Unfit to Print

Written by KJ Charles

Narrated by Vikas Adam

When crusading lawyer Vikram Pandey sets out in search of a missing youth, his investigations take him to Holywell Street, London's most notorious address. He expects to find a disgraceful array of sordid bookshops. He doesn't expect one of them to be run by the long-lost friend whose disappearance and presumed death he's been mourning for thirteen years.

Gil Lawless became a Holywell Street bookseller for his own reasons, and he's damned if he's going to apologize or listen to moralizing from anyone. Not even Vikram; not even if the once-beloved boy has grown into a man who makes his mouth water.

Now the upright lawyer and the illicit bookseller need to work together to track down the missing youth. And on the way, they may even learn if there's more than just memory and old affection binding them together . . .

Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977389190

KJ Charles

KJ Charles is a writer and editor. She lives in London with her husband, two kids, a garden with quite enough prickly things, and a cat with murder management issues. Find her on Twitter @kj_charles for daily timewasting and the odd rant, or in her Facebook group, KJ Charles Chat, for sneak peeks and special extras.

Reviews for Unfit to Print

[Tea Rix · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Marvellous as always. You never can go wrong with a KJ Charles work.

[יהודית עמית · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sweet story, different characters, scenery, life stories than other Charles books, but still there are similarities. I liked it though

[NicholaAnkeMillen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my favourites so far. Got to love the dose of reality with your spicy romance.

[brittaniethekid · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Charles is one of my favourite historical MM writers but this one left me a little disappointed.
It's an outlier in that both main characters are POC but the murder-mystery plot and even the relationship between the two just felt insipid. It either needed to be longer so as to develop the characters and their past a bit more, or needed to lose the mystery plot and just be a character-driven romance.
Since I'm neither from the late 1800s Britain or POC I found it hard to tell if this whole situation was realistic or not. Gil is a biracial man who was abandoned by his white brothers after their father dies, which we find out later is more due to greed and hypocrisy rather than his colouring. He's nonetheless picked himself up by the bootstraps and is now the owner and sole-operator of a bookstore in the seedier part of London that also has dealings with black-market pornography. Vikram is an old childhood friend and now lawyer-advocate for the disenfranchised and immigrant community who is looking for leads in the disappearance of a young Indian man. This takes him to Gil's bookshop and a reunion with his long lost best friend. Due to lack of a communication and misunderstanding, Gil had forgotten about Vikram after having felt completely abandoned by him. Where Vikram has never forgotten Gil and is shocked to find he's not only alive but well and an integral part of his mysterious case.

The relationship picks up like no time passed and there's some crime solving in between. The main thing that makes this a Charles book is the heartfelt dialogue between the two as well as a few well-written sexual scenes and a HFN ending. Read it to be a Charles completest but know that it's just not the best of their works.

[nannyogg13 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fun short-ish romance/mystery about two school friends finding each other again after several years. K.J. Charles' writing is, as always, excellent and engaging, and the narration was okay (though it didn't really grab me).

[sheila1957 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gil has been requested to come to his half-brother's funeral. He refuses until asked by his cousin Percy who shows him his half-brother's book and photography collection then asks him to dispose of it of which Gil can have any money he makes from it. He strikes a deal with Percy and then, with Percy's help, loads it and takes it back to his bookstore. Meanwhile a family asks Vikmar, a solicitor and Gil's old friend who thinks Gil is dead, to look for their 16-year-old son. Vik comes knocking at Gil's door and is shocked to find Gil alive and well. Resentment is brought out as they reacquaint themselves with each other. Old feelings are also brought up. The two men band together to find the boy as well as a few other things. Will they find the boy? Will they solve their differences and pasts? Will this bring them together or apart?I liked this story. I liked the historical element of it where people's behavior and actions can put them in jail. From the little I have read from that time period she gets it right when it came to unfit to print books, photographs, and book stores. I appreciated how Gil points out, how on the bench, a judge takes the moral high ground while he comes to Gil for his fix of books. Hypocrisy has been around a long time and few are immune regardless of station or class. I felt it was important the Vikram points out to Gil about the exploitations of those poorer than the upper classes and how they are used and abandoned and forgotten. I really enjoyed the scene when we meet Vikram. This book and characters captured this era very well. Once Gil realizes the importance of the exploitation in his life and in Vikram's client's lives, he changes his mind and helps Vikram. He also does a lot of thinking about how he and Vikram can be together. He makes a lot of major decisions. I look forward to more books by K. J. Charles.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars rounded up. It was a little bit of a slow start for me, but the characters and plot are well filled out for its small size. Part of the lawyer's journey was to realize that not everything is as black and white as he's comfortable with, but he still moralized a few too many times not to be tiresome. Overall both characters were likable though, and their relationship, once it got going, made me smile as I read.

2nd read- I wanted a short read I knew I would enjoy, and this was nice all over again.

[samnreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A well-executed and completely satisfying novella.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gil, a pornographer and black sheep of his wealthy family because he’s mixed-race, seeks out Vikram, a lawyer who helps others of Indian descent living in London, to track down a young man in some porn Gil’s recently deceased uncle owned. They fall in love (again; they knew each other as kids but were torn apart) and fight crime! It’s a good Edwardian romp.