Reading Plaidy - May 2016

More than a year ago I promised to post about my progress with reading through the Plaidy books.  Then I totally failed to post a single thing.  I will rectify that right, now!

Epitaph for Three Women is just not sitting with me.  I have no idea why, because Katherine de Valois! Jeanne d'Arc!  But I think I'm just too eager to get to Margaret of Anjou, and the wars, and I have to admit that I'm disappointed in myself.

I have been variously dipping into a couple of the Georgian books, but not actually finishing them, and during a recent visit to a library that is not the one I work for, I borrowed what is technically the first of the Tudor saga, Uneasy Lies the Head, but which I tend to think of as I'm reading it as the end of the Plantaganet Saga, even though I was trying really, really hard to read them properly in order.  But see above re finding EfTW frustrating.

I've now bought Red Rose of Anjou, but ULtH needs to go back to the library fairly shortly, (actually, I have, just this moment, renewed it online) so unless I decide to be good and go back, yet again, to EfTW, I'll be working my way through the book of the first Tudor king.

Wednesday Reads - 11th May, 2016

What I just finished reading: 
The Tangled Thread - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.  Book 10 of the Morland Chronicles.

The Emperor - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.  Book 11 of the Morland Chronicles


What I'm reading now:
The Victory - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.  I think this one is heading for Nelson's victory at Trafalgar? On, you know, the HMS Victory.

Red Rose, White Rose -  Joanna Hickson.  About Cicely Neville, wife of Richard of York, and mother of Edward IV and Richard III.

Stormbird - Conn Iggulden.  First historical in a long, long while that I've read written by a male author.  First of his Wars of the Roses quartet.

Cecily's King Richard - Sandra Heath Wilson.  Trainwreck reading.  A horrifyingly bad book about the daughters of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and their apparent sexual obsession with their uncle, Richard III.  No, I do not know WHY I'm still reading this dreck.

Uneasy lies the head - Jean Plaidy.  Because Harrod-Eagles aside, I'm apparently reading across the entire Wars of the Roses period all at once.

What I'll read next:
The Regency - Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.  Book 12 of the Morland Chronicles

Eden Falls - Jane Sanderson.  Final of the Netherwood series.

Morland Chronicles #9, "The Flood-Tide" (and Hamilton)

It's the War of Independence and the Morlands!

One of the things this book is really good at is demonstrating the length of the war, and the uncertainty of it all.  That said, of course it's very much from the British point of view, but that didn't stop me singing "The world turned upside down" at the end of the Battle of Yorktown.

I really wanted this review to be peppered with Hamilton quotes. I've been listening to this musical since the moment the soundtrack was announced and I love it to pieces, but I'm just not creative enough to drop bits and pieces in as easily as I'd like.

That said - Charles' story was poignant.  Calculated to appeal to the British reader, but also very interesting, and something I hadn't so much thought of.  It wasn't only the British who were threatening to kill friends and family...

William's plot may convince me to read Patrick O'Brien and other Age of Sail authors.  I was so sad about poor dear Charlotte, but William has a wonderful story... of guns and ships. And oh, Thomas - you see, this is the problem with writing the review two books later: I forgot Thomas!  Key to the battle of Yorktown, where the world turned upside down, for Charles, for Flora (for the other Charles...)

Next up: the French Revolution and The Tangled Thread - everyone give it up for America's favourite fighting Frenchman!

(Maybe I didn't do so badly on the Hamilton quotes after all.)

Monday night Morlands...

I'm now halfway through book 11, The Emperor.  I haven't yet written my reviews of The Flood-Tide and The Tangled Thread, in part because I feel like they ought to be infused with the lyrics of "Hamilton" and "Les Miserables" respectively (even though we haven't even reached the time period of "Les Miserables" - perhaps I should save those lyrics for then...)

Meanwhile, here are some tweets from the last 200 or so pages of The Tangled Thread:

I may have said this before, but... It's fabulous how #readingtheMorlands is now reminding me of Honor Harrington books #frenchrevolution

— Heidi Stabb (@heidi_reads) April 28, 2016

Have reached Henri's trial. #readingtheMorlands. 100 LP pages to go in The Tangled Thread.

