Review: A Proper Companion

December 31, 2015December 28, 2015Leave a comment

Candice Hern, A Proper Companion

Robert, Lord Bradleigh, is a rakish earl with a recently arranged betrothal to a lovely young girl he barely knows. Emily Townsend is an impoverished spinster employed as a companion to his grandmother, the formidable dowager countess. Robert agrees to help his grandmother find a husband for the beautiful Emily. But once he comes to know the charms of his grandmother’s companion, he begins to regret his hasty engagement.

This sparkling tale will take you from the Pump Room at Bath to the ballrooms of London as the unexpected and undeniable attraction between Robert and Emily blossoms into something more … something that could put one of them in danger. (Summary from Amazon.com.)

I’m going to be honest: I read this book about two months ago, and I truly don’t remember a thing about the plot. I think maybe Emily had another suitor who turned out to be evil in some way, but I’m not sure. And maybe Robert’s fiancée ended up falling in love with someone else? Like I said, the details have completely gone out of my head. So, obviously, this was not a particularly great read for me…but it wasn’t particularly awful either, or I would have remembered it! From what little I recall, the writing style was fine but not great; but after all, only a few authors can flawlessly imitate that Regency voice. I’m sure I did enjoy the book while I was reading it, because I remember looking up the sequels on Amazon (although I didn’t actually purchase them). I suppose lovers of non-bodice-ripping Regency romances would enjoy this book, but I can’t really recommend something that I can’t remember!

Review: A Curious Beginning

December 29, 2015December 29, 20154 Comments

Deanna Raybourn, A Curious Beginning

London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker—a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth. (Summary from Amazon.com.)

I’ve read and enjoyed the first few Lady Julia Grey books, so I was excited to learn that Raybourn has begun a new mystery series featuring intrepid lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell. Unfortunately, this book really didn’t work for me. It’s a good read in the sense that it’s well written and moves quickly, but I couldn’t get over my dislike of both Veronica and her partner/love interest, Stoker. Historical fiction can be difficult because the protagonists should be realistic for their time period but also sympathetic to modern readers. Veronica errs on the side of being far too modern for her era. She pursues a scientific career by traveling all over the world without a chaperone, and she engages in a variety of sexual affairs, apparently without any consequences to her reputation as a gentlewoman. I simply didn’t find her believable. As for Stoker, he’s a generic brooding alpha male type, and that’s basically all you need to know. It’s not a bad book, by any means, but it didn’t deliver what I look for in historical fiction.

Review: The Lure of the Moonflower

October 25, 2015October 24, 2015Leave a comment

Lauren Willig, The Lure of the Moonflower

***Warning: Possible spoilers for previous books in the series!***

This last installment of the Pink Carnation series finally tells the story of the Pink Carnation herself, Miss Jane Wooliston. It’s 1807, and Napoleon’s armies have invaded Portugal. Officially, the Portuguese royal family have departed for South America; unofficially, the mad Queen Maria is still in the country, providing a focal point for the Portuguese resistance. If the French capture Queen Maria, it will be a decisive victory for Napoleon, so Jane is determined to prevent it by finding her first. But since she is ignorant of both the Portuguese language and the country’s terrain, she’ll need the help of Jack Reid, otherwise known as the Moonflower. Jack, the black sheep of the Reid family, has spied for many nations other than his own, including France. Can Jane trust him not to betray her? And when Jack meets Jane, he’s astonished to discover that the Pink Carnation is a demure young Englishwoman. Can he trust her to maintain her composure — especially when her former lover, a French spy known as the Gardener, is also on Queen Maria’s trail?

