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 romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Monday, June 13, 2016
Romance: The Bollywood Bride, Sonali Dev
The Bollywood Bride
Sonali Dev
ISBN: 9781617730153
"Ice Princess" Bollywood actress returns home to the USA for her cousin's wedding, reconnecting with her childhood, and with her oldest friend and former lover, who she spurned dramatically at the start of her acting career.
Really enjoyed this. It was an interesting look at the usual tropes of romances from the perspective of an unfamiliar culture, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition.
Ria is the straightest-laced of Bollywood actresses, consistently working hard and staying poised and cool on-camera and off. But she hides deep guilt and an even darker secret with all of her work and her cool unruffled facade. Once she goes back to her childhood home in Chicago, all of her efforts to be untouchable and untouched will be undone, as she finally is forced to confront the trauma from her childhood.
Dev writes clearly and passionately, and the story is logical and enjoyable, with not too much time spent on emotional or mental distress before a break to recount happy and lighthearted family and friendly interactions. There are plenty of descriptions of clothing and outfits (male and female) and the descriptions are clear and gushing. Characters have actual character, and the vast majority of the cast are kind and beautiful people. There are only two people who are "villainous" in the story, and one of them even shows a surprising spark of humanity at an unexpected moment!
I hope she writes more - it's lovely to see more cultures and more diversity represented in the romance books that are available to people, especially when they are written as well and as movingly as this one.
Sonali Dev
ISBN: 9781617730153
"Ice Princess" Bollywood actress returns home to the USA for her cousin's wedding, reconnecting with her childhood, and with her oldest friend and former lover, who she spurned dramatically at the start of her acting career.
Really enjoyed this. It was an interesting look at the usual tropes of romances from the perspective of an unfamiliar culture, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition.
Ria is the straightest-laced of Bollywood actresses, consistently working hard and staying poised and cool on-camera and off. But she hides deep guilt and an even darker secret with all of her work and her cool unruffled facade. Once she goes back to her childhood home in Chicago, all of her efforts to be untouchable and untouched will be undone, as she finally is forced to confront the trauma from her childhood.
Dev writes clearly and passionately, and the story is logical and enjoyable, with not too much time spent on emotional or mental distress before a break to recount happy and lighthearted family and friendly interactions. There are plenty of descriptions of clothing and outfits (male and female) and the descriptions are clear and gushing. Characters have actual character, and the vast majority of the cast are kind and beautiful people. There are only two people who are "villainous" in the story, and one of them even shows a surprising spark of humanity at an unexpected moment!
I hope she writes more - it's lovely to see more cultures and more diversity represented in the romance books that are available to people, especially when they are written as well and as movingly as this one.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Romance: The Spring Bride, Anne Gracie
The Spring Bride
Anne Gracie
ISBN: 9780425259276
Read February 3, 2016
Part of the Chance Sisters quad: The Autumn Bride, The Winter Bride, and (forthcoming) The Summer Bride. This one focuses on Jane and her desperate need for security and practicality.
I felt like this one was perhaps a bit more rushed, or maybe a bit more forced, than the others. Jane's history makes her feel bound and determined to marry for stability and money: she can't trust that her sister's lucky matches will happen for her, and she's not inclined to tempt fate. She's going to have her season, marry a rich and stable gentleman, and learn to love him over time. That is, until, gentleman spy (masquerading as a tramp) Zachary Black saves her skin in an alleyway, and she, like her sisters before her, falls desperately in love.
One last sister to go, so this means that The Summer Bride will be Cockney girl Daisy, who is working hard on her dressmaker's dreams. Despite her best efforts to remain single, the rakish Flynn (the last remaining unwed friend of the first two gentleman husbands) is distracting as ever.
Anne Gracie
ISBN: 9780425259276
Read February 3, 2016
Part of the Chance Sisters quad: The Autumn Bride, The Winter Bride, and (forthcoming) The Summer Bride. This one focuses on Jane and her desperate need for security and practicality.
I felt like this one was perhaps a bit more rushed, or maybe a bit more forced, than the others. Jane's history makes her feel bound and determined to marry for stability and money: she can't trust that her sister's lucky matches will happen for her, and she's not inclined to tempt fate. She's going to have her season, marry a rich and stable gentleman, and learn to love him over time. That is, until, gentleman spy (masquerading as a tramp) Zachary Black saves her skin in an alleyway, and she, like her sisters before her, falls desperately in love.
One last sister to go, so this means that The Summer Bride will be Cockney girl Daisy, who is working hard on her dressmaker's dreams. Despite her best efforts to remain single, the rakish Flynn (the last remaining unwed friend of the first two gentleman husbands) is distracting as ever.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Fiction: The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, Caroline Preston
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt
Caroline Preston
ISBN: 22960000470467
Actual vintage ads and articles and ephemera collected and scrapbooked into a fictional narrative.
This was an interesting book. I wasn't so hot on the Grace Livingston Hill, modern girl finds a good man storyline (ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was a little schlocky) but it was pretty common for books set in the 1920s, and the main character does want to write, and her new husband seems ok with her doing so...
Anyway. Frankie Pratt is a whip-smart 'modern' girl who wants to go to college, but can't afford it, even on a partial scholarship. So she works as a home aide for a local retiree, until said retiree's rakish (and married) son becomes obsessed with her and starts an enthusiastically-encouraged romance. Poor Frankie. Her mom finds out, busts up the lovebirds by blackmailing the old lady, and Frankie is packed off to Vassar posthaste.
The whole story is basically all of the cliches of those early romances-disguised-as-morality tales, but every cliche is passed along in a fairly dry and somewhat winking manner, through ironic (and sometimes poignant) art and advertising clippings, bits of ephemera, and other assorted paper bits and drabs of a life lived interestingly.
Really a very fun concept, and while the story is a little meager - what can you expect from a scrapbook diary? I loved every minute of it.
Caroline Preston
ISBN: 22960000470467
Actual vintage ads and articles and ephemera collected and scrapbooked into a fictional narrative.
This was an interesting book. I wasn't so hot on the Grace Livingston Hill, modern girl finds a good man storyline (ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was a little schlocky) but it was pretty common for books set in the 1920s, and the main character does want to write, and her new husband seems ok with her doing so...
Anyway. Frankie Pratt is a whip-smart 'modern' girl who wants to go to college, but can't afford it, even on a partial scholarship. So she works as a home aide for a local retiree, until said retiree's rakish (and married) son becomes obsessed with her and starts an enthusiastically-encouraged romance. Poor Frankie. Her mom finds out, busts up the lovebirds by blackmailing the old lady, and Frankie is packed off to Vassar posthaste.
The whole story is basically all of the cliches of those early romances-disguised-as-morality tales, but every cliche is passed along in a fairly dry and somewhat winking manner, through ironic (and sometimes poignant) art and advertising clippings, bits of ephemera, and other assorted paper bits and drabs of a life lived interestingly.
Really a very fun concept, and while the story is a little meager - what can you expect from a scrapbook diary? I loved every minute of it.
Romance: Better Homes and Hauntings, Molly Harper
Better Homes and Hauntings
Molly Harper
ISBN: 9781476706009
Modern day ghost-story/light-hearted paranormal with characters getting sucked into reliving a historic family tragedy.
LOVED this book. So funny, so cute. The characterization for our heroine was a little hit or miss to begin with, and something about the first chapter was really really rocky, but once it hit its stride, the characters were fun and interacted interestingly, the mystery was mysterious and somewhat twisty, and the creepy factor was just enough to add a fun little edge - nothing truly frightening or disturbing (other than murder and ghosts, I mean).
Super fun, and I would love to read another that was similar. Made me think of Austenland with ghosties.
Molly Harper
ISBN: 9781476706009
Modern day ghost-story/light-hearted paranormal with characters getting sucked into reliving a historic family tragedy.
LOVED this book. So funny, so cute. The characterization for our heroine was a little hit or miss to begin with, and something about the first chapter was really really rocky, but once it hit its stride, the characters were fun and interacted interestingly, the mystery was mysterious and somewhat twisty, and the creepy factor was just enough to add a fun little edge - nothing truly frightening or disturbing (other than murder and ghosts, I mean).
Super fun, and I would love to read another that was similar. Made me think of Austenland with ghosties.