— Heidi Stabb (@heidi_reads) April 29, 2016

I can see interesting times coming for the morals of the Morlands as the Industrial Revolution approaches... #readingtheMorlands

— Heidi Stabb (@heidi_reads) April 29, 2016

As for The Emperor: Mary is wonderful, Lucy is wonderful... this particular generations of Morlands are just brilliant.  It almost makes up for the generations of utter sods I've had to put up with.  I kind of want  fic where Lucy and Mary meet Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth...) And Heloise is just delightful, and has been since A Tangled Thread.

Review: "By Winter's Light", by Stephanie Laurens

I actually still have two first generation Cynster books left to read (the final two sisters), but this one

is something of a transitional book between the first and second generation.  It comes before the latest two that I've read and is referenced in the first of those - The Tempting of  Thomas Carrick.

In many ways the plot of By Winter's Light is slight.  The action takes place across only a couple of days, there is a great deal of feasting and merry-making, and most of the actual drama is unrelated to the romance, which is basically about Claire sorting out her own thoughts in her head.  As I finished it, I thought to myself, 'If Laurens wrote Chalet School fiction, this would be it.' There's a group of young people trapped in a cottage by a snowstorm, and on another occasion, a number of children play on an icy stream, with not-unexpected dramatic results.

It's a Christmas story, and a gathering of the clans, and the romance isn't even among the Cynsters themselves, but between the tutor of Alastair and Phyllida's sons, and the governess of Gabriel and Alathea's daughter.  The setting at Casphairn Manor (seat of Catriona) allows for a totally snowed in  Christmas tale, and sets the scene beautifully for the next two novels (focused on the eldest twins of Catriona and Richard - Lucilla and Marcus).

The romance is satisfying, and even when the main characters are not aristocrats but "members of the household", Laurens' heroines still get to have sex before getting married. (Although in this case that's less of a shock to the standards of the day, as Claire is a widow.)

I don't think missing this book would do anyone any harm in terms of understanding the rest of the series, but it was a lovely, light read, well suited to reading over a couple of days while still sick in bed.

Wednesday Reads - 20 April 2016

It's just a tad late, even though I had it started on Monday...  Also, I've been off work sick since last Thursday, which has meant a lot of reading, some of it via Audiobook.

What I've just finished reading:
The Flood-Tide by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - this was the American War of Independence book, and very interesting I found it.  Still working on the review post, because I keep getting distracted into singing lines from "Hamilton".

Ravenscliffe, by Jane Sanderson - second of the "Netherwood" series, I really enjoyed this.  They're light and relatively undemanding, but the mining elements are fascinating.  Not sure what I'm going to make of the next one, Eden Falls, as I really dislike Eve's brother Silas who would seem to be featuring even more in that book.

The Taming of Marcus Cynster, by Stephanie Laurens - this one has lain fallow beside my bed, almost finished, for while now, but I got back into it rather easily this morning when I picked it up again.  Niniver is a marvellous addition to the Cynster extended family, and the beginning of the book absolutely grabbed me by the throat.

What I'm reading now:
The Tangled Thread by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - next of the Chronicles, this one focusing on the French Revolution, and the "tangled thread" that is the Annunciata-descended illegitimate line.

The Queen's Choice by Anne O'Brien - Joan of Navarre. I'm probably 75% through this one already.  Really liking Anne O'Brien recently.

Marie Antoinette, by Antonia Fraser, eAudiobook via Bolinda Borrowbox - on Wednesday and, to a lesser extent, today, I had such a bad headache I couldn't read, so I went looking for an audiobook.  Unfortunately this was the best that I could do, but Antoinette is in the background of my current Harrod-Eagles, and the reader is lovely to listen to.

What I'll read next:
The Emperor by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - assuming that I haven't sickened of the series again yet
By Winter's Light, by Stephanie Laurens - a 'between-the-generations' Cynster that I've had sitting around for a while now.

Reading the Morlands #8, The Maiden - concluded.

Poor Jemima.  She had such a rotten life for so long.  I still feel a little sorry for Lady Mary, but she was so unbending.  Not that Marie-Louise helped the situation one little bit...  (Annunciata fatigue has transferred to the younger generations.)

Loved the inclusion of Handel and Maurice going to Dublin, although I do wish he'd been a better father to Rupert. Although I know Jemima was perfectly happy to not be the Countess of Chelmsford any longer, it did make me annoyed that she loses everything when he dies.  Bah!  

When I finished The Maiden I went straight into The Flood-Tide, and as I'm writing this review I've almost finished that one as well, and need to put the next one on hold from the library.