** spoiler alert ** 
 Full review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 
 Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is a romance that, refreshingly, takes place between two older adults. It's also a romance that is bound to be divisive, since it involves new information about, and a new love for, a beloved character from a long-running series. While I was open to the idea, at first I disliked the execution...but ultimately it won me over. This isn't my favorite book by Lois McMaster Bujold, and it's not a good place to start the Vorkosigan series, but it's a solid entry in the series as well as a solid romance. 
 Gentleman Jole picks up three years after the end of Cryoburn. Cordelia is a widow, and for three years she's pretty much focused on keeping her shit, and the empire, together, but now she's ready to move on. The book reveals that Cordelia, Aral, and Oliver Jole had been part of a consensually polyamorous relationship during much of Cordelia and Aral's marriage. This is a curve ball for fans of the series, because it had previously been implied that Cordelia and Aral were monogamous. 
 While romance is an important story, Oliver's biggest question isn't whether he wants to renew his sexual relationship with Cordelia, but rather whether he wants to become a father. He's offered reproductive material by Cordelia at the same time that he's offered a job promotion. It's a great promotion for his career, but given the extremely long hours involved, it's not conducive to single parenting. So one of the plot threads is a man considering giving up his career in order to have a family, which I found to be DELIGHTFUL. I am pretty big on the idea of making family a priority, but I am sick of the "should I choose career or family" story being exclusively about women. 
 So many romances are about the beginning of adult life. The protagonists of romances are often (but not always, of course) in their twenties or maybe their early thirties, starting their first families together. These romances are about first beginnings. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is about second beginnings. While you are in the middle of your first story, it's hard to picture anything past that, but barring accidents we all grow and change and have multiple lives within one single life. Whether we have children or not, marry or stay single, all of us go through periods where we have to take stock and say, "Well, now what?" This book promises that that question can have an answer. The romance between Oliver and Cordelia was a hard sell for me, but I was won over purely because of the thrill of being presented with such a sexy and affirming picture of the later part of middle age and after. 
 - Carrie S.