Romance: Lord of Fire and Ice, Connie Mason, with Mia Marlowe
Lord of Fire and Ice
Connie Mason, with Mia Marlowe
ISBN: 9781402261855
Read May 2015
Viking setting, enthralled noble with fire magic, and eldest sister running homestead.
Not the most polished writing, but enjoyable and the storyline was fun, the bad guys were appropriately bad, and there wasn't any nasty nonconsensual nonsense going on. Liked the character touches with the various siblings, and the light touch with the history and inclusion of magic. A fun summer read.
Connie Mason, with Mia Marlowe
ISBN: 9781402261855
Read May 2015
Viking setting, enthralled noble with fire magic, and eldest sister running homestead.
Not the most polished writing, but enjoyable and the storyline was fun, the bad guys were appropriately bad, and there wasn't any nasty nonconsensual nonsense going on. Liked the character touches with the various siblings, and the light touch with the history and inclusion of magic. A fun summer read.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Romance: Where the Horses Run, Kaki Warner
Where the Horses Run
Kaki Warner
ISBN: 9780425263273
Series: Heartbreak Creek, #2 (first book in series: Behind His Blue Eyes)
Romance: An ex-Ranger turned horse-whisperer rancher goes to England to find a horse and a lady needing rescue.
Read January 7, 2015.
Picked this up on the strength of the back cover copy and the associated Goodreads reviews (I love negative reviews, they often are much more revealing than the positive ones) in this case, a set of negative reviews griping about the lack of intimate scenes and the slow pace of the story and the focus on elements of the book besides the growing relationship between the two main protagonists. Really? Sounds perfect!
Rafe Jessup quit the Rangers after a bloody shootout (one minor complaint from me is that the circumstances of that event remain cloudy) and moved on to his real joy - working with horses. He's a sort of horse-whisperer with a reputation for helping animals others would have put down or broken. Based on that, he's hired by an ex-pat Scot from Heartbreak Creek to run his newly established stables, and their first big job is to head over to jolly old England to pick up horses from distressed nobles short on cash-flow.
Josephine Cathcart is the daughter of one such distressed noble - well, actually, they aren't noble, and that's the problem. Her father worked his way up from a position in the mines to become that disgusting creature known as "new money" and as such, he and Josephine are barely tolerated in polite society, despite the grand house and scrupulously-correct manners and his continued bribes and gifts to fellow noblemen. Josephine learned her status the hard way as a young girl, smitten by a neighboring young lord, who pledged love, but married a Countess. Now, with a young bastard son, and her prize stallion ruined by a grueling steeplechase, she is being farmed out for marriage or companionship by her desperate and broke father.
I loved that the story came first (as ridiculous a premise as it is) and I loved the "fish out of water" impact of a Texan in British polite society (he keeps getting himself kicked out of the house) and I loved that the villains were actually three-dimensional people (eventually) and the conundrum was presented as an actual difficult proposition to consider and manage the repercussions, rather than the obvious "marry the Texan and run off" that I worried it would become.
I don't think I'll be reading the first in the series. The blurb didn't appeal to me, but if there is a subsequent book about our interesting Scots lord and his feisty English wife, I think I might pick that one up. I am interested in the next book about one of the minor characters, an American-Cherokee warrior and his Quaker, African-American freed-slave lover. Talk about getting into an interesting political debate there!
Kaki Warner
ISBN: 9780425263273
Series: Heartbreak Creek, #2 (first book in series: Behind His Blue Eyes)
Romance: An ex-Ranger turned horse-whisperer rancher goes to England to find a horse and a lady needing rescue.
Read January 7, 2015.
Picked this up on the strength of the back cover copy and the associated Goodreads reviews (I love negative reviews, they often are much more revealing than the positive ones) in this case, a set of negative reviews griping about the lack of intimate scenes and the slow pace of the story and the focus on elements of the book besides the growing relationship between the two main protagonists. Really? Sounds perfect!
Rafe Jessup quit the Rangers after a bloody shootout (one minor complaint from me is that the circumstances of that event remain cloudy) and moved on to his real joy - working with horses. He's a sort of horse-whisperer with a reputation for helping animals others would have put down or broken. Based on that, he's hired by an ex-pat Scot from Heartbreak Creek to run his newly established stables, and their first big job is to head over to jolly old England to pick up horses from distressed nobles short on cash-flow.
Josephine Cathcart is the daughter of one such distressed noble - well, actually, they aren't noble, and that's the problem. Her father worked his way up from a position in the mines to become that disgusting creature known as "new money" and as such, he and Josephine are barely tolerated in polite society, despite the grand house and scrupulously-correct manners and his continued bribes and gifts to fellow noblemen. Josephine learned her status the hard way as a young girl, smitten by a neighboring young lord, who pledged love, but married a Countess. Now, with a young bastard son, and her prize stallion ruined by a grueling steeplechase, she is being farmed out for marriage or companionship by her desperate and broke father.
I loved that the story came first (as ridiculous a premise as it is) and I loved the "fish out of water" impact of a Texan in British polite society (he keeps getting himself kicked out of the house) and I loved that the villains were actually three-dimensional people (eventually) and the conundrum was presented as an actual difficult proposition to consider and manage the repercussions, rather than the obvious "marry the Texan and run off" that I worried it would become.
I don't think I'll be reading the first in the series. The blurb didn't appeal to me, but if there is a subsequent book about our interesting Scots lord and his feisty English wife, I think I might pick that one up. I am interested in the next book about one of the minor characters, an American-Cherokee warrior and his Quaker, African-American freed-slave lover. Talk about getting into an interesting political debate there!
Monday, December 29, 2014
Romance: The Captive, Grace Burrowes
The Captive
Grace Burrowes
ISBN: 9781402278785
PTSD and other scars of captivity and abuse are lightly, but coherently, glossed over as wounded warriors find comfort and family with each other.
This isn't going to be a review, more of a ramble, so if you don't like being thoroughly spoiled, feel free to enjoy the short version: it was enjoyable, written with proper language/relationships, and has an interesting emotional through-line connecting all of the major characters.
Now for the longer, rambly, spoilery bits. You've been warned!
First-off, the author really ought to be careful including symptoms of PTSD in her stories without understanding how pervasive and debilitating it can be. On the one hand, I don't like reading about tortured psyches and broken bodies, so I appreciated the light touch. On the other hand, by glossing over the very real debilitating symptoms so lightly, the author runs a real risk of angering readers who are familiar with these real-world traumas.
Second, how delighted I am that the author actually uses proper (mostly) forms of address and names and usages. So many "regency" or "historical" novels (romance and otherwise) use their setting and time-period about as well as a grade-school production of Shakespeare - a bit of window-dressing on the set, a few "quaint" mannerisms (that don't make sense in context and are actually from a totally different place and time), and a few misplaced attempts at formal speech ("thou" and "thee" misinterpreted as formal, or stilted phrasing substituting for actual dialogue). While authors like Mary Robinette Kobal perhaps go a bit far in the opposite direction (she has an actual research dictionary and refuses to let her characters speak a single word that can't be sourced from the proper time and place) it is at least refreshing to read something in an admittedly fluffy genre that has enough pride to actually present the time-period's language and mores somewhat accurately.
Thirdly (it's a Monday, lists are necessary) I get into the strangely sophisticated emotional resonances between the characters. The "Captive" of the title is most properly the hero: Christian Severn, Duke of Mercia. He was captured and tortured by the French (we're set here during the time of Napoleon) and upon the war's completion, was released and made his way back home. He is also the one suffering most obviously from what we see now as PTSD. However, the other two main characters are also captives who are suffering from their wounds. The heroine of the story is Gillian, Countess of Greendale (Christian's cousin-by-marriage), who has finally outlived her merciless abuser of a husband, and is suffering from her own wounds, which polite society and the requirements of politics mandates she keep secret. It would be enough for the story to have these two characters bond and recover based on their similar fragile states and slow recovery (in story terms, this is nearly a perfect relationship - in real-life, such emotional wounds nearly require an undamaged and preternaturally patient and empathetic loved-one to act as a support). However, these two aren't the only people involved. Christian has a daughter, the only other surviving member of his family, and she is silent through the entire book, supposedly due to the trauma of her father's absence and the deaths of her mother and brother. The real reason for her silence is revealed late in the story, showing that she too has been held captive.
