Part of a trilogy, but it didn't seem necessary to read the first one, and I'm not interested enough to read the follow-ups. First was apparently Match of the Century (ISBN: 9780062388612), and the third is A Date at the Altar (out in October, ISBN: 9780062388650).
A few minor typos and word substitutions that made me a bit peevish, but that's an editorial problem. I just hate that it's getting more common.
The Fairest of Them All
Cathy Maxwell
ISBN: 9780062388636
Char is beautiful and broke, the Duke needs a wife, but his twin is back - from America!
Read July 11, 2016
Penniless blueblood Charlene (Char - ugh) is raised by her actress half-aunt and sponsored by an eccentric Society godmother when word gets out that the eminently eligible Duke of Baynton needs a suitable wife as he advances in the ranks. Unfortunately, Char is not exactly as genteel and sheltered as everyone presumes. She's been dressing in drag and cutting purses on the street for months, to keep her family in rent money. Her rough-and-tumble encounter with the Duke's long-lost and very estranged twin brother is the keystone for toppling the Duke's carefully-laid plans and Char's family's dreams of financial security.
Readable, no more than a couple of typos and word mistakes, lighthearted and generally sweet. An interesting sub-plot of political machinations, and a grudge that manifested spontaneously out of thin air (a result of attempting to keep the fairly thin character of the Duke from being utterly ruined by the plot requiring him to act in grudges and piss-baby spite for the whole the end of the book.)
Loved a delightful scene towards the end where Charlene takes down a snotty elder matron who is digging on her love.
Only one "scene" and it lasted barely a page, with very general descriptions - a very gentle romance, this one.
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
2015 Review Round-Up: Historical Fantasy/Steampunk: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Natasha Pulley
ISBN: 9781620408339
Sumptuous cover hints at a rich and clockwork-detailed plot, filled with multifaceted characters.
Read November 2015
The most interesting thing about this book is how Pulley manages to keep you from deciding which characters are good guys and which characters are bad guys for the ENTIRE BOOK. It's nothing short of a magic trick all of itself, and it makes the perfect cherry on top of this confection of a story. It's rich and mellow and tooth-achingly dense, and just jammed full of atmosphere like plummy preserves inside an overstuffed tart. From the very first paragraphs, you realise that you're in for something enjoyable, but it's the absolute opposite of a light quick read - it's dense and full of philosophy and humanity and the big important questions of free will and fate and predestination. Yet even so it doesn't feel like a slog - it all just seems naturally flowing from the premise, which I'm not even going to hint at here, because it's so amazingly absurd and complicatedly simple. If you like peculiar characters studies, and atmospheric steampunky London, you'll be right at home here.
Natasha Pulley
ISBN: 9781620408339
Sumptuous cover hints at a rich and clockwork-detailed plot, filled with multifaceted characters.
Read November 2015
The most interesting thing about this book is how Pulley manages to keep you from deciding which characters are good guys and which characters are bad guys for the ENTIRE BOOK. It's nothing short of a magic trick all of itself, and it makes the perfect cherry on top of this confection of a story. It's rich and mellow and tooth-achingly dense, and just jammed full of atmosphere like plummy preserves inside an overstuffed tart. From the very first paragraphs, you realise that you're in for something enjoyable, but it's the absolute opposite of a light quick read - it's dense and full of philosophy and humanity and the big important questions of free will and fate and predestination. Yet even so it doesn't feel like a slog - it all just seems naturally flowing from the premise, which I'm not even going to hint at here, because it's so amazingly absurd and complicatedly simple. If you like peculiar characters studies, and atmospheric steampunky London, you'll be right at home here.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Juv Fantasy: How to Catch a Bogle, Catherine Jinks
How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks, illustrated by Sarah Watts
ISBN: 9780544087088
Juv historical fantasy: Street-level London victoriana features an angel-voiced child as bogle bait.
Read last summer
I could have sworn that I reviewed this book when I read it, but I guess I missed it.
Birdie is the cream of the crop. She's not a street-sweeper, or a thief, or a ragpicker or a mudlark, or even a lace or flower maker. Oh no. She's better than all those street trash, because she has a real job. She's a bogler's girl, and she's the best that ever was. Her voice is clear and childlike, and her courage is strong. Besides, she's got to take care of Alfred, the old bogler. He needs someone to care for him.
But Birdie has come to the attention of a lady academic, who is also taking an interest in the world of bogling, and pretty soon, Birdie is going to have to make some hard decisions about her life.
Really solid storytelling, excellent characters, and the bogles are creepy as hell. Reminded me strongly of Y.S. Lee's (also excellent) Agency series, or of Berlie Doherty's Street Child.
Catherine Jinks, illustrated by Sarah Watts
ISBN: 9780544087088
Juv historical fantasy: Street-level London victoriana features an angel-voiced child as bogle bait.
Read last summer
I could have sworn that I reviewed this book when I read it, but I guess I missed it.
