Review round-up

Because of travel and more I'm woefully behind on updating my reviews. As I'm thinking of doing away with reviews in any case, except for books I really love, that may not be a bad thing. But, for my own sake as much as anything else, here are the books I've read since I've been gone . . .


Kendall Kulper, Salt and Storm: the setting was the best part of this. Rich, evocative fantasy set in the whaling world of 19th century New England (think Moby Dick, but more accessible). The language was lovely and the atmosphere perfectly drawn: but I didn't love the ending.

Kelly Fiore, Just Like in the Movies cute, not entirely convincing story of two girls who set out to change their romantic fortunes by mimicking movie scenarios.

Kasie West, The Fill-In Boyfriend. I pre-ordered this book: I was that excited to read a new Kasie West book! And while it was fun and harmless, it didn't have quite the same depth or wit as her other books.

Julie Wright, Melanie Jacobsen, Heather Moore, Boardwalks Antique Shop. This collection of three related novellas about romances along Tangerine street in a delightful SoCal town is not quite as much fun as the previous one, but these stories are fun and sweet.


Martina Boone, Compulsion:  Martina has done a lot to support the YA community (she has a great website that runs all kinds of interviews and contests that was hugely helpful to me), and I've been wanting to read her debut for some time. There was lots I loved about it: richly evocative setting in the South, an intriguing cast of characters (Barrie, her scarred--and now dead--mother, her cross-dressing guardian, Eight, and so many more), interesting mysteries about Barrie's past. But while I enjoyed reading the book, I didn't love it, and I'm not entirely sure why. Boone is a good writer, her characters well-drawn and did I say I loved the setting? But I wasn't fully drawn into the world until the end.


Jude Morgan, A Little Folly. Jude Morgan might be the next best thing to reading Georgette Heyer or Jane Austen. He's got a great ear for period language and the details are wonderful. Sometimes the narrative is a little slow, but I still really enjoyed this story about siblings Louisa and Valentine who, when their strict father dies, plan to fully enjoy life--with some unexpected consequences.



Nichole Van, Intertwine. A sweet, romantic, if sometimes implausible time-travel romance that plunges the heroine into Regency era England.


Josi Kilpack, A Heart Revealed. I've read several of Kilpack's culinary mysteries and liked them but didn't love them, so I was intrigued when I saw she'd written a Regency, even more so when I heard it had starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly. And while the story was more of a slow burn than a fast-action piece, there was a lot I liked about it: especially the extreme humbling of the heroine after she discovers her hair is falling out. I can imagine few things more horrifying to a woman who puts all her value in her personal experience. Amber's humbling and transformation give this Regency a lot more depth than most, and the romance (while I wanted *more*!) was sweet. (And if it looks like I've been reading a lot of Regency lately, well, yes, I have. And I have lots of recommendations.)

Marie Rutkowski, The Winner's Crime. Rutkowski is one of those authors I want to be like when I grow up: her books are effortlessly plotted, well-paced, and the heroes tread that fine line between complicated and unlikeable. I adored book one (The Winner's Curse), and I was so happy to find that the sequel didn't disappoint. It's hard to say much about the book without spoilers, suffice it to say that Kestrel  has engaged herself to the Emperor's heir to save Arin and his kingdom (though of course, she can't tell Arin, and he doesn't understand why she's done it). The politics were fascinating and well-drawn, the writing was sometimes so lovely it hurt, and, of course, the romance is still smouldering.

Newt's Emerald

 For fans of Regency romance--especially Regency with some magic thrown in, ala Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede's Sorcery and Cecilia--this is a fun little romp of a book. However, Newt's Emerald is very different from Garth Nix's other books, so I think it's important to know that going in!

Truthful Newington is looking forward to her upcoming season in London, when the heirloom Newtington Emerald is stolen from her home. Desperate to get it back, Truthful finds herself in London earlier as expected, and forced to disguise herself as a boy (with some magical help from her great-aunt), since many of the places she needs to go in search of the emerald are closed to her as a boy.

There wasn't a whole lot of substance to the story, or to Truthful's growing romance (with, of course, the gentleman who disapproves of her female self but is helping her, disguised as a boy, to recover the emerald). But it was a lot of fun, and it's clear to see Nix's fondness for Georgette Heyer's books in this story. A quick, enjoyable read for fans of Heyer and other magical regencies.

Longborne

I have said before that I'm a sucker for Jane Austen adaptations. Almost inevitably, I'm disappointed by them, but that doesn't stop me from trying. Jo Baker's Longborne--the story of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the servants--succeeds where so many others fail. I saw this novel first pitched as a kind of Downton Abbey meets Austen, and had to read it. I'm so glad I did. The historical research was impressive, the characters sympathetic, and I loved the feeling of having my brain a little twisted by seeing a story I very much adore from a different perspective.

The story is told primarily from the point of view of Sarah, the young woman who serves as one of the two maids in the Bennet household. Sometimes the POV switches to Mrs. Hill, the housekeeper-cook, or James, the newly hired footman with a hidden past. But Baker's writing is so lovely that even when POV shifts occurred mid-scene, I rarely noticed them.

It's true that the Bennets don't come across smelling like roses in this version--but that's entirely the point. What looks lovely and neat and airy in Austen films required a small army of servants to upkeep--and when small households like the Bennets are involved, this inevitably means drudgery for someone.

For instance, early on Baker writes (from Sarah's POV):

The young ladies might behave like they were smooth and sealed as alabaster statutes underneath their clothes, but then they would drop their soiled shifts on the bedchamber floor, to be whisked away and cleansed, and would thus reveal themselves to be the frail, leaking, forked bodily creatures that they really were.

Nothing like washing someone's underwear to take away the magic in a relationship!

And again, referring to preparations for a ball:

It meant a flurry of excited giggly activity above stairs; it meant outings, entertainments, and a barrowload of extra work for everyone below.

Elizabeth's charming resolve to walk to Netherfield after a rainstorm to see Jane becomes:

Such self-sufficiency was to be valued in a person, but seeing her set off down the track, and then climb the stile, Sarah could not help but think that those stockings would e perfectly ruined, and that petticoat would never be the same again.

In the same way, it's impossible to read this without looking at the characters from Pride and Prejudice in the same way, but this did not diminish my enjoyment of this book (or of Pride and Prejudice).

Aside from the plot, which was by turns serious and romantic, there's pleasure just in Baker's lovely writing.

For Elizabeth the days had scudded by, but for Sarah they had expanded and swelled and grown beyond all possibility, so that every crease and dimple in them, the scent and silk and warmth of her hours, now absorbed her senses so completely that she was dazed by the world, soaked in it, more alive than she had ever been before.

Or this:

This doggedness, this bloody-mindedness: it charmed him in a way that he could not quite fathom. . . .

She was tougher than she knew. She wanted nothing from him. She brushed him aside like a fly. He found this quite delightful.

For readers looking for a familiar variation on Pride and Prejudice, this is not their book. But for fans of the novel and the time period looking for a new perspective, this was altogether lovely.