I don't expect my fluffy reads to have much to them. Somewhat coherent plots are nice, somewhat established characterizations are even better. Emotional resonance is so far down that list that I don't even think about it - I just don't expect these books to have any real philosophical or emotional depth. Perhaps that is prejudiced of me, but I don't feel that it's a lack, just something the genre doesn't tend to select for. This book tho, it was interesting. I wouldn't say that it impacted me emotionally. but the writer-mind that lives in the back of my head was clapping with delight at each discovery that reveals the characters have more in common with each other and the main theme.
Now, all that said, don't expect the villain or the plot to be any great mystery - it is quite clear, and rather straightforwardly laid out along the traditional pattern, Likewise, the romance develops absurdly quickly, and several plot threads (or perhaps red herrings) are carefully laid out and then carelessly cast aside. Despite this, I enjoyed the reading immensely, and it's nearly all because of the intricate interior relationships and understandings that the main cast had for each other.
For those interested, this is apparently related to three other titles:
The Soldier
The Heir
The Virtuoso
Grace Burrowes
ISBN: 9781402278785
PTSD and other scars of captivity and abuse are lightly, but coherently, glossed over as wounded warriors find comfort and family with each other.
This isn't going to be a review, more of a ramble, so if you don't like being thoroughly spoiled, feel free to enjoy the short version: it was enjoyable, written with proper language/relationships, and has an interesting emotional through-line connecting all of the major characters.
Now for the longer, rambly, spoilery bits. You've been warned!
First-off, the author really ought to be careful including symptoms of PTSD in her stories without understanding how pervasive and debilitating it can be. On the one hand, I don't like reading about tortured psyches and broken bodies, so I appreciated the light touch. On the other hand, by glossing over the very real debilitating symptoms so lightly, the author runs a real risk of angering readers who are familiar with these real-world traumas.
Second, how delighted I am that the author actually uses proper (mostly) forms of address and names and usages. So many "regency" or "historical" novels (romance and otherwise) use their setting and time-period about as well as a grade-school production of Shakespeare - a bit of window-dressing on the set, a few "quaint" mannerisms (that don't make sense in context and are actually from a totally different place and time), and a few misplaced attempts at formal speech ("thou" and "thee" misinterpreted as formal, or stilted phrasing substituting for actual dialogue). While authors like Mary Robinette Kobal perhaps go a bit far in the opposite direction (she has an actual research dictionary and refuses to let her characters speak a single word that can't be sourced from the proper time and place) it is at least refreshing to read something in an admittedly fluffy genre that has enough pride to actually present the time-period's language and mores somewhat accurately.
Thirdly (it's a Monday, lists are necessary) I get into the strangely sophisticated emotional resonances between the characters. The "Captive" of the title is most properly the hero: Christian Severn, Duke of Mercia. He was captured and tortured by the French (we're set here during the time of Napoleon) and upon the war's completion, was released and made his way back home. He is also the one suffering most obviously from what we see now as PTSD. However, the other two main characters are also captives who are suffering from their wounds. The heroine of the story is Gillian, Countess of Greendale (Christian's cousin-by-marriage), who has finally outlived her merciless abuser of a husband, and is suffering from her own wounds, which polite society and the requirements of politics mandates she keep secret. It would be enough for the story to have these two characters bond and recover based on their similar fragile states and slow recovery (in story terms, this is nearly a perfect relationship - in real-life, such emotional wounds nearly require an undamaged and preternaturally patient and empathetic loved-one to act as a support). However, these two aren't the only people involved. Christian has a daughter, the only other surviving member of his family, and she is silent through the entire book, supposedly due to the trauma of her father's absence and the deaths of her mother and brother. The real reason for her silence is revealed late in the story, showing that she too has been held captive.
I don't expect my fluffy reads to have much to them. Somewhat coherent plots are nice, somewhat established characterizations are even better. Emotional resonance is so far down that list that I don't even think about it - I just don't expect these books to have any real philosophical or emotional depth. Perhaps that is prejudiced of me, but I don't feel that it's a lack, just something the genre doesn't tend to select for. This book tho, it was interesting. I wouldn't say that it impacted me emotionally. but the writer-mind that lives in the back of my head was clapping with delight at each discovery that reveals the characters have more in common with each other and the main theme.
Now, all that said, don't expect the villain or the plot to be any great mystery - it is quite clear, and rather straightforwardly laid out along the traditional pattern, Likewise, the romance develops absurdly quickly, and several plot threads (or perhaps red herrings) are carefully laid out and then carelessly cast aside. Despite this, I enjoyed the reading immensely, and it's nearly all because of the intricate interior relationships and understandings that the main cast had for each other.
For those interested, this is apparently related to three other titles:
The Soldier
The Heir
The Virtuoso
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Fantasy Romance: The Hearts and Thrones Series 2&3, Spy's Honor and Prince's Fire, by Amy Raby
These are the last two of the trilogy published by Signet, but Amy Raby's got a fourth (Healer's Touch) self-published, as well as a novella in e-pub, and another entire mystery series set in the Indus valley in early pre-history.
Anyway, back to the point.
First book in the series (Assassin's Gambit) I read a while ago, and enjoyed it. It helps that it's a light-hearted fantasy romp, with less romance and more wacky hi-jinks.
These two were added to the collection at the same time, so I was able to read them together, which was nice. The other wasn't so far back in the mists of memory that I needed to read it again, but I do suggest that you read all three close together, as the characters do pop back and forth through each other's stories (and this continues in the fourth book, based on the excerpt on the author's website).
Spy's Honor (Hearts and Thrones, book 2)
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417831
Read November 8, 2014
Prince's Fire (Hearts and Thrones, book 3)
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417848
Read November 9, 2014
Spy's Honor is the first, chronologically-speaking, and cover's Rhianne's involvement with the Mosari heir to the throne, in disguise as a slave in her Kjallan imperial gardens. Despite my preference for reading books in chronological order, I have to say that I feel that this series works much like The Chronicles of Narnia, in that the mid-series adventures of Emperor Lucien and Vitala works much better as the entry point, allowing the reader to then go back and see how "history" unfurled to link his cousin with a neighboring (and somewhat hostile) country.
Prince's Fire then jumps into the future, after Lucien has been ruling peacefully for years. Despite the glorious history (insert sarcasm) of arranged marriages in his immediate family, Lucien has decided to offer his youngest sister, the Imperial Princess Celeste, in marriage to another neighboring prince (less sarcasm here; the first one apparently worked quite well with Rhianne) as the sweet enticement to a trade agreement. Hearkening back to the first book, Riorca and assassins feature prominently, as does a lovely island nation that bears a striking resemblance to Hawai'i. The match is fraught with misunderstandings and prejudices on both sides (naturally) but the duo fall in love (equally naturally) in time to prevent another royal coup and save the island from a natural disaster.
Are these amazing works of plotting and characterization? Nope. But they're fun, they are quick reads, the plot zips along with just enough speed that you almost don't notice the plot-rails underneath, and the world-building, although derivative, is actually interesting and cohesive. The magic style (infinite magic powered through personal connections to a spirit realm) isn't my favorite (I much prefer limited and costly magic) but it's coherent and understandable, and actually reflected in the social/political landscape of the books, which is more than I can say for a lot of more "serious" literary fantasy.
Enjoyable and lighthearted - perfect for a fall afternoon.
Anyway, back to the point.
First book in the series (Assassin's Gambit) I read a while ago, and enjoyed it. It helps that it's a light-hearted fantasy romp, with less romance and more wacky hi-jinks.
These two were added to the collection at the same time, so I was able to read them together, which was nice. The other wasn't so far back in the mists of memory that I needed to read it again, but I do suggest that you read all three close together, as the characters do pop back and forth through each other's stories (and this continues in the fourth book, based on the excerpt on the author's website).
Spy's Honor (Hearts and Thrones, book 2)
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417831
Read November 8, 2014
Prince's Fire (Hearts and Thrones, book 3)
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417848
Read November 9, 2014
Spy's Honor is the first, chronologically-speaking, and cover's Rhianne's involvement with the Mosari heir to the throne, in disguise as a slave in her Kjallan imperial gardens. Despite my preference for reading books in chronological order, I have to say that I feel that this series works much like The Chronicles of Narnia, in that the mid-series adventures of Emperor Lucien and Vitala works much better as the entry point, allowing the reader to then go back and see how "history" unfurled to link his cousin with a neighboring (and somewhat hostile) country.
