The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
/The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
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Reader Friends, this book is the perfect romance novel. It’s perfect, absolutely perfect. There’s respect, love, friendship, and women with true passions and the guts to pursue them.
Lucy Muchelney has been her astronomer father’s assistant for most of her life. After her father’s death, her brother assumes she’ll move on, marry, and put her scientific interests behind her. But Lucy was much more than his assistant, she completed many of the complicated calculations that helped further her father’s career and standing within the scientific community. When her longtime lover and best friends marries, Lucy is left heartbroken. Dealing with heartbreak and the grief of her father leaves Lucy needing an escape. When a longtime acquaintance of her father, the Countess Catherine St. Day writes to Lucy asking her to recommend a translator for an important scientific text, Lucy jumps at the chance for a new beginning. What she wasn’t prepared for, was to fall head over heels for the Countess.
I loved this story. Lucy and Catherine start with this wonderful friendship that blossoms into a beautiful love story. Lucy gives Catherine a new perspective on her past, like how her mother was actually in love with the woman she called Aunt Kelmarsh, not just longtime friends.
Catherine is able to give Lucy the confidence and respect in her own scientific pursuits that Lucy was never able to have from her father or brother. When the members of a well respected scientific society try to embarass Lucy and dismiss her thoughts, Catherine is the first to provide unwavering support to allow Lucy to succeed.
Both women have incredibly interesting pursuits. Lucy is an accomplished astronomer and Catherine is able to create elaborate embroidery work. Following her late husband on his scientific expeditions, Catherine documents the diverse array of flowers and plants with her precise and detailed embroidery. The best part, each woman finds the other’s talent to be worthy of praise and admiration.
Trying to manage their relationship with respect to the time and place they live is a constant challenge. They are unable to be open with their feelings or marry, but together they find a way to create a lasting relationship that is based on love and respect. Respect is brought up over and over again in this story. There’s a part where Catherine wants to send Lucy to her dressmaker for new dresses but realizes that it could make Lucy feel like a pet. Catherine is very aware of her higher status and wealth and never holds it over Lucy. Lucy also knows that this is the first relationship Catherine has had with a woman and never pushes Catherine for more than she is willing to give. It was just the most beautiful reading experience to watch these two characters find each other and fall in love.
It’s a perfect book friends. I couldn’t recommend it more.
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