I’ve been a fan of the Pink Carnation series ever since the first book, so of course I was eagerly anticipating the final installment. I was especially excited to see that Jane was paired with Jack Reid: they have good chemistry and a believable conflict, as they are both accomplished spies who have trouble trusting each other and showing any hint of vulnerability. Their romance is the main focus of the book, with the spy plot largely being an excuse to get them together — which is fine by me, since I just wanted to see a satisfying ending for these characters whom I’ve grown to love over the course of the series. I do have some complaints, however, mostly because of the stories left untold. For example, we get a little bit of Jane’s romance with the Gardener, but that really should have been its own book. There are also a few minor characters from the series that I wish had gotten more closure. But Willig does include an afterword where she explains her decision to end the series here and gives a little “Where are they now?” update on all her recurring characters. So overall, I think this was a worthy ending to a delightful series, and I look forward to re-reading all the books one of these days!

Review: A School for Brides

October 11, 20152 Comments

Patrice Kindl, A School for Brides

The students of the Winthrop Hopkins Female Academy all know that their primary goal is not to receive a scholarly education but to learn the ladylike skills necessary to attract a husband. The problem is that the school is located in Lesser Hoo, Yorkshire, a country village with absolutely no eligible men. There are currently six girls of marriageable age at the school, and they are constantly bemoaning the dearth of potential husbands in the area. Fortunately, a chance encounter with some gentlemen who are visiting a nearby estate for hunting season provides them with all the romance and intrigue their hearts desire. Some of the girls fall in love with relative ease, while others find various obstacles in their paths. But when a valuable necklace goes missing and the school’s footman is the chief suspect, the girls and their paramours band together to clear his name and find the real culprit.

I had previously read and enjoyed Patrice Kindl’s [Keeping the Castle], which is set in the same village and features some of the minor characters in this book. So I was predisposed to enjoy this novel, and by and large I found it a pleasant read. The writing is light and brisk, very evocative of Georgette Heyer’s style (though of course not as good). I also liked the fact that the girls’ romances develop in a variety of ways. Some of them are true love stories with a happy ending, but some of them end in heartbreak, while one girl marries a kind man she doesn’t love after being betrayed by another suitor. This variety of outcomes especially makes sense in the Regency era, when marriage was basically the only choice for a gently bred young woman. The one thing I didn’t like was that, because of the sheer number of characters to follow, none of them are given much depth. I wasn’t particularly invested in any of the romances, nor did the mystery of the stolen necklace hold my interest (mostly because it was so easy to figure out). But for those who enjoy witty Regency fluff, I’d recommend this book as a fun read.

Review: The Other Daughter

October 7, 20152 Comments

Lauren Willig, The Other Daughter

Working-class Rachel Woodley is currently employed as a governess in France, but she must return to England in a hurry when she learns that her mother is ill. By the time she gets back to her native village, her mother has died. As a grieving Rachel sorts through her mother’s possessions, she discovers a shocking secret: her father, whom she believed had died many years ago, is actually alive and well. Moreover, he’s an earl with a wife and daughter — his legitimate family. Shocked and angry, Rachel decides she must confront her father somehow. With the help of Simon Montfort, a young gentleman who is part of the earl’s social circle, Rachel assumes a new identity in order to get closer to her father. As she infiltrates the crowd of Bright Young Things in 1920s London, she manages to meet her half-sister and even obtain an invitation to the earl’s home. But the more she gets to know this side of her family, the more Rachel wavers in her desire for revenge.

While I adore Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series, her standalone novels have been a bit less successful, in my opinion. They usually lack the humor that makes the Pink Carnation books so much fun, and Willig’s trademark dual narratives (one historical, one contemporary) would split my focus in a way that I found very distracting. Happily, in this book, there is no contemporary framework narrative; the entire book follows Rachel’s journey in the 1920s. Perhaps for this reason, I ended up really liking the novel! I found Rachel’s motivations and feelings very believable, as she tries to deal with the fact that her entire identity has shifted. I also like that her feelings slowly change as she realizes that neither her father nor her half-sister is the pure villain she imagined at first. Of course, there’s a romance in the book as well, which I enjoyed very much — Simon is a delicious hero with a very interesting backstory. Overall, I liked this book a lot and would definitely recommend it to fans of historical fiction!