Prince's Fire then jumps into the future, after Lucien has been ruling peacefully for years. Despite the glorious history (insert sarcasm) of arranged marriages in his immediate family, Lucien has decided to offer his youngest sister, the Imperial Princess Celeste, in marriage to another neighboring prince (less sarcasm here; the first one apparently worked quite well with Rhianne) as the sweet enticement to a trade agreement. Hearkening back to the first book, Riorca and assassins feature prominently, as does a lovely island nation that bears a striking resemblance to Hawai'i. The match is fraught with misunderstandings and prejudices on both sides (naturally) but the duo fall in love (equally naturally) in time to prevent another royal coup and save the island from a natural disaster.
Are these amazing works of plotting and characterization? Nope. But they're fun, they are quick reads, the plot zips along with just enough speed that you almost don't notice the plot-rails underneath, and the world-building, although derivative, is actually interesting and cohesive. The magic style (infinite magic powered through personal connections to a spirit realm) isn't my favorite (I much prefer limited and costly magic) but it's coherent and understandable, and actually reflected in the social/political landscape of the books, which is more than I can say for a lot of more "serious" literary fantasy.
Enjoyable and lighthearted - perfect for a fall afternoon.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Goodwill Find! Fantasy: The Coelura, Anne McCaffrey, illustrated by Ned Dameron
Found this at the Goodwill, in the children's section, which I disagree with slightly - I don't think the story would hold a child's interest very well, being a glorified love story.
The Coelura
Anne McCaffrey, illustrated by Ned Dameron
ISBN: 0312930429 (this illustrated edition from 1987, original story from 1983)
Read November 5, 2014
I want to say this is a good book, because the story and the world and the illustrations (let's be honest here and say that my delight was MOSTLY because of the illustrations) were so much fun to jump into for a short afternoon read. I read it over lunch, it's only 156 paperback-sized pages, and many of those pages are illustrations. If it weren't for the copyright page, I'd be highly temped to say that the illustrations came first, and the story was created as an attempt to mesh them all together, but knowing the story was written first makes me somehow gleefully happy at the bonkers illustrations of characters, environments, and poses that Dameron decided needed interpreting. His vision of the protagonist at age 14 is especially delightful, and very reminiscent of the eighties.
So, is this a good book? Sadly, not really. The language is stilted and grasping for "alienness" in phrases and descriptions, the characters all speak and act like they're college theatre majors doing their first Shakespeare production, with lots of expansive gesturing (in the text, as well as the illustrations) and very proper, very formal, very unrealistic dialogue. The plot isn't any great shakes either - in 120 pages, it ought to be trim, but a lot of time and energy are wasted on the wordy dialogue-laden intro, then the follow-up manages both to totally fulfill cliche expectations while missing a giant Chekov's gun in regards to one specific character which changes the entire climax and denouement of the story (in my opinion for the worse). Also, egregious editor fail: bells "peal" and one can "peel" fruit. Different words, different meanings.
Summary: (spoilers?)
Caissa is the "body-heir" of a planetary regional governor (no more specifics, just that he's obviously rich and important and part of "society" in this place - our descriptions of jobs and titles are forever maddeningly vague) and thus will inherit all of his wealth and glory and positions, in addition to whatever she manages to accrue on her own. Her "womb-mother" is obsessed with fashion and the high-life, and doesn't spend much time on this small world with nothing other than hunting and a small court of provincials. Mom leaves one day in a huff, declaring that she's still owed part of her "contract" that dad hasn't fulfilled, and Caissa is now curious. She discovers that there is a missing species on the planet, but meanwhile she just had her first serious proposal to be a mother to a body-heir of another society person (her dad is adamant that she consider the proposal for political reasons that STILL, even after finishing the story, remain unclear), and she's so miffed by his inept and condescending advances that she runs away to fly her personal aircraft out in the wilderness to seethe and pout. Out there on her own she hears a faint distress beacon from the restricted islands which are connected to the missing species, finds a crashed ship, and the rest of the story proceeds according to exactly what you're thinking it will, discovering the "missing" species and their purpose and value, establishing a love-interest, and putting very shaky legs on a mystery/conspiracy. There are random detours and red-herrings that spawn at random intervals, flap around wildly to be sure to be noticed, and then are utterly ignored.
So, good story? Not exactly. It was a bit frustrating, and more amusing to read than actually good or interesting, but it was a fun experience, and there were those excellent zany illustrations to pore over!
The Coelura
Anne McCaffrey, illustrated by Ned Dameron
ISBN: 0312930429 (this illustrated edition from 1987, original story from 1983)
Read November 5, 2014
I want to say this is a good book, because the story and the world and the illustrations (let's be honest here and say that my delight was MOSTLY because of the illustrations) were so much fun to jump into for a short afternoon read. I read it over lunch, it's only 156 paperback-sized pages, and many of those pages are illustrations. If it weren't for the copyright page, I'd be highly temped to say that the illustrations came first, and the story was created as an attempt to mesh them all together, but knowing the story was written first makes me somehow gleefully happy at the bonkers illustrations of characters, environments, and poses that Dameron decided needed interpreting. His vision of the protagonist at age 14 is especially delightful, and very reminiscent of the eighties.
So, is this a good book? Sadly, not really. The language is stilted and grasping for "alienness" in phrases and descriptions, the characters all speak and act like they're college theatre majors doing their first Shakespeare production, with lots of expansive gesturing (in the text, as well as the illustrations) and very proper, very formal, very unrealistic dialogue. The plot isn't any great shakes either - in 120 pages, it ought to be trim, but a lot of time and energy are wasted on the wordy dialogue-laden intro, then the follow-up manages both to totally fulfill cliche expectations while missing a giant Chekov's gun in regards to one specific character which changes the entire climax and denouement of the story (in my opinion for the worse). Also, egregious editor fail: bells "peal" and one can "peel" fruit. Different words, different meanings.
Summary: (spoilers?)
Caissa is the "body-heir" of a planetary regional governor (no more specifics, just that he's obviously rich and important and part of "society" in this place - our descriptions of jobs and titles are forever maddeningly vague) and thus will inherit all of his wealth and glory and positions, in addition to whatever she manages to accrue on her own. Her "womb-mother" is obsessed with fashion and the high-life, and doesn't spend much time on this small world with nothing other than hunting and a small court of provincials. Mom leaves one day in a huff, declaring that she's still owed part of her "contract" that dad hasn't fulfilled, and Caissa is now curious. She discovers that there is a missing species on the planet, but meanwhile she just had her first serious proposal to be a mother to a body-heir of another society person (her dad is adamant that she consider the proposal for political reasons that STILL, even after finishing the story, remain unclear), and she's so miffed by his inept and condescending advances that she runs away to fly her personal aircraft out in the wilderness to seethe and pout. Out there on her own she hears a faint distress beacon from the restricted islands which are connected to the missing species, finds a crashed ship, and the rest of the story proceeds according to exactly what you're thinking it will, discovering the "missing" species and their purpose and value, establishing a love-interest, and putting very shaky legs on a mystery/conspiracy. There are random detours and red-herrings that spawn at random intervals, flap around wildly to be sure to be noticed, and then are utterly ignored.
So, good story? Not exactly. It was a bit frustrating, and more amusing to read than actually good or interesting, but it was a fun experience, and there were those excellent zany illustrations to pore over!
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Random Romance Reads: The Switch, Lynsay Sands
I'm including this one with the RRR, even though the underlying difficulties all stem from "period" miscues rather than anything else.
