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This is set in the Victorian era. Opera star Maggie Lee takes a house on the edge of Dartmoor in order to escape a politician who threatens to ruin her life. Oliver Ward has just escaped from Dartmoor prison, determined to prove his innocence, but there's a particularly violent prison guard following close behind. Maggie saves Oliver's life when she takes him in, but gets drawn into his quest for justice. Though the writing was smooth and competent, to be honest there were a few things that rankled. Firstly I would have avoided it completely if I'd realised it falls into the category of Christian fiction. Not generally my cup of tea at all, though that has no bearing on my three-star rating. Secondly, the story would never work without a huge dollop of coincidence, rather more than I favour. I quite enjoyed it, but there was nothing exceptional about it.
Review copy supplied by Netgalley.
Set in the Britain of the Harwood Spellbook, in which women are the politicians and magic users are (usually) men. This is that rare thing, a magic school for girls. Miss Banks and Miss Fennell, supporting characters in previous Harwood Spellbook stories get their own novella at last. Caroline and Juliana have been in love for some time, but have kept their relationship secret. Feelings are tested to the limit and finally resolved. This is a novella, which makes it a quick read, but it hits the spot.
I was supposed to visit New Zealand this summer (2020) for the World Science Fiction Convention, but Covid 19 pus a stop to that. Therefore when I realised this book is set in NZ, in Wellington where the con was to have taken place, I was interested to read it. And I'm glad I did because this is one of the most original and unusual books I've read this year. It's a story about story and about the relationship between two brothers. Brotherly love versus sibling rivalry. It's mostly told through the first person narrative of successful lawyer, Rob Sutherland, the older brother, and Charley, the genius younger one who has the incredible ability to pull living, breathing characters out of books. Charley's ability has always tested Rob's patience, since he's the one who always feels obliged to clean up any mess Charley or his character creations leave behind. Charley's been away studying at Oxford (England) but now he's arrived back in Wellington to teach English Literature at the university, which has brought him back into Rob's orbit. After a run in with Uriah Heep and the Hound of the Baskervilles it becomes obvious that not all is well in the world of fictional characters. It's a good job, then, that they have the wisdom of Sherlock Holmes to call on, and the jolly-good, what-ho enthusiasm of Millie Radcliffe-Dix, girl detective. There's another summoner trying to bring about the end of the world as we know it. Expect to meet a whole host of characters, from Heathcliffe and Dorian Grey to Miss Matty, the White Witch, and five slightly different Mr Darcys. I really enjoyed the novelty of this. It's a love letter to literature. Highly recommended.
This was a re-read for me, but I read it so long ago that I'd almost forgotten it. The last guardian of the Holy Wood slips into death without appointing a successor and so the gate between the Discworld and the dark realms beyond begins to leak ideas and so the moving picture industry inserts itself into the lives of Ankh Morpork's citizenry with Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler becoming a movie magnate. Everyone wants to be a star, though Victor, perpetual student at the Unseen University, doesn't (because it's too much like hard work). He gets to be a star anyway, and proves to be quite good at it. He's one of the few who realises the growing problem as it, whatever it is, gets closer to breaking through. This is Pratchett's satire on the movie industry and the idea of being famous for being famous. It features some characters we know already, including the Librarian and DEATH, and also introduces a few more including the delightful Gaspode the talking dog, and Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully who we will meet again in future books. Though not quite a five star Pratchett this one is a solid four.
Several times during reading I wanted to hurl this book at the wall. I like Regency romances and I'm willing to suspend a lot of disbelief, however this stretched disbelief to my limits. The heroine, Jane Pemberton. has decided, after several unsuccessful seasons, that she will become a spinster. She falls out with her parents over this, and moves into a friend's recently vacated house, determined to leave the marriage mart behind her. When she discovers a badly beaten viscount on her doorstep (we never find out how he came to be there) she takes him in and sets about rehabilitating him. Anthony, Viscount Colton, drinks to be numb and forget his past mistakes which led to the death of his parents. He's self-obsessed and self destructive. Yes, these two are meant for each other. It's a Regency romance, so that's a given. But, oh dear! Jane discovers that the reason she failed on the marriage mart is that someone started a rumour that she was a 'fast' woman. While wanting to discover who, and to restore her reputation, she starts a torrid affair with Colton, thus becoming the fast woman everyone thought she was. Duh! In fact she's so fast that she's talking dirty with Colton within a few days of taking him in. It's Colton who resists (though not very firmly) because Jane is a virgin and a respectable woman. There is also the shadow of coersion. (Jane coersing Colton while he's particularly vulnerable.) There's a lot of explicit heavy petting and sex, which in itself is not a bad thing, but I do wonder if the language used isn't in keeping with the era. Most men in the 1960s didn't know what a clitoris was. Would a viscount in the 1800s refer to it as such? The word was in the English language from the early 1600s, but was it in common usage? And then there's the title. I don't think we meet a Duke in the whole novel.