This series is going to be one of the big hits of 2022

Unlike many other reviewers in our genre, I’m not a follower of fan fiction. But for as long as I’ve been reviewing lesfic books I was told that I shouldn’t miss Telanu’s Truth and Measure. I admit that I was put off by 271,584 reasons, the number of words of just the first installment out of five in the Truth and Measure verse. Then I heard in approximately 2017 that Ylva was planning to publish it so I’ve decided to wait… Five years later, the wait is over!

I didn’t read the book blurb so for me, the story was a complete surprise. So if you haven’t and don’t want to know, just skip this paragraph. Vivian Carlisle, the chief editor of the revered fashion publication Du Jour, is in the middle of a messy divorce when she discovers that she’s pregnant. Jules Moretti is her highly competent assistant and an aspiring writer. As Vivian’s world as she knew it starts to collapse, both women are thrown together into an intimacy they didn’t imagine. But as life brings new challenges, their bond grows stronger and a mutual attraction starts to simmer. Will they act on their feelings or even fall in love?

Roslyn Sinclair is an established author of two very popular books, her debut novel The Lily and The Crown and The X Ingredient. Along with Truth and Measure, all these works are based on The Devil Wears Prada trope (age-gap, workplace romance with an ice queen, opposites attract, and slow burn) though Truth and Measure is the closest to the canon as it’s set, like in the movie, in the world of fashion journalism. However, this is where the similarities end as this story starts with a very original concept.

Truth and Measure is book one of two of the Carlisle Series, which should be read in chronological order. If you commit to reading this book, you need to know that you’ll have to read book two, Above all Things, for the story to feel complete. Truth and Measure ends up in a cliffhanger but luckily, both books are being published only a few weeks apart from each other so no need to panic.

I mentioned that the original fan fiction was 271K words, thanks to Ms. Sinclair’s hard editing work along with Ylva author Lee Winter, this first book’s word count was reduced to 120,000 words while book two is “only” 97,000 words. It sounds like a lot but I assure you that time flies while reading it. This is a slow-burn romance, the author has no rush in developing the story and the chemistry between the mains builds up oh-so painstakingly slow. But let me tell you two things, one, it makes absolute sense in the context of the story, and two, it eventually pays off.

If you’ve read Ms. Sinclair’s books, you know that the sex scenes are scorching hot (I highly recommend you to listen to the audiobooks of both The X Ingredient, narrated by Anastasia Watley and The Lily and The Crown, narrated by Angela Dawe). However, possibly because the buildup of the relationship is slow, don’t expect the same kind of explicit scenes and varied sex as in the aforementioned books, it’s more an “edging” type of hotness. These two women have chemistry in spades and there’s a lot of potential for that chemistry to explode in book two and knowing this author, I’m sure she’ll deliver.

I’ve been wondering for a while where the title comes from. It seems it’s from a French Medieval romance quote:

“For above all things love means sweetness, and truth, and measure; yea, loyalty to the loved one, and to your word.

—Anonymous, The Lay of Graelent, 13th century CE”

I think this series is going to be one of the big hits in the sapphic romance world this year and even without having read part two, I expect it to be on most reviewers’ top lists for 2022. I can’t wait to get my hands on part two and I’m hoping the audiobooks won’t take too long to be released. 4.5 stars.

Publication date 20th April 2022 in Ylva Shop and 27th April on all platforms

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review