A truly dazzling blend of grit, danger, and forbidden romance.
Lavender & Gin by Abigail Aaronson conjures a Prohibition-era Detroit steeped in smoke, shadows, and forbidden desire, a setting where power is as intoxicating as the liquor flowing through the speakeasies. For a decade, Kasia has hidden in plain sight, passing as her vanished twin brother to command a gang that moves bootleg whiskey for the city’s most ruthless mob. The disguise has given her wealth and leverage enough to care for her ailing mother, yet it has also locked her into a life without trust or intimacy. That fragile balance falters when Police Chief Harding takes office, determined to cleanse the city of its criminal underworld. In the shifting currents of this crackdown, Kasia crosses paths with Sophia—a dazzling flapper who runs a clandestine queer club and holds surprising sway over Harding. What begins as an opportunity to manipulate the new chief soon entangles Kasia in a far more dangerous prospect: desire. Sophia’s wit and fire draw Kasia into a closeness that threatens not only her carefully guarded secret, but the empire she has fought to build. As betrayals loom and danger presses in, Kasia must decide whether survival means clinging to deception or daring to gamble everything for love in a city where nothing is safe after dark.
Lavender & Gin is a shining example of Abigail Aaronson’s flair for the dramatic. With just the right balance of swanky atmospheric touches and realistic historical details, this novel makes for a truly dazzling blend of grit, danger, and forbidden romance. Readers will be totally swept into Aaronson’s world of secrets and surprises, and Kasia is a refreshingly complex antiheroine to root for, with bold dialogue and intimate character detailing that allows audiences to get to know her very deeply. This only intensifies when Sophie enters the scene: an irresistible, multi-dimensional love interest whose authentic presence allows the author to explore queer history with sensitivity and depth. There’s a lot of concentrated effort put into the richness of the Detroit underworld setting, too, and every moment of well-placed scene-setting matches and heightens the emotional tone. The result is a smoothly told story that’s easy to read, yet with plenty of depth, balancing slow-burn romance with high-stakes suspense. Prevalent themes of identity and secrecy are woven in with nuance, and the clear but effusive prose captures both the raw tension of the central character drama and the lyrical beauty of a queer love story unfolding in a dangerous world. A highly recommended story of survival, passion, and risk, Lavender & Gin offers its readers a compelling mix of mafia intrigue and sapphic desire that’s not to be missed.
