A Shore Thing

A bicycle race around Victorian Cornwall provides a unique backdrop for a cute queer love story in Lowell’s (Artfully Yours) latest historical romance. Widowed botanist Muriel Pendrake travels to Cornwall to find an artist to paint her seaweed specimens for an upcoming lecture. While there, the rakish up-and-coming artist Kit Griffith crashes into her life—literally. The pair make a deal: Kit will paint the seaweeds, despite experiencing a creative block, if Muriel will accompany him on bicycle around Cornwall to prove that women can ride too. As they ride around the countryside, their relationship begins to blossom amid their escapades, but Kit’s identity as a trans man and Muriel’s rapidly approaching departure to New York make their romance seem impossible. Lowell, in consultation with her partner, has done an excellent job considering how Kit might see and describe himself, since language and views around gender identity have changed since 1888.