Review: The Twelfth Enchantment

September 24, 2015Leave a comment

David Liss, The Twelfth Enchantment

As a young woman of no fortune in 19th-century England, Lucy Derrick’s choices are extremely limited. Her parents are dead, so she is forced to live with her odious uncle and his cruel housekeeper. Her only means of escape is to accept the advances of a prosperous local mill owner, but she doesn’t love the man and has delayed making a final decision. But everything changes when Lucy encounters the dashing Lord Byron, the principal landowner in the area. Byron shows up on Lucy’s doorstep with a mysterious illness that is soon revealed to be magical in origin. To Lucy’s surprise, she is actually able to help him through exercising her own magical abilities. This chance encounter leads Lucy into a shadowy world whose existence she had never before suspected — a world of changelings and faeries and soulless beings who cannot die. Assisted by her friend Mary Crawford (of Mansfield Park fame) and by Jonas Morrison, the man who once broke her heart, Lucy must navigate a supernatural power struggle and find an ancient spell book that will vanquish her immortal enemies once and for all.

This was my first encounter with David Liss, and I think it’s probably not the right entry point into his work. My understanding of his other books is that they are serious historical fiction, with plenty of exploration of the gritty realities of life in former eras. This book contains a lot of those same concerns, with Luddites and Rosicrucians both being fairly integral to the plot. But at the same time, this novel also has a lot of Regency romance tropes, like the lovely but impoverished young woman who seeks marriage both for love and for economic stability. As a result, the book felt slightly schizophrenic to me. Personally, I was more interested in Lucy’s individual character development and her romantic relationships than in the broader power struggle, so everything about the aforementioned Luddites and Rosicrucians was a real slog for me. In other words, it’s too heavy for a light, fluffy read; but the Regency-romance elements detract from the serious historical fiction aspects of the book. Some things did work for me, particularly the central romance, but overall I think the book suffers from trying to blend two very different genres.

Review: Circling the Sun

July 7, 20154 Comments

Paula McLain, Circling the Sun

Beryl Markham is known to history as one of the pioneers of aviation: she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. But this novelized version of her life focuses on her childhood and youth on an African farm in what is now Kenya. Beryl’s family moved to Kenya when she was four years old, but her mother had trouble adapting to African life and soon returned to England. As a result, Beryl’s upbringing was unconventional, and her education was sporadic at best. She grew up with a deep love of the land and creatures surrounding her, and she loved to ride, shoot, and train horses. But as she approached adulthood, her father’s farm fell on hard times, and he eventually decided to sell the property and relocate to Nairobi. Distraught at the thought of leaving her home, and unwilling to be a burden on her father (with whom she was not close), Beryl married a neighboring farmer. But the marriage was not a happy one, and Beryl soon left him to become a horse trainer in her own right. The novel follows Beryl’s attempts to stand on her own against the odds, and it also chronicles her friendship with Karen Blixen — better known as Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa — and her love affair with Denys Finch Hatton, whom the book portrays as the great love of Beryl’s life.

This book initially caught my interest because I find the early days of flight fascinating. It’s amazing to me that traveling by plane is so common now, when back then it was terribly dangerous, and only the most daring adventurers were brave enough to attempt it. Unfortunately, this novel has almost nothing to do with Beryl Markham’s career as an aviatrix; but I still ended up enjoying it a lot for the setting and characters. I don’t know much about Beryl’s life, so I can’t say how accurate the book is in its details, but it certainly paints a vivid and compelling picture of her character and of life in British East Africa at that time. The Beryl of this book was certainly ahead of her time in many ways. She married and divorced multiple times, and she had several extramarital affairs, including one with Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. She pursued a career at a time when most women were still relegated to the home. Such characteristics make her a compelling heroine, and I enjoyed reading about her adventures — although this book focuses a lot on her various romances, when I really wanted to know more about her professional life and aspirations. But I did enjoy the novel and would like to learn more about this era. I’ll have to read Out of Africa and Beryl’s own memoir, West with the Night!