Birdie is the cream of the crop. She's not a street-sweeper, or a thief, or a ragpicker or a mudlark, or even a lace or flower maker. Oh no. She's better than all those street trash, because she has a real job. She's a bogler's girl, and she's the best that ever was. Her voice is clear and childlike, and her courage is strong. Besides, she's got to take care of Alfred, the old bogler. He needs someone to care for him.
But Birdie has come to the attention of a lady academic, who is also taking an interest in the world of bogling, and pretty soon, Birdie is going to have to make some hard decisions about her life.
Really solid storytelling, excellent characters, and the bogles are creepy as hell. Reminded me strongly of Y.S. Lee's (also excellent) Agency series, or of Berlie Doherty's Street Child.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Glamourist Histories: Without a Summer, Mary Robinette Kowal
Glamourist Histories, Book 3
Without A Summer
Mary Robinette Kowal
ISBN: 9780765334152
Family plotting and the eruption of a faraway volcano create a frigid summer in London for our wedded duo.
Jane and Vincent are back in London after their eventful honeymoon, and they are both carrying scars both physical and mental from the traumatic experiences. They hope for a relaxing and tedious summer of working glamourie for the moneyed elite, with the recommendation of the Prince Regent backing them. In addition, this is the perfect time to host Melody's debut Season in town, since all of the eligible batchelors in their neighborhood were unfortunately made ineligible by the end of the first book.
Their hopes are in vain. The frigid summer sparks a wave of unrest from the long-suffering and short-lived magical cold-mongers. These specialized glamourists work with the dangerous and life-sapping magic of heat-moving, and are often poor, uneducated, and young. The summer's chill means they have no work for this year, and many could starve. Jane and Vincent are hurtled into a growing threat of riot, and Vincent begins to worry that his estranged family may be at the heart of this nest of rot at the core of the city. He wants to make things right, but he fears for himself and for Jane - his vicious family, especially his ambitious and prideful father, will stop at nothing to succeed.
We've moved well on from lighthearted by this book, but the inclusion of Melody (and her budding romance, and her personal discoveries - I love Melody's character) makes a largely bitter pill go much easier. Jane and Vincent are a treasure as always, and his family is a hydra-beast of a monstrous social and reputation-damaging enemy. USA readers are accustomed to the rights of free speech, and so the legal implications of Vincent's actions are a harsher shock than perhaps they would be for the English. Regardless, the stark contrast makes more than one character much more clearly defined, for good or ill.
Finally, this is the book where I realized that there is always a Doctor in the scene - I went back and scanned through the first two more carefully, and was delighted to see that my suspicions were correct. Check the scenes with the Doctors, and think about time-travel and blue police boxes. It'll come to you!
Without A Summer
Mary Robinette Kowal
ISBN: 9780765334152
Family plotting and the eruption of a faraway volcano create a frigid summer in London for our wedded duo.
Jane and Vincent are back in London after their eventful honeymoon, and they are both carrying scars both physical and mental from the traumatic experiences. They hope for a relaxing and tedious summer of working glamourie for the moneyed elite, with the recommendation of the Prince Regent backing them. In addition, this is the perfect time to host Melody's debut Season in town, since all of the eligible batchelors in their neighborhood were unfortunately made ineligible by the end of the first book.
Their hopes are in vain. The frigid summer sparks a wave of unrest from the long-suffering and short-lived magical cold-mongers. These specialized glamourists work with the dangerous and life-sapping magic of heat-moving, and are often poor, uneducated, and young. The summer's chill means they have no work for this year, and many could starve. Jane and Vincent are hurtled into a growing threat of riot, and Vincent begins to worry that his estranged family may be at the heart of this nest of rot at the core of the city. He wants to make things right, but he fears for himself and for Jane - his vicious family, especially his ambitious and prideful father, will stop at nothing to succeed.
We've moved well on from lighthearted by this book, but the inclusion of Melody (and her budding romance, and her personal discoveries - I love Melody's character) makes a largely bitter pill go much easier. Jane and Vincent are a treasure as always, and his family is a hydra-beast of a monstrous social and reputation-damaging enemy. USA readers are accustomed to the rights of free speech, and so the legal implications of Vincent's actions are a harsher shock than perhaps they would be for the English. Regardless, the stark contrast makes more than one character much more clearly defined, for good or ill.
Finally, this is the book where I realized that there is always a Doctor in the scene - I went back and scanned through the first two more carefully, and was delighted to see that my suspicions were correct. Check the scenes with the Doctors, and think about time-travel and blue police boxes. It'll come to you!
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Nonfiction: The Victorian City, Judith Flanders
The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
Judith Flanders
ISBN: 9781250040213
An exhaustive overview of life for the poor and lower-middle classes in London.
This book has taken me AGES to finish, and it wasn't that it was uninteresting, it was that it was enormous. 424 pages of text, and another almost hundred more of notations, references, and indexing. Good grief.
She covers everything, in a mostly organized manner (I never did quite figure out what relation the vignettes at the beginnings of each section were meant to have in common with the section itself) and is honest about sources and conjectures and what we think we know and what we actually do know.
If anyone is planning to write about the City during this time-period, this is a worthy investment, and seems to be the sort where if you can't find the exact details of what you need here, you'll certainly find the research to lead you where you need to go.
