Passing as Elias

by Kate Bloomfield

Based on a true story ...

In 18th century England, a woman's role is to be a wife, and a mother - something which holds no appeal for Elizabeth Searson.

When Elizabeth's Professor dies unexpectedly, leaving his apothecary to her, she discovers that she must marry in order to claim her inheritance.

Threatened by bankruptcy, Elizabeth begins a double life by dressing as a man and quickly learns the perks of being male. Under her alias, Elizabeth soon finds she is quite popular with the ladies, and finds herself under a particular ladies spell.

Genres: Historical, Historical Fiction, LGBT, Romance, Fiction, Lesbian, Queer

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 2012

About the author

Kate Bloomfield was born in Enfield, London in 1989. Her parents relocated to Australia in 1991 and Kate grew up in New South Wales. In 2015, aged 26, Kate moved back to the UK with her partner.

Her debut novel 'Frost Arch (Book 1: The Fire Mage Trilogy)', a dystopian fantasy, was published through Amazon's KDP Select Program in February 2012 making it available for purchase as an eBook.

The novel acheived success, recieving thousands of downloads within the first three weeks of its publication. Spurred by its success, Kate continued writing. By 2014 she had published a total of six full-length novels. She is currently working on her seventh novel, 'Five', a psychological thriller.

Kate currently resides in Birmingham, England, where she works as an in-house Graphic Designer and writes in her spare time.

Offical Website: www.bloomfieldkate.com

Follow Kate on Twitter: @KateBloomfield

Check out Kate's blog for updates on her writing: www.katebloomfieldauthor.blogspot.com.au

Reviews

[Bárbara Sousa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read. I skimmed through the beginning bc it was the “straight” part lol and it was not what i wanted to read, but since I was excited to read about what would happen next, I kept on reading and I gotta say I loved the ending. Glad they got their happy ending despite all the hardships they had to face.

[Simon]

I like girls-dressed-as-boys stories and was looking forward to this, but unfortunately, the writing was not very good (and an 18th century apothecary would not recommend vitamins, which weren't discovered until the 20th century!).

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked all of the characters (except one, for obvious reasons). They were sweet and lovable. Elizabeth seemed a bit too progressive at times, and there are so many punctuation errors that it was distracting until I got used to it--it really needs a good editor. But the story was great, and I really liked the book overall. Glad I read it!

[Frankiejohnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I didn't read the description very well, because I did not realize this was a lesbian romance. But I found the story to be very entertaining (several typos aside). It was mostly about Elizabeth and her struggles with inequality as a woman in 18th century England, and not focused on the sex (although there is some).

Happy reading - Frankie

[Nikki Hastings · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author states that the story is set in the 18th century, yet they obviously have not done their research on what life was like during this period. There were several anachronisms that felt jarring, such as using milligrams as a form of measurement, or commenting when a lady did not wear underpants (no women wore drawers until the the 1830s, and even then they were not in common usage for another few decades).

I love a good historical romance as much as the next girl, but I felt let down by the author's lack of understanding and research of the time period.

[Rachel Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very unique Sapphic novel.

The characters are familiar, but are, in many ways, unlike other novels in this genre. The plot has the same quality of familiarity combined with twists and turns that are extremely original. Elisabeth, the main character, leads a life that also has many original features.
The only bit that distracted me was the simplicity of the writing. I like novels with more complex and intricate language.

[Tara Chevrestt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many missing apostrophes. Needs one more round of edits. The story is also far too rushed for all it contains and very repetitive. The heroine comes across as a little girl on one page and a 20 yo the next. Inconsistent.

[Commander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another "just okay" book. It's not that bad but it felt a bit rushed towards the end, literally packed probably the work of two chapters in the epilogue, but it was an entertaining 2 hours spent on this book.

[Char Dafoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and pleasant book. I loved this story. There were grammar and punctuation issues sprinkled throughout, but it didn't affect my reading pleasure. A refreshing take on the whole 'disguised as a man' trope. The ending was cute.

[Andy Denson · Rating 5 out of 5]

cute read

Very cute little story. Loved the details on the fake beard. Too bad Elizabeth couldn’t put George in jail. Glad the waves got him.