Review: Funny Girl

June 24, 2015Leave a comment

Nick Hornby, Funny Girl

This novel, set in the 1960s, tells the story of Barbara, a girl whose only dream growing up was to go on television and make people laugh. When she wins a local beauty pageant and realizes that she’s about to become stuck in a small-town rut forever, she moves to London to pursue her goal. Her good looks attract the attention of an agent, but all he wants is for her to stand there and look pretty in various insipid commercials. Eventually, however, by sheer luck she teams up with a group of comedy writers who are trying to develop a new show for the BBC. There are Tony Holmes and Bill Gardiner, who have been writing partners for years; there’s Dennis Maxwell Bishop, the meek producer who’s trapped in an unhappy marriage; and there’s Clive Richardson, the handsome, arrogant actor who will be playing the male lead in the show. Against all odds, Barbara — now using her stage name of Sophie Straw — lands the part, and the show becomes an unexpected hit. Throughout its run, Sophie and her colleagues must deal with love affairs, identity crises, divorces, and changing artistic visions; but in the end, they are inextricably linked by the shared bond of creating a show that changed all their lives.

I’m a big fan of Nick Hornby’s books, so I was excited to read this latest release. It’s a bit different from his earlier works — still very funny, but in a subtler way. My favorite parts of the book are when the four main characters are just sitting around, discussing the show and trying to break new stories. It’s a pleasure to watch them all interact and tease each other. It’s obvious that, regardless of the personal issues these characters might have with each other (or in their lives outside of work), they are all genuinely fond of each other. Because of this focus on the characters, there’s not a whole lot of plot in the book; it covers the show from beginning to end, then goes forward in time to explore what happens to Sophie and the other characters. To be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the time jump; it made the book drag on and minimized the various setbacks and triumphs that occurred during the show’s run. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book overall and would recommend it to people who like character-driven books, as well as people who are nostalgic for ’60s-era television.

Review: Illusions of Fate

June 23, 2015June 23, 20151 Comment

Kiersten White, Illusions of Fate

Jessamin has recently left her sunny island home of Melei to study at the prestigious university in Albion. But she hates the cold Alben weather and the narrow-minded Alben prejudices she is constantly exposed to because of her heritage and skin color. She is determined to endure the next few years and then leave Albion forever, but a chance meeting with a charming nobleman changes the entire course of her life. Finn Ackerley is attractive and wealthy, and he seems to be genuinely interested in Jessamin. He also happens to be an extremely powerful magician, and he possesses secrets that could have dire consequences for both Albion and the entire world. As Finn fights to save his country against the wicked, scheming Lord Downpike, Jessamin is caught in the middle. And when Lord Downpike discovers her relationship with Finn, he doesn’t hesitate to use her as a pawn in his power struggle. Can Jessamin outwit this deadly adversary and help Finn, all while remaining true to herself?

Historical fantasy is a genre I really enjoy, so I was predisposed to like this book, but I was a bit disappointed in the execution. There are a lot of really great ideas in the novel, but I wanted almost all of them to be explored in a lot more depth! For example, even though the book is set in a fictional world, it’s clearly meant to explore the issue of colonialism, but that side of things felt a bit superficial to me. I also loved the magical elements of this world, but in my opinion, the book doesn’t delve deeply enough into the history or the current power struggle with magic. The romance between Jessamin and Finn was adorable, but it also seemed fairly lightweight; I never truly connected with the characters or had particularly strong emotions about them getting together. Finally, the plot is resolved very abruptly in the end. I think all of these issues could have been resolved if the book had been longer, and I feel bad for nitpicking so much because that might have been the publisher’s fault rather than the author’s. And it is a light, enjoyable read; it’s just a bit insubstantial for my taste. But I would certainly try something else by Kiersten White in the future.

You Book Me All Night Long

Tag: historical fiction