I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed it, but I'm glad to see the end of it - I feel like I've been slogging through the City myself, and am desperate for some fresh air and a change of scenery.
Judith Flanders
ISBN: 9781250040213
An exhaustive overview of life for the poor and lower-middle classes in London.
This book has taken me AGES to finish, and it wasn't that it was uninteresting, it was that it was enormous. 424 pages of text, and another almost hundred more of notations, references, and indexing. Good grief.
She covers everything, in a mostly organized manner (I never did quite figure out what relation the vignettes at the beginnings of each section were meant to have in common with the section itself) and is honest about sources and conjectures and what we think we know and what we actually do know.
If anyone is planning to write about the City during this time-period, this is a worthy investment, and seems to be the sort where if you can't find the exact details of what you need here, you'll certainly find the research to lead you where you need to go.
I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed it, but I'm glad to see the end of it - I feel like I've been slogging through the City myself, and am desperate for some fresh air and a change of scenery.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
How to Catch a Bogle, Catherine Jinks
I haven't read any middle-grade fiction recently, so I snagged this one off of a recommended reads list, and I'm glad I did.
How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks (author of Saving Thanehaven, which I also enjoyed)
ISBN: 9780544087088
Read May 9, 2014
Juvenile/Middle-Grade alternate Victorian London; urchins and magical creatures
This one goes right along that same alley as Kieran Larwood's Freaks, Y.S. Lee's Agency series, or for a more gritty "literary" take, Berlie Doherty's Street Child. Birdie is an orphan, but she's better off than most. Unlike the mudlarks digging in the filthy and dangerous Thames for shillings'worth of scraps, or the professional beggars getting rousted by the police, or the ragged street-thieves risking prison-time, or even the poor unfortunate souls getting used and abused at the workhouse, Birdie is a Bogler's Apprentice, and that gets her a good day's work, extra spending money (sometimes) and what's most important - a degree of respect in this hard-knock world.
And what's a Bogler's Apprentice? She works with the Bogler, to lure out and kill bogles. These nasty slimy dark nightmares like nothing more than a tasty child to eat, and only Alfred and Birdie can find them, lure them in, and destroy them.
Birdie loves her life, loves her job, and loves being important and needed. She very resolutely does not think about how dangerous her job is, but Alfred does. (Making this obvious is a very nice grace-note in the story.) It doesn't matter how dangerous it is, there's no real alternative for Birdie in the slums she calls home. Until the duo meets an eccentric armchair naturalist, who follows them out on a bogle hunt, and is promptly scandalized and terrified. Miss Eames is determined to save Birdie from her most likely fate as bogle food, but Birdie is equally stubborn.
The book jacket and the press indicate that this is the first of a trilogy, and I'm deeply satisfied with how they did it, because this is a totally complete story - none of this cliffhanger nonsense.
Parts of this are pretty creepy in the "things sneaking up behind you" sort of way. Otherwise, it's a delightful romp through the poor muckridden slums of London, with a totally accurate (and colorful) vocabulary.
An excellent read, and I'm looking forward to A Plague of Bogles, out in January.
How to Catch a Bogle
Catherine Jinks (author of Saving Thanehaven, which I also enjoyed)
ISBN: 9780544087088
Read May 9, 2014
Juvenile/Middle-Grade alternate Victorian London; urchins and magical creatures
This one goes right along that same alley as Kieran Larwood's Freaks, Y.S. Lee's Agency series, or for a more gritty "literary" take, Berlie Doherty's Street Child. Birdie is an orphan, but she's better off than most. Unlike the mudlarks digging in the filthy and dangerous Thames for shillings'worth of scraps, or the professional beggars getting rousted by the police, or the ragged street-thieves risking prison-time, or even the poor unfortunate souls getting used and abused at the workhouse, Birdie is a Bogler's Apprentice, and that gets her a good day's work, extra spending money (sometimes) and what's most important - a degree of respect in this hard-knock world.
And what's a Bogler's Apprentice? She works with the Bogler, to lure out and kill bogles. These nasty slimy dark nightmares like nothing more than a tasty child to eat, and only Alfred and Birdie can find them, lure them in, and destroy them.
Birdie loves her life, loves her job, and loves being important and needed. She very resolutely does not think about how dangerous her job is, but Alfred does. (Making this obvious is a very nice grace-note in the story.) It doesn't matter how dangerous it is, there's no real alternative for Birdie in the slums she calls home. Until the duo meets an eccentric armchair naturalist, who follows them out on a bogle hunt, and is promptly scandalized and terrified. Miss Eames is determined to save Birdie from her most likely fate as bogle food, but Birdie is equally stubborn.
The book jacket and the press indicate that this is the first of a trilogy, and I'm deeply satisfied with how they did it, because this is a totally complete story - none of this cliffhanger nonsense.
Parts of this are pretty creepy in the "things sneaking up behind you" sort of way. Otherwise, it's a delightful romp through the poor muckridden slums of London, with a totally accurate (and colorful) vocabulary.
An excellent read, and I'm looking forward to A Plague of Bogles, out in January.
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