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Oh dear, this book nearly hit the wall several times. I so wanted to like it, but sadly it annoyed me in several ways. I didn’t really connect with the characters. They all did things for the sake of 'plot' rather than doing things that arose out of their natural character. It’s 1816. The heroine, nineteen-year-old Eliza Melrose, is being launched into London’s high society now that her father’s newspaper business has taken off and made him very wealthy. She’s being forced into marriage with Frederick, the son of her father’s irascible business partner (a duke). Frederick is a dull young man with no character to speak of (at least not that we see) but he’s titled, so Eliza (coming from new money) should be grateful. Then she meets the young, taciturn (and unpleasant) Duke of Chester, Johnny, rumoured to have started the fire that burnt his family to death on the other side of Belmore Square. You can guess the rest. This is supposed to be sexy and scandalous, but to be honest I found there was way too much tingling going on. Every time she sees Johnny, Eliza practically has an orgasm on the spot. (And that starts before she’s even said hello.) Regency romance is my guilty pleasure. I’m a fan of Bridgerton, so I’m hardly a stickler for accuracy or even verisimilitude, and I’m OK with sex in a book, explicit or not. but this just didn’t sit right. Eliza writes for her father’s newspaper (under her brother’s name, which is fair enough) but she also climbs down drainpipes (and up again) without a second thought, barges into a brothel to bring her drunken brother home, and stands in front of galloping horses with complete disregard for safety (twice). She suspects that something is going on between her father and the irascible business partner, and that is teased throughout, but when all is revealed, it isn’t such a big deal. There’s certainly no real reason why Eliza must be married to Frederick. Any fertile woman will do for him. It has a happy ending (of course) but Eliza doesn’t really have much of a hand in bringing it about. Style-wise, there were also some arbitrary shifts into present tense, which seemed strangely unsettling. I was a bit worried about Eliza's mother's dresses, described as being layer and layers of fabrinc and very frilly, but in 1816 the predominant fashion was for the slimmed-down, high-waisted neo-classical shape. It's not a deal-breaker, but it's easy enough to get something like that right, or, if Mama is wearing something notably out of (or ahead of) fashion, at least say so. I wish I’d given up at 11% rather than sticking it out to see if it got better. It’s eight hours of my life that I’m not going to get back.
Aug. 20th, 2022
Everyone raves about the Scholomance books. The first book in the sequence, A Deadly Education, gave us an entirely new concept – a magic school with no teachers (the school itself is magic) which is trying to kill its students unless they can glean enough magic to survive. In order to graduate (a battle through a monster-infested hall) a student has to make good alliances, be really lucky, and/or exceptionally talented. El (Galadriel) is supremely talented but with great potential for dark magic and death. In the first book she was hiding her talents, an outsider with not much chance of graduating, but she gradually acquired friends, and even a love interest in Orion Lake, a young man with a hero complex, and a penchant for killing the monsters that were trying to kill the students. In this book, graduation is approaching and El has a plan to get all the graduating class through without casualties (which is unheard of). Pretty soon that stretches to encompass the whole school. There is a bit of a cliffhanger ending (which I’m not fond of).but the third book, The Golden Enclaves, is due in September 2022 and is already available to pre-order. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, but a fair amount of the second rehashed similar themes, at least for the first half. It started to get more interesting when El’s plan kicked in. Still well worth a read, though. Recommended.
A historical fantasy short story from the pen of the author of the Greatcoats, one of my favourite series. Thomas is an English archer who wants revenge on Sir Hammond, a knight, who has taken away half of Thomas’s family’s farm land. His bow is drawn and he’s about to take his shot when a stranger appears. The man, a nobleman by his dress, says to call him Master Reynard, and he comes up with a plan. He shows Thomas the probable consequences of actions not yet taken, and those that will be taken. Reynard’s plan skims over the battle of Crecy and Edward the Black Prince, and onwards to Agincourt where Thomas’s grandson faces off against the French, bow in hand. This is a short story with long consequences. Highly enjoyable.
The third Fallow sisters novel is split between London and rural Somerset. It’s spring and the four sisters are recovering from the events at Christmas, but they’ve come to the notice of the supernatural world. DJ Stella and fashion designer Serena (and her film actor boyfriend, Ward) are in the city where Diana the huntress sets Stella a task, and Serena keeps being dragged into the past. Bee is in Somerset, holding the family home together, content to be with her ghostly lover, Dark. Luna, the youngest sister (with her partner, Sam) is temporarily at home while her pregnancy progresses. Floating about, doing her own mysterious thing is Alys, the girls’ mother, enigmatic as usual, and not entirely trustworthy. This book weaves folklore into everyday occurrences, and all the sisters cope with magic of one kind or another. The characters (the main ones and the secondary ones) are wonderful. This is a family saga with added magic which is well worth reading, but start at the beginning with Comet Weather and Blackthorn Winter. There’s a fourth book in the pipeline.