The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits Series #1)

by Olivia Waite

Overview

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?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062931795
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	07/23/2019
Series:	Feminine Pursuits Series , #1
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	58,298
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Olivia Waite writes historical romance, fantasy, and science fiction. She is currently the romance fiction columnist for the New York Times Book Review. To learn more and sign up for her newsletter, please visit www.oliviawaite.com.

Editorial Reviews

Waite delivers a luscious gem with The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics…a bittersweet read that will make your heart ache, bursting with genuinely funny, remarkable surprises.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Utterly charming and subtly subversive.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This superbly written debut by Waite, the first in her new Feminine Pursuits series, is simply stellar in every way…everything in this resplendent romance is done to perfection.”
— Booklist (starred review)

"This superb novel, set during Regency times, unveils the love story between two intelligent women... Waite gives full voice to the unfair prejudice that women faced. She also provides a multi-ethnic Regency world that comes alive with scientific curiosity. Highly recommended for fans of both Remarkable Creatures and Gentleman Jack, this first in the Feminine Pursuits series deserves widespread attention." — Historical Novels Review

“Waite delivers a sweet lesbian romance with a hint of spice, fitting into the decorum of the era.” — Library Journal

From the Publisher

Waite delivers a luscious gem with The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics…a bittersweet read that will make your heart ache, bursting with genuinely funny, remarkable surprises.

Entertainment Weekly

This superbly written debut by Waite, the first in her new Feminine Pursuits series, is simply stellar in every way…everything in this resplendent romance is done to perfection.”

Booklist (starred review)

"This superb novel, set during Regency times, unveils the love story between two intelligent women... Waite gives full voice to the unfair prejudice that women faced. She also provides a multi-ethnic Regency world that comes alive with scientific curiosity. Highly recommended for fans of both Remarkable Creatures and Gentleman Jack, this first in the Feminine Pursuits series deserves widespread attention."

Historical Novels Review

Waite delivers a luscious gem with The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics…a bittersweet read that will make your heart ache, bursting with genuinely funny, remarkable surprises.” %COMM_CONTRIB%Entertainment Weekly

05/24/2019

The day Lucy Muchelney's lover marries another is the day she realizes her life as she knew it is over. Her lover marries a man to collect an inheritance, her brother plans to sell her telescope to fund his artistic endeavors, and with her father dead, her ties to the scientific community are crumbling away. Then she receives a letter addressed to her father from the widowed Catherine St. Day, the Countess of Moth, asking his recommendation for an interpreter to translate a revolutionary work of astronomy, and she seizes her chance. When Lucy shows up at Catherine's home, the Countess isn't sure what to make of her. Her claim to have done most of her father's mathematical equations is absurd, isn't it? The scientific society won't accept a woman as a translator, let alone as a mathematician or a member. But as Catherine realizes Lucy is the read deal, she also discovers Lucy may just be the greatest adventure she's ever undertaken…if society doesn't find out. VERDICT Waite (A Thief in the Nude) delivers a sweet lesbian romance with a hint of spice, fitting into the decorum of the era. Recommended for libraries where LGBT historical romance is popular.—Melanie C. Duncan, Washington Memorial Lib., Macon, GA

Library Journal

★ 2019-05-27
The first in a series featuring romance between women.

Lucy Muchelney's father was a celebrated astronomer. No one knows that she was responsible for much of the math behind his most significant work. Catherine Kenwick St. Day, Countess of Moth, traveled the world to look at the stars with her husband, but his death leaves her without a sense of purpose. When Catherine decides to fund the translation of a revolutionary new text by a French scientist, these two women become accomplices—and much, much more. The Regency novel was long one of romance's most rulebound subgenres. Waite is one of a number of authors who are proving able to satisfy Regency's demands while getting creative with some of its tropes, and the fact that this novel depicts two women falling in love and developing an unabashedly satisfying sexual relationship is among the least of its delightful surprises. Catherine, for example, is fully aware that the era in which she lives offers less freedom to women than the Enlightenment period just past, and she recognizes that many of the male scholars she knows are supported and assisted by their wives. There's a moment when Catherine realizes that Lucy doesn't have the right clothes for London, a moment in which a seasoned Regency fan might expect a shopping spree. Instead, Catherine realizes that buying gowns for Lucy might make Lucy feel obligated to return her affections. The first time Lucy kisses Catherine, she asks for—and receives—affirmative consent. The passion between these women is exciting, but their thoughtfulness and kindness are just as satisfying. There are, of course, some difficult moments in their relationship, but Waite has chosen for the most part to let her heroines face real vicissitudes together instead of manufacturing melodrama.

Utterly charming and subtly subversive.

Kirkus Reviews