The Switch
Lynsay Sands
ISBN: 9780062019820 (reprint)
Read October 24, 2014
The short, mostly spoiler-free version: A set twin girls, countrified members of the ton, have their bucolic peaceful lives disrupted by the deaths of their parents. Their uncle, the new guardian falls peril to gambling and bad investments, and his idea is to sell the winsome girls in marriage to rich elites, thus preventing his financial ruin. One sister is to a gentleman who is simply repugnant, but the other is meant for one who has been through three wives in the last few years, and rumor runs rampant about their "accidental" deaths. En route to the marriage mart, they stop at an inn, and the girls escape, with one sister dressed as a boy to evade suspicion and to assuage propriety. They are immediately noticed and taken under the wing of a kindly noble, who passes them off as cousins while they have their season in London, taking turns pretending to be the sister or the brother as they set their caps for different men. Blackmail and the dissolute uncle provide the villainy, and Gretna Green is abused beyond all reason in tying up the leads in holy matrimony.
The good:
Crossdressing!
Interesting premise with twins and gender-bending where each twin takes a turn being male.
The put-upon hero is vastly overwhelmed, and I felt sorry for him and his confusion the whole book.
The bad:
Crossdressing mechanics and historical fashion and clothing in general not matching up with the time-period intended (although God only knows what that period was, as I couldn't work it out beyond somewhere possibly very "early regency").
Paper-thin characters for nearly everyone, especially the men.
Overstepping the bounds of propriety and allowed behavior in some places, while calling attention to them and carefully attending to them at others. If the whole story had simply pretended the mores did not exist, I would have taken it as a silly story set in an imaginary or simplified "regency-land" and gone on with the story. Calling attention to the proper modes of behavior simply made me wince at all the gross violations (sartorial and social) that went unremarked.
The Verdict:
Silly but with world-building flaws that are grievous given that it claims to be set in the real world, in a time and place which was scrupulously recorded at all levels of society. If the "flaws" were, as I suspect. used to forward the plot or build moments for the characters, then I'm even more grumpy, because that's just sloppy plotting, and totally unnecessary and slapdash.
The Switch
Lynsay Sands
ISBN: 9780062019820 (reprint)
Read October 24, 2014
The short, mostly spoiler-free version: A set twin girls, countrified members of the ton, have their bucolic peaceful lives disrupted by the deaths of their parents. Their uncle, the new guardian falls peril to gambling and bad investments, and his idea is to sell the winsome girls in marriage to rich elites, thus preventing his financial ruin. One sister is to a gentleman who is simply repugnant, but the other is meant for one who has been through three wives in the last few years, and rumor runs rampant about their "accidental" deaths. En route to the marriage mart, they stop at an inn, and the girls escape, with one sister dressed as a boy to evade suspicion and to assuage propriety. They are immediately noticed and taken under the wing of a kindly noble, who passes them off as cousins while they have their season in London, taking turns pretending to be the sister or the brother as they set their caps for different men. Blackmail and the dissolute uncle provide the villainy, and Gretna Green is abused beyond all reason in tying up the leads in holy matrimony.
The good:
Crossdressing!
Interesting premise with twins and gender-bending where each twin takes a turn being male.
The put-upon hero is vastly overwhelmed, and I felt sorry for him and his confusion the whole book.
The bad:
Crossdressing mechanics and historical fashion and clothing in general not matching up with the time-period intended (although God only knows what that period was, as I couldn't work it out beyond somewhere possibly very "early regency").
Paper-thin characters for nearly everyone, especially the men.
Overstepping the bounds of propriety and allowed behavior in some places, while calling attention to them and carefully attending to them at others. If the whole story had simply pretended the mores did not exist, I would have taken it as a silly story set in an imaginary or simplified "regency-land" and gone on with the story. Calling attention to the proper modes of behavior simply made me wince at all the gross violations (sartorial and social) that went unremarked.
The Verdict:
Silly but with world-building flaws that are grievous given that it claims to be set in the real world, in a time and place which was scrupulously recorded at all levels of society. If the "flaws" were, as I suspect. used to forward the plot or build moments for the characters, then I'm even more grumpy, because that's just sloppy plotting, and totally unnecessary and slapdash.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Random Romance Read: Sins of a Wicked Duke, Sophie Jordan
Sins of a Wicked Duke
Sophie Jordan
ISBN: 9780061579172
Read Sept 22, 2014
Short version: Erk. Non-consensual crap all over the place here.
Snarky Summary: An obvious prologue sets up at least a trio of novels about three dissimilar young girls who meet in a brutal boarding school as children. This story focuses on Fallon. She's Irish, she's an orphan (her father died on a trip overseas to collect garden plants for a noble), she's tall and strong and has wild red-gold hair. Due to her height, beauty, and her hair, she keeps getting molested by the sons and husbands of her employers when she's trying to work as a maid, and in rejecting their advances, gets sacked. After meeting a notorious noble rake, she hatches a plot to work as a manservant instead, chops off her hair, and goes for it.
Dominic (obviously the "Demon Duke" has to be named Dominic) and I'm confused about his ducal nature as his grandfather is a pastor in a small country town? Anyway - actual peerage aside, he's spent his life working hard to be unfeeling and careless and wicked because his grandfather (the aforementioned pastor) was too hard on him when he was a young child.
Fallon ends up as Dom's valet, much non-consensual intimacy happens - and this is really irritating, because the whole POINT of her working in disguise as a man was that she was trying to avoid this crap, and the hero spends the whole time pawing at her because he can't help himself, and besides, she likes it, so it's all ok and he's not doing anything wrong because he's just passionate. God in heaven. Give me a freaking break.
Anyway. Plot contrivances related to her father's untimely death lead Fallon to a lonely life in a cottage in the small town where the grandfather is the pastor. She becomes a sort of nursemaid to him (despite the fact that everyone in Society has to know that she was Dom's valet while dressed as a boy, because all the servants knew), the wayward Duke returns when the grandfather is on his deathbed (and don't even get me started on how the whole death and funeral bits were just ignored) and yay now they are married (erm, what?) and have a daughter!
I like the idea of heroines in male drag, I like "rags to riches" stories, and I would have liked this if there had been any attention given to the process of passing, to the actual historic situation of servantry and the Ton, and if the hero hadn't been totally rapey.
Sophie Jordan
ISBN: 9780061579172
Read Sept 22, 2014
Short version: Erk. Non-consensual crap all over the place here.
Snarky Summary: An obvious prologue sets up at least a trio of novels about three dissimilar young girls who meet in a brutal boarding school as children. This story focuses on Fallon. She's Irish, she's an orphan (her father died on a trip overseas to collect garden plants for a noble), she's tall and strong and has wild red-gold hair. Due to her height, beauty, and her hair, she keeps getting molested by the sons and husbands of her employers when she's trying to work as a maid, and in rejecting their advances, gets sacked. After meeting a notorious noble rake, she hatches a plot to work as a manservant instead, chops off her hair, and goes for it.
Dominic (obviously the "Demon Duke" has to be named Dominic) and I'm confused about his ducal nature as his grandfather is a pastor in a small country town? Anyway - actual peerage aside, he's spent his life working hard to be unfeeling and careless and wicked because his grandfather (the aforementioned pastor) was too hard on him when he was a young child.
Fallon ends up as Dom's valet, much non-consensual intimacy happens - and this is really irritating, because the whole POINT of her working in disguise as a man was that she was trying to avoid this crap, and the hero spends the whole time pawing at her because he can't help himself, and besides, she likes it, so it's all ok and he's not doing anything wrong because he's just passionate. God in heaven. Give me a freaking break.
Anyway. Plot contrivances related to her father's untimely death lead Fallon to a lonely life in a cottage in the small town where the grandfather is the pastor. She becomes a sort of nursemaid to him (despite the fact that everyone in Society has to know that she was Dom's valet while dressed as a boy, because all the servants knew), the wayward Duke returns when the grandfather is on his deathbed (and don't even get me started on how the whole death and funeral bits were just ignored) and yay now they are married (erm, what?) and have a daughter!
I like the idea of heroines in male drag, I like "rags to riches" stories, and I would have liked this if there had been any attention given to the process of passing, to the actual historic situation of servantry and the Ton, and if the hero hadn't been totally rapey.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Assassin's Gambit, Amy Raby
Assassin's Gambit
Hearts and Thrones #1
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417824
Read Sept 16, 2014
Faux-historical 'roman empire' fantasy romance.
This one isn't a random romance read - I picked it up because it actually seemed like it would be decent. And it was!
Vitala is ethnically Riorcan, but appears to be a member of the Kjallan Empire, which has driven her small country into poverty and slavery for several generations. She's a freedom fighter, an assassin, and she has been trained for one single purpose - seduce and kill the young Emperor Lucien.
