Everything in Color

 Everything in Color: A Love Story by Stephanie Stalvey (2026) 528 pages

I am loving the works publisher 23rd St, under the umbrella of First Second Books, is putting out in the world. This shares some themes with Craig Thompson's Blankets that I reviewed earlier this year. This story of a church kid growing up in purity culture and later deconstructing their Christian beliefs through falling in love with a man (a seminary student) and becoming a mother is so honest. The art (both black & white and color) is stunning. I especially love her use of the wolf imagery. Stephanie Stalvey has the revelation that the message of love, sold by many churches, is in reality primarily concerned with obedience and a punitive system for sin. The narrative of this graphic memoir is clear and strong.

The Duke Undone

The Duke Undone by Joanna Lowell, 370 pages

Art student Lucy Coover is understandably frustrated by the Royal Society's prohibition on women taking classes with live nude models, so when she literally stumbles across a passed-out, drunken, and completely naked man in an alley, she has to take the opportunity to observe his body with an artistic eye. Eventually, she uses those observations as the basis for a painting that is immediately sold to an aristocrat for hanging in her boudoir. Never did Lucy expect that the drunken man was the Duke of Weston, or that he'd clap eyes on the painting before it was even hung! This unusual situation brings the two together in a way that both feel will be to their advantage: poor Lucy can use the duke's influence to stop her aunt's shop from being destroyed for a new warehouse, while the duke can use Lucy's lower status and anonymity to search for his lost sister. But when these circumstances keep drawing the two together, their attraction becomes more and more palpable.

This is a well-researched historical romance novel with complex characters and situations, all of which seem genuinely possible, given their personalities. While the chemistry between the duke and Lucy is certainly hot, there's a lot simmering below the surface of this novel. Very good indeed!