Slippery Creatures is the first novel in the Will Darling Adventures by KJ Charles.
Finished on: 11.7.2026

Plot:
After returning from war with little idea what to do and less money, Will’s uncle and his bookshop gave Will something to hold on to. But before his uncle could show him much of the ropes, he passed away, leaving Will with a store full of haphazardly sorted books and no catalogue. Will would have his work cut out for him even if strange men didn’t start dropping by the shop and demanding information that he really doesn’t have. So when obviously upper class and really very intriguing Kim Secretan offers to help, Will readily accepts. Maybe too readily.

Slippery Creatures is a good read but there may be a little too much spy stuff for my liking. I just didn’t really fall in love with it and I am uncertain whether I will continue with this trilogy.

I am not the biggest spy novel fan in general. Much like crime, it just isn’t really my genre. But I have been following KJ Charles on bluesky for a while and became curious about her writing. So, when there was a sale of this book, I decided to give it a go, not really knowing much about it other than it being gay romance. Turns out that there was a lot more spy stuff than romance, or at least that’s what it felt like to me who is not really into spy stuff. Another reason for that feeling might be that Slippery Creatures is the first of a trilogy and Will and Kim are the protagonists of all three books, so the HEA does not happen yet in this one.

I did enjoy Will and Kim together, and I thought that their, let’s say political, clashes were interesting. They have rather different approaches to honor and morality, and Charles explores those nicely. Although I have to admit that I had difficulties with Will’s judgement of Kim that seemed awfully fast and harsh. I liked Will otherwise and this part of him was definitely not out of character, but I still wanted to gently shake him at times.

Surprisingly, this happened much less for me with Kim, although he is generally more the kind of character I would like to shake. Maybe because we didn’t really get his point of view in the story. But my favorite character by far was Kim’s fiancée Phoebe, followed by Will’s best friend Maisie and I absolutely hope for a sapphic romance in the sequels.

I think what probably stood out to me the most was how utterly British the dialogue sounded in the novel. I don’t have an ear for accents at all, but this book had the “Cor blimey, guvnor” intensity of accent, only, you know, not farcical or bad, that not even I could miss that it was British. And I liked that.

So, I am not sure if I will remain in the “good, but not my cup of tea” corner and stop with the trilogy after book one, or if the good parts made me curious enough to continue. Maybe I’ll read something else of Charles’ first to help me decide.

Summarizing: for now, I’m mostly in the “it’s a good book, but I am not the audience for it” camp.