall for each other, switch jobs, try to survive in a struggling world, and along the way, we also learn more about Patience and Esther’s backgrounds–Esther is Indian and that provides a unique insight into her role as a servant and how the others treat her (and maybe not in ways you’d expect)
It’s also got some good “political” subtext–yay women’s rights–and there’s a bonus novella at the end that imagines these characters in a modern setting. The whole thing is also 300+ pages, so it’s a hefty graphic novel–and a standalone as far as I can tell.
Overall, 4 stars, but be mindful of the graphic pages so your boss doesn’t go “excuse me, are you reading erotica at work?”
Patience & Esther by SW Searle is on sale wherever books are sold
We’ll see.
www.aryssareads.com 
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