The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics: Feminine Pursuits

As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.

Catherine St Day looks forward to a quiet widowhood once her late husband’s scientific legacy is fulfilled. She expected to hand off the translation and wash her hands of the project—instead, she is intrigued by the young woman who turns up at her door, begging to be allowed to do the work, and she agrees to let Lucy stay. But as Catherine finds herself longing for Lucy, everything she believes about herself and her life is tested.

While Lucy spends her days interpreting the complicated French text, she spends her nights falling in love with the alluring Catherine. But sabotage and old wounds threaten to sever the threads that bind them. Can Lucy and Catherine find the strength to stay together or are they doomed to be star-crossed lovers?

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219 pages

Average rating: 7.41

17 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

blewballoon
Nov 21, 2024
10/10 stars
This was absolutely lovely! I had been wanting to read this book ever since I saw a youtube video by Bernadette Banner where she redesigned romance novel covers to be more historically accurate. I am so glad I did! I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator was excellent. I loved the protagonists, they were both interesting, passionate, and complex in their own ways. I loved the exploration of the often overlooked women's contributions to arts and sciences. There were some great steamy scenes, but plenty of substance in all the other areas of the story.

There was one instance of a sort of miscommunication trope, which I typically dislike, but in this case it was more of a "these two people are having two different conversations." So, they were actually trying to communicate but just completely misinterpreting each other, which makes sense in context.
Anonymous
Jan 27, 2024
gah... i love sapphic books but this was not nearly slowburn enough to be interesting and the plot is very predictable so :( dnf for now since it's lowkey putting me back into a reading slump
wicdiv
Feb 03, 2023
8/10 stars
eh more like a 3.5 but parts of it were definitely enjoyable

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