Of course, things never go according to plan, and the rest of the novel works through the implications of usurpers, dynastic squabbles, political relations, and ethnic tensions. And the really fascinating thing is that it actually worked really well. There might have been a place or two where a close look revealed the plot wheels grinding away, but for the majority of the book, I was totally willing to follow our two main characters along as they work out their political and personal difficulties.
The fantasy was minor and backgrounded despite being important to the plot on several occasions. It was fairly standard 'fantasy world magic' with wards and healers and specialized magic schools divided by class or country.
Technology was interesting - the country was an obvious Roman analogue, but they had gunpowder, cannon, single-shot personal guns, and explosives.
There was a fair amount of frank sex or sexual situations throughout - the main character is an assassin, trained to kill through (and with) seduction and sex, and that is dealt with quite plainly, as are several rape or dubiously consented sexual scenes.
The next in the set is Spy's Honor, which jumps back in time to a younger Lucien and his cousin Rianne (who makes a small appearance in this story).
Hearts and Thrones #1
Amy Raby
ISBN: 9780451417824
Read Sept 16, 2014
Faux-historical 'roman empire' fantasy romance.
This one isn't a random romance read - I picked it up because it actually seemed like it would be decent. And it was!
Vitala is ethnically Riorcan, but appears to be a member of the Kjallan Empire, which has driven her small country into poverty and slavery for several generations. She's a freedom fighter, an assassin, and she has been trained for one single purpose - seduce and kill the young Emperor Lucien.
Of course, things never go according to plan, and the rest of the novel works through the implications of usurpers, dynastic squabbles, political relations, and ethnic tensions. And the really fascinating thing is that it actually worked really well. There might have been a place or two where a close look revealed the plot wheels grinding away, but for the majority of the book, I was totally willing to follow our two main characters along as they work out their political and personal difficulties.
The fantasy was minor and backgrounded despite being important to the plot on several occasions. It was fairly standard 'fantasy world magic' with wards and healers and specialized magic schools divided by class or country.
Technology was interesting - the country was an obvious Roman analogue, but they had gunpowder, cannon, single-shot personal guns, and explosives.
There was a fair amount of frank sex or sexual situations throughout - the main character is an assassin, trained to kill through (and with) seduction and sex, and that is dealt with quite plainly, as are several rape or dubiously consented sexual scenes.
The next in the set is Spy's Honor, which jumps back in time to a younger Lucien and his cousin Rianne (who makes a small appearance in this story).
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
The Runaway Wife, Rowan Coleman
The Runaway Wife
Rowan Coleman
ISBN: 9781476725239
Slice-of-life "finding yourself " romance set in England/Scotland.
Read July 22, 2014
I actually read a grownup book start to finish! It's been a long, busy, internet-distracted summer.
Rose had a rough life. Her alcoholic father walked out when she was nine, her mother walked into the ocean when she was 16, and she walked down the aisle with the first man who told her she was beautiful. He was an abusive creeper, natch. Now she's 31, has a daughter of her own, and after her husband finally crosses the line (her lines were set way the hell too far back, by the way) she's run away to her "picture postcard fantasy" village where she hopes to meet one man she has built up in her mind into being a prince charming. Predictable heart-warming slushy read.
Good characters: Maddie, John (before he went all soft and squishy), Jenny and Brian the B&B owners, poor Ted.
Less developed characters: Rose herself (a bit of a problem when she's the reason for the story), Prince Charming, Richard the evil doctor husband, Shona.
Good bits: Rose's teenage fumblings with sexuality at age 31. Coming from a repressed childhood myself, that rang really true. Maddie's peculiar quirks and personality. The connection between John and Maddie as artists.
Less good bits: The contrived drama with Ted, Jenny and Frasier. John getting all sappy and parental.
Predictable bits: The entire last third of the book. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, just I was hoping that at least one of my predictions would end up being somewhat subverted (the prince charming letter bit at the end was just wayyy too much for this cynical girl to manage.)
Enjoyable, but not really my cuppa.
Rowan Coleman
ISBN: 9781476725239
Slice-of-life "finding yourself " romance set in England/Scotland.
Read July 22, 2014
I actually read a grownup book start to finish! It's been a long, busy, internet-distracted summer.
Rose had a rough life. Her alcoholic father walked out when she was nine, her mother walked into the ocean when she was 16, and she walked down the aisle with the first man who told her she was beautiful. He was an abusive creeper, natch. Now she's 31, has a daughter of her own, and after her husband finally crosses the line (her lines were set way the hell too far back, by the way) she's run away to her "picture postcard fantasy" village where she hopes to meet one man she has built up in her mind into being a prince charming. Predictable heart-warming slushy read.
Good characters: Maddie, John (before he went all soft and squishy), Jenny and Brian the B&B owners, poor Ted.
Less developed characters: Rose herself (a bit of a problem when she's the reason for the story), Prince Charming, Richard the evil doctor husband, Shona.
Good bits: Rose's teenage fumblings with sexuality at age 31. Coming from a repressed childhood myself, that rang really true. Maddie's peculiar quirks and personality. The connection between John and Maddie as artists.
Less good bits: The contrived drama with Ted, Jenny and Frasier. John getting all sappy and parental.
Predictable bits: The entire last third of the book. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, just I was hoping that at least one of my predictions would end up being somewhat subverted (the prince charming letter bit at the end was just wayyy too much for this cynical girl to manage.)
Enjoyable, but not really my cuppa.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
The Winter Bride, Anne Gracie
The Winter Bride (A Chance Sister's Romance, Book 2)
Anne Gracie
ISBN: 9780425259269
Read May 27, 2014
I read and failed to review the first book in this series, the equally enjoyable The Autumn Bride, which came in as a donation to our library last fall. I read it without realizing it was only published that year (Feb 2013). It's probably just as well that I didn't know it was so new, because I would probably have declined to pick it up, being as it's quite obviously the first in a projected series about four young 'sisters' who take their destiny into their own hands, and find love and family along the way. It's saying something about the quality that when I finished Autumn, I immediately tried to request Winter, only to realize in frustration that it hadn't even been published yet!
Now Winter has been out for a while, but our library copy only just now made it through processing, and I was so happy to see it come through!
I have to say that I enjoyed it just as much as I did Autumn.
There was only one editing mistake that I noted (a mis-directed aside), and the plotting and story were beautifully paced and executed. The language is beautiful and specific - curricles and pelisses and tigers - and the main characters are all well-drawn and enjoyable to read about. Chapters are headed with Jane Austen quotes, characters refer to the horrors of the marriage market, and traumatic histories are unearthed for both our hero and heroine, all along a sweet path towards a growing friendship and eventual passion.
Now the only question is who will be the Spring Bride?
Anne Gracie
ISBN: 9780425259269
Read May 27, 2014
I read and failed to review the first book in this series, the equally enjoyable The Autumn Bride, which came in as a donation to our library last fall. I read it without realizing it was only published that year (Feb 2013). It's probably just as well that I didn't know it was so new, because I would probably have declined to pick it up, being as it's quite obviously the first in a projected series about four young 'sisters' who take their destiny into their own hands, and find love and family along the way. It's saying something about the quality that when I finished Autumn, I immediately tried to request Winter, only to realize in frustration that it hadn't even been published yet!
Now Winter has been out for a while, but our library copy only just now made it through processing, and I was so happy to see it come through!
I have to say that I enjoyed it just as much as I did Autumn.
There was only one editing mistake that I noted (a mis-directed aside), and the plotting and story were beautifully paced and executed. The language is beautiful and specific - curricles and pelisses and tigers - and the main characters are all well-drawn and enjoyable to read about. Chapters are headed with Jane Austen quotes, characters refer to the horrors of the marriage market, and traumatic histories are unearthed for both our hero and heroine, all along a sweet path towards a growing friendship and eventual passion.
Now the only question is who will be the Spring Bride?
Monday, May 19, 2014
Random Romance Reads: The Pirate Prince, Connie Mason
The Pirate Prince
Connie Mason
ISBN: 0843952342
Read May 18, 2014
As an aside, I was out shopping at a used bookstore and found a whole slew of romance novels in a bin out front labeled "Free" and I couldn't resist.