[Katia M. Davis]

No stars. Horrendous, so badly written and if I was Sarah Waters, I'd be ringing a solicitor. This was another book for research and to hone my editing skills. So far this book needs a lot of editing skills! The style seems forced and does not read smoothly at all. Dialogue is stilted. There are large chunks of information dumped on the page to fill in the back story of the characters and I've only read 14 pages so far. This book is teetering towards my abandoned shelf but I'm forcing my way through in order to learn more about what NOT to do!

Update: I've figured out one of the main things wrong with this text. The author is trying to write with 19th century expression, but it is way off. It feels as if they have grabbed a few words such as UPON instead of on, FOR instead of because, SHALL instead of will, MAYHAP instead of maybe and then flooded the otherwise modern text in the hope that it sounds olde worlde. It doesn't, it sounds stupid and trite. Only problem, if you are going to write expressively in an older style, your entire text needs to reflect this, not just a few choice words. There is also a healthy splattering of typos which really distracts and looks unprofessional. I don't think this book has seen a spellcheck let alone an editor or even a friend of the author to give it a read before someone hit the 'publish' button. It is clear that the author needs to do a lot more research into the time period. Not sure how they figured you'd need a sovereign (20 shillings or 1 pound) to pay for a glass of mead in the 1800s, that would be like paying £400 for pint in the pub today, and I'm not sure what the two silver pieces someone was using to pay for drugs was supposed to be.

Update: As I have continued this book i have become increasingly convinced that the author is trying to emulate Sarah Waters and doing a terrible job. Then when I got to page 83 I spotted "me, she thought amusingly, in love with another woman," and alarm bells went off. Then on page 90 and read, "You are a man, Mr Searson, and may do as you please. I am a woman and may do as I am told." That's not like Sarah Waters, that just about IS Sarah Waters, aside from the name, pretty much straight out of Fingersmith! Now I am disgusted, not only is this book badly written with poor editing, and terrible research into the time period, the author could not even think up their own sentences and resorted to plagiarism.

[ialarmedalien · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't work out when or where this novel was supposed to be set, and I'm not sure that the author knew either. This set the whole novel off-kilter, both through anachronistic language ("mayhap") and interactions between the characters that would not be appropriate for any of the time periods the book might be set in. The exposition about the law and women's rights was clumsy, and there were a number of lines that I swear came straight out of "Tipping The Velvet." I would suggest that the author do more historical research--or at least read a few works of fiction from the appropriate time period--before attempting a period piece again.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that are really hard to put away once started. The story is good and I can really empathize with the narrator and her affections for the other characters.
I only found the character of Merril a bit superficial, which is a shame since the personalities of the other characters are much more clear through the book.
I quite liked this novel though.

[Tobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't actually finish it, even though it was only short. What I had anticipated as being an interesting view of the time period and genderqueer fiction, sadly started out with a very straight (and surprisingly descriptive) straight 'romance' (quote marks because it seemed convenient and mostly one sided). A little warning of that would have been nice as it is really not my bag.
Shame really.

[Tressa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found it boring and couldn't force myself to finish it. Book may be based on a true story, but when heroine got all her problems solved without any real difficulties (and most of the time without any difficulties at all) it started to look more like a mary-sue fanfic.

[Joshua Garrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descent and lacking at the same time

This book was a great easy read...and also not that predictable. The romance comes at the latter half of the book and I was hoping there'd be more of it throughout, otherwise awesome book

[Kerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. I like books the include grammar from "days of yore",LOL. Very erotic, quite suprising, sadly short. But i enjoyed it!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ended up being a sweet story (despite the lack of women's rights during the time period).

[Lynn High · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the emotions and the twist at the end.

[Whoopy · Rating 3 out of 5]

just a nice story with a .... ending. Happy to have read it.

[Natsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read. Some typos here and there. I like the lead characters enough so I had to up the star by 1. I can't put a finger on it but I feel that there's something missing.

[lov2laf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I got a later version of this story and found it quite enjoyable and well-written. I recommend reading it.

[Shaunette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow

So much deception, and the freaking plot twist. I loved it. Maybe I should have seen it coming but I really didn't. It's a win, for me!