The bad: this is one of those really squicky romance novels where the girl says "no," means "no," doesn't consent at any point, and actively tries to resist, and the "hero" rapes her anyway, but it really isn't rape actually because it felt good/he wasn't using his penis/she's still technically a virgin/and really if she hadn't been raised to be frigid and hung-up about morality and sexuality, she would have said yes, and she ended up falling in love with him anyway, and he really loved her after all so it's all ok in the end!
I HATE that. It really raises my hackles. If it were presented as a tactic of the bad guys, that's one thing. But to have it be the accepted "seduction technique" of the character we're supposed to empathize with and lust after? It's disgusting and wrong, and it's a terrible example to set. Any writer ought to be ashamed of themselves for not being able to do better than that.
The story:
The hero is an Ottoman Turk named Dariq who turned pirate when his older brother assumed the throne and began his rule by killing everyone else who might challenge him for it. Dariq's mother (an English lady) saved his life that long-ago night, and he'll do anything to save her, especially after his brother threatens to kill her if Dariq doesn't return to be killed like a good responsible younger brother.
The heroine is named Willow (she's an English lady) and Willow's part in all this is that en-route to see her mother in France, her ship was captured by pirates, and she was sold into slavery and eventually bought to grace Dariq's brother's (you know, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan) harem. Except that Dariq knows that a certain ship is carrying a "treasure" his brother wants, so he steals it. Er, her.
Then comes the squicky rape parts, after which they fall in love, complications arise due to said love, and also to jealous concubines, and also to both of them having more hormones than braincells.
Willow's faith in her parents' rescue is well-placed, and Dariq also finds a formidible ally in his English mother, leading to a slight twist at the end that I didn't expect.
If you value your history, please expect a goodly portion of poetic license - if "Willow" didn't offer enough of a clue.
Connie Mason
ISBN: 0843952342
Read May 18, 2014
As an aside, I was out shopping at a used bookstore and found a whole slew of romance novels in a bin out front labeled "Free" and I couldn't resist.
The bad: this is one of those really squicky romance novels where the girl says "no," means "no," doesn't consent at any point, and actively tries to resist, and the "hero" rapes her anyway, but it really isn't rape actually because it felt good/he wasn't using his penis/she's still technically a virgin/and really if she hadn't been raised to be frigid and hung-up about morality and sexuality, she would have said yes, and she ended up falling in love with him anyway, and he really loved her after all so it's all ok in the end!
I HATE that. It really raises my hackles. If it were presented as a tactic of the bad guys, that's one thing. But to have it be the accepted "seduction technique" of the character we're supposed to empathize with and lust after? It's disgusting and wrong, and it's a terrible example to set. Any writer ought to be ashamed of themselves for not being able to do better than that.
The story:
The hero is an Ottoman Turk named Dariq who turned pirate when his older brother assumed the throne and began his rule by killing everyone else who might challenge him for it. Dariq's mother (an English lady) saved his life that long-ago night, and he'll do anything to save her, especially after his brother threatens to kill her if Dariq doesn't return to be killed like a good responsible younger brother.
The heroine is named Willow (she's an English lady) and Willow's part in all this is that en-route to see her mother in France, her ship was captured by pirates, and she was sold into slavery and eventually bought to grace Dariq's brother's (you know, the Ottoman Empire's Sultan) harem. Except that Dariq knows that a certain ship is carrying a "treasure" his brother wants, so he steals it. Er, her.
Then comes the squicky rape parts, after which they fall in love, complications arise due to said love, and also to jealous concubines, and also to both of them having more hormones than braincells.
Willow's faith in her parents' rescue is well-placed, and Dariq also finds a formidible ally in his English mother, leading to a slight twist at the end that I didn't expect.
If you value your history, please expect a goodly portion of poetic license - if "Willow" didn't offer enough of a clue.
Random Romance Reads: The Viking, Bobbi Smith
The Viking
Bobbi Smith
ISBN: 9781420108804
(Previously Published as "Passion")
Read May 16, 2014
Set in a really loose historical time with Vikings vs Saxons. Occasional editing and proofreading flubs, some characterization wiffles, but nothing really awful. Very formulaic.
Dynna is a Saxon widow being forced by her father-in-law to marry her late husband's brother. He's evil, natch.
Brage is a fearless Viking warrior, with an older and a younger half-brother who follow his lead on a stream of successful raids. His "battle name" is the Black Hawk, due to his Irish mother's heritage giving him odd black hair.
As a prelude, there is a stock old fortune-teller who casts runes to predict Brage's success, and a shadowy figure who betrays the Viking's plans for a raid into Saxon territory.
Dynna and her maid attempt an escape in peasant's clothing, and are intercepted by the beginnings of the Viking raid. With the info from the traitor, Dynna's evil intended easily mops the floor with them, captures the Viking, and re-catches Dynna as well.
Dynna is a healer, and is needed to make sure that Brage is well enough to ransom back to his father. She plots to use him as muscle to get her across country to her father's estate to escape her impending forced marriage. Brage just wants to not be imprisoned by the Saxons.
They fall in love along the trip (along with copious amounts of sex in the countryside) and get her safely to her parents, where evil wanna-be husband instantly attacks and recaptures them both, confining Dynna to her parent's estate, and bringing Brage back to be ransomed to his father (and incidentally also for all the Vikings to be killed by ambush).
After the requisite Viking victory, there's the equally requisite grave misunderstanding between the lovers, and Dynna is taken back to Viking lands as a slave, rather than as Brage's intended.
Once "home" in Viking-land, the traitor is revealed, Dynna makes a final loving sacrifice by taking a blade meant for Brage, and everything works out in the end.
There is a minor sub-plot where Dynna's maid and Brage's half-brother also fall in love.
Bobbi Smith
ISBN: 9781420108804
(Previously Published as "Passion")
Read May 16, 2014
Set in a really loose historical time with Vikings vs Saxons. Occasional editing and proofreading flubs, some characterization wiffles, but nothing really awful. Very formulaic.
Dynna is a Saxon widow being forced by her father-in-law to marry her late husband's brother. He's evil, natch.
Brage is a fearless Viking warrior, with an older and a younger half-brother who follow his lead on a stream of successful raids. His "battle name" is the Black Hawk, due to his Irish mother's heritage giving him odd black hair.
As a prelude, there is a stock old fortune-teller who casts runes to predict Brage's success, and a shadowy figure who betrays the Viking's plans for a raid into Saxon territory.
Dynna and her maid attempt an escape in peasant's clothing, and are intercepted by the beginnings of the Viking raid. With the info from the traitor, Dynna's evil intended easily mops the floor with them, captures the Viking, and re-catches Dynna as well.
Dynna is a healer, and is needed to make sure that Brage is well enough to ransom back to his father. She plots to use him as muscle to get her across country to her father's estate to escape her impending forced marriage. Brage just wants to not be imprisoned by the Saxons.
They fall in love along the trip (along with copious amounts of sex in the countryside) and get her safely to her parents, where evil wanna-be husband instantly attacks and recaptures them both, confining Dynna to her parent's estate, and bringing Brage back to be ransomed to his father (and incidentally also for all the Vikings to be killed by ambush).
After the requisite Viking victory, there's the equally requisite grave misunderstanding between the lovers, and Dynna is taken back to Viking lands as a slave, rather than as Brage's intended.
Once "home" in Viking-land, the traitor is revealed, Dynna makes a final loving sacrifice by taking a blade meant for Brage, and everything works out in the end.
There is a minor sub-plot where Dynna's maid and Brage's half-brother also fall in love.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Introducing "Random Romance Reads" posts
I don't read romance novels.
Now, don't take that to mean that I never pick them up and read them - I do. But some people pick up and read romance novels for their own sake, the way I read sci-fi and fantasy books. I read them more for amusement, or because I feel like I need to keep my oar in for professional development (sounds very noble, but really it just means I can justify having some silly fluffy stuff as my homework instead of another boring journal).
I'm also trying to log everything that I read, just for the heck of it.
And that makes a conundrum. I read these things for the laughs, and purposefully select the ones that I think I'll find amusing. That makes it really mean-spirited to actually review them, because I'm not reading them like their intended audience.
So for these, I'm going to make a couple of comments, attempt to restrain any snark, and give a brief plot description.
I'm not going to be concerned about spoilers, so reader beware.
Now, don't take that to mean that I never pick them up and read them - I do. But some people pick up and read romance novels for their own sake, the way I read sci-fi and fantasy books. I read them more for amusement, or because I feel like I need to keep my oar in for professional development (sounds very noble, but really it just means I can justify having some silly fluffy stuff as my homework instead of another boring journal).
I'm also trying to log everything that I read, just for the heck of it.
And that makes a conundrum. I read these things for the laughs, and purposefully select the ones that I think I'll find amusing. That makes it really mean-spirited to actually review them, because I'm not reading them like their intended audience.
So for these, I'm going to make a couple of comments, attempt to restrain any snark, and give a brief plot description.
I'm not going to be concerned about spoilers, so reader beware.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
The Fire Lord's Lover, Kathryne Kennedy
The Fire Lord's Lover
Kathryne Kennedy
ISBN: 9781402236525
Alternate History Fantasy Romance
Read February 25, 2014
I actually read the last book in this series (The Lord of Illusion) sometime last year maybe? It was an interesting take on alternate elven history, and I was just coming off of a Mercedes Lackey Elves on the Road kick, and wanted more weird stuck-up elves.
So this is actually the first book in a series (there's one in the middle, Lady of the Storm, that I may or may not read). To be honest, The Fire Lord's Lover feels like a middle-of-a-series book, with lots of info and titles and relationships casually dropped in. I was actually really surprised, and a bit taken aback, when I learned that it's actually the first book, because when I read the last one, it had a very strong sense of 'lets tie up dozens of loose ends from lots of different books and relationships that we've established over the course of this long series,' and I was really shocked to learn there were only three of them total.
So, the last one obviously wasn't awful, because I recognized this one as being related to it, and picked it up for a quick jaunt into weird-ass English elfland.
I have a lot of minor plot-related nits that I could pick (and have done in the privacy of my own mind) regarding the worldbuilding and the social relationships at play in this series, but my only major quibble with the book itself is the dialogue.
No one talks like that. Everyone in this book is expository and declaratory, like really bad gradeschoolers attempting to write a Shakespearean soliloquy, and it gets simply ridiculous in places. It makes it somewhat difficult to take the characters and their perilous situations quite seriously when they are declaiming at each other in a very 'doth mother know thou wearest her drapes' sort of way. That said, when the characters aren't having big emotional moments, they usually manage to talk just fine. It's only when they need to be emotionally wrought that it gets a little silly.
I can't really comment much on the 'adult content' except to say that it was there, it seemed more flowery than gritty, and it wasn't overly cringeworthy or eyerolly.
Characterization was decent, although again - I thought we were in a middle book instead of the first of a set, so take that into account.
The plot is obvious, but fun, and each character got a chance to grow and change, and to contribute towards the plot as well as towards the developing relationship. Secondary characters were either total ciphers, or oddly, more finely drawn than the leads.
I really like the plot concept, and despite niggles, think it was worked out well. I am a bit saddened that the overall plot was sorted out in three books, as knowing the finish makes it a little difficult to be worried about later sets of characters that might get written into the middle of the series in the future.
Still, lighthearted, fun, lots of girl power,some enjoyable revolt against evil crazy elven tyranny.
Good fun for an evening!
Kathryne Kennedy
ISBN: 9781402236525
Alternate History Fantasy Romance
Read February 25, 2014
I actually read the last book in this series (The Lord of Illusion) sometime last year maybe? It was an interesting take on alternate elven history, and I was just coming off of a Mercedes Lackey Elves on the Road kick, and wanted more weird stuck-up elves.
So this is actually the first book in a series (there's one in the middle, Lady of the Storm, that I may or may not read). To be honest, The Fire Lord's Lover feels like a middle-of-a-series book, with lots of info and titles and relationships casually dropped in. I was actually really surprised, and a bit taken aback, when I learned that it's actually the first book, because when I read the last one, it had a very strong sense of 'lets tie up dozens of loose ends from lots of different books and relationships that we've established over the course of this long series,' and I was really shocked to learn there were only three of them total.
So, the last one obviously wasn't awful, because I recognized this one as being related to it, and picked it up for a quick jaunt into weird-ass English elfland.
I have a lot of minor plot-related nits that I could pick (and have done in the privacy of my own mind) regarding the worldbuilding and the social relationships at play in this series, but my only major quibble with the book itself is the dialogue.
No one talks like that. Everyone in this book is expository and declaratory, like really bad gradeschoolers attempting to write a Shakespearean soliloquy, and it gets simply ridiculous in places. It makes it somewhat difficult to take the characters and their perilous situations quite seriously when they are declaiming at each other in a very 'doth mother know thou wearest her drapes' sort of way. That said, when the characters aren't having big emotional moments, they usually manage to talk just fine. It's only when they need to be emotionally wrought that it gets a little silly.
I can't really comment much on the 'adult content' except to say that it was there, it seemed more flowery than gritty, and it wasn't overly cringeworthy or eyerolly.
Characterization was decent, although again - I thought we were in a middle book instead of the first of a set, so take that into account.
The plot is obvious, but fun, and each character got a chance to grow and change, and to contribute towards the plot as well as towards the developing relationship. Secondary characters were either total ciphers, or oddly, more finely drawn than the leads.
I really like the plot concept, and despite niggles, think it was worked out well. I am a bit saddened that the overall plot was sorted out in three books, as knowing the finish makes it a little difficult to be worried about later sets of characters that might get written into the middle of the series in the future.
Still, lighthearted, fun, lots of girl power,some enjoyable revolt against evil crazy elven tyranny.
Good fun for an evening!
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
My Wicked Vampire, Nina Bangs
My Wicked Vampire, Nina Bangs. ISBN: 9780843959550
Read September 24
Paranormal
Romance: Plant experimenter Cinnamon (Cinn, obviously) has developed
plants that feed on human pheromones, cast "love spells," recognize and
attack intruders, and in the case of Vince the periwinkle, developed
sentience. That's enough to get her hired by the Castle of Dark Dreams
(obviously the through-line for this series) to add to the atmosphere
for their kinky patrons looking for fantasy. Also new to the Castle is
Dacian the "night-feeder" vampire, who was rescued from a couple of
centuries of self-imposed exile and off-and-on murderous rages at the
request of his brother, another Castle employee, and also a vampire.
The supernaturals (nonhumans, according to the book)
are many: the aforementioned vampires (of which there are strong
indications of other types, but they don't come into this story),
wizards, a trio of chaos spirits, goddesses, emissaries of goddesses,
and various flavors of demons. Oddly enough, nothing too weird really
comes of all these nonhuman protagonists, other than the ability to take
and dish out wild amounts of violence to each other.
The only true weirdness here is Cinn's plants. Good
thing too, because they form the lynchpin of her side of the plot (the
more interesting one, to my mind) - her goddess-ancestor is pissed that
she's overstepping her authority to create plants that are more like
animals, and wants her to stop it, and to kill off her already-created
plants.
On Dacian's side, there's a veneer-thin conflict
between his sociopath creator and Dacian's unwillingness to play beta to
someone weaker than him (of course his creator is weaker than him).
The characters are amusing, their dialogue flows
well, and the interactions are fun to read through. I especially
enjoyed the doomed love triangle between Asima, Vince, and Tommy, and
the bemused attentions of Wade the outdoorsman.
The plotline is serviceable. I thought the ending
was overdrawn, and Cinnamon's plot antagonist was co-opted into solving
Dacian's on a totally predictable level, but the inclusion of a clueless
peanut gallery actually worked fairly well. "Run, kitty, run!" was
funny as hell, and nameless "professor guy" gets a good bad-ass line:
"Hey! Leave the plant alone!"
The love story suffers from the same flaw that most
romance novels have - the characters meet in dangerous and uncertain
circumstances, fall madly in love, and within pages/hours are defending
each other against opponents that any sane person would flee. At this
point it's so entrenched that I can't get too worked up over it.
However, when the worst affront to suspension of disbelief in THIS
particular novel is the love story? That's saying something.
Cute, but I'm mostly fond of the plant angle, so I think I'll be giving the other "Castle" books a miss.
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