Review: The Lawyer's Luck

The Lawyer's Luck by Piper Huguley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novella prequel to Hugely's "Home to Milford College" was available free on Kobo, which I appreciated. I'm trying to read more books generally by authors of colour, but particularly romance by Black women, but while the idea of Home to Milford College appeals to me, as a queer Christian, I'm wary of most books marketed as Christian fiction. So a free novella meant I could taste and see whether I was going to find the particular flavour of Christianity offputting for me. I really didn't. I think the only problem I'm going to have here is the same one I had with beginning to read The Brothers Sinister with the prequel novella, written later. I want more stories with *these* characters, when the story is actually written later about the predeccessors to the characters the series is actually about . I got over that quickly with the Brothers Sinister and I'll get over it here, too.

I loved the setup - I love the contradiction between Lawyer as "I should be the protector" against his actual approach to life and then Realie's pragmatism and complete lack of romanticism. And the ending was absolutely satisfying. I'm definitely adding the series proper to my reading list.

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 - 21 October 2014

I've let this drop a little, in part because I felt like I was only reading sci-fi: and I'm reading so many things and taking so long to finish them, that my lists were getting monotonous.

But this week I've got two new genres (one of which I don't entirely know how to classify) in my "in the middle of": queer action-adventure/thriller/romance, and something vaguely girlsowny.

The Honor series by Radclyffe
This is not the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.  That one is military sci-fi and although I'm getting close to the point where there's going to be a marriage between three people, I'm not entirely sure that Weber can cope with queerness all that well.  (If I'm wrong, I apologise.)

This is the long (looong) running series starting with Above All, Honor starring Blair Powell, daughter of the US President, and Cameron Roberts, Secret Service agent.  In the last two weeks I've reread books two and three, and purchased and read books four and five and started book six.  I've also got book seven already, and am planning to buy the final book in the series as well as the First Responsders series, which contains a crossover in the third book.

So: my recent reads from this series are

• Honor Bound
• Love and Honor
• Honor Guards
• Honor Reclaimed
• Honor Under Siege - currently reading.

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith (Audio, read by Jenny Agutter)
For my trip down to Melbourne, I - not realising that the e-version of Dowager Empress Cixi by Jung Chang was only available as an e-Audio, not as an e-Book, I'll get into this later - borrowed the CD book of I Capture the Castle, mostly because it was read by Jenny Agutter, who I adore.

I've never previously gotten past the first chapter, and since I read A Brief History of Montmaray I've not entirely wanted to go back to it, simply because I adore Montmaray and am a little uncomfortable with just how similar it feels at the beginning to Castle.  But the name "Jenny Agutter" on the cover was enough to get that set of CDs in my hand.

I got through the first three CDs on the drive down.  I will admit that I'm not entirely sure when I'll get to listen to the rest, necessarily, but I do own the book (the film tie-in cover, and given that Henry Cavill is in the film, I'm pretty sure we'll be watching it fairly soon, as M is a massive fan of Cavill.  But I am really enjoying it, far more than I expected, even though The Starlight Barking is a dear and favourite book.  I love the way Smith writes, and I do love a lot of the characters already.

I know I have a few friends for whom this book is a favourite, and I'm looking forward to finishing it and being able to discuss.

A note: this book is not a historical, because it is set in the 1930s and published in 1949.

Review: The White Queen

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I hadn't written a review of this, and then, all unbenownst to me, there's a TV adaptation started in the UK this past weekend. So, having seen episode one of the adaptation, I'm writing a review of the whole book (and wondering whether there are plans for the adaptation of other books in the series.)

Important point to understand #1 - I am not a Richardian.

Important point to understand #2 - Neither am I anti-Richardian. (I blame Buckingham, although I'm not sure who he was working for.)

Ditto #3 - Despite #s 1 and 2, I really rather enjoyed Sharon Penman's "The Sunne in Splendor".

Ditto #4 - I really can enjoy books even though they aren't all that historically accurate or faithful. I will roll my eyes at the problems while still enjoying the narrative/characters/whatever.

Given the historical use of 'witchcraft' as a stick with which to beat intelligent, assertive women, I don't really like that Gregory decided to make the allegations true. Once I was past that and into the story, I appreciated the ways it contributed, and yet the inner feminist still isn't okay with it. The Perkin Warbeck story also irks me, and yet again: once I was back into it... as always Gregory gets the narrative pull just right. It may have taken a few tries to get going (but that was mostly due to not wanting to read books by non-Australian white women (see challenges)) but once in, I was *in*.

Unfortunately, right now my mind is rather taken up by episode one of the TV adaptation.

What I know is that while certain elements of the book annoyed me, and/or took historical positions that I have issues with, I still really enjoyed reading it.

More later, perhaps. Possibly after having watched episode two.



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Review: Port Arthur: A Story of Strength and Courage

Port Arthur: A Story of Strength and Courage by Margaret Scott

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is a remarkable book.

I know I visited Port Arthur in 1992, and I think I also went there in 1994. Both of these visits were prior to 1996, when the events of this book take place. I remember coming home from a driving lesson with my father on the 28th of April 1996 to find my mother crying, telling us about what had happened.

Margaret Scott is an icon of Australian television, comedy, and literature. When my mother saw this book, she said "I think Margaret Scott was my lecturer in Children's Literature." As someone who watched Margaret Scott on Good News Week, that was an amazing revelation - I am so incredibly JEALOUS of my mother!

But anyway: this book is written by a legend, about an event that will forever be part of my memory - and she does it so very well. As a local to the peninsula, she writes about the community surrounding Port Arthur in a way that only a local could. She writes about the events of that terrible day with an urgency and effect that grabbed at me, so many years afterwards. She gave me a vision of how horrible it must have been: that day, and then in the times thereafter.

What I found particularly interesting to contemplate was Scott's comments on the ways in which history has always been artificialised at Port Arthur, and the ways in which some people wanted to either sweep the events of April 28, 1996 under the carpet, or equally artificialise them. It was a way of thinking about history, memorials, and how we mark and remark upon events that I think will really sit with me in the weeks and months to come.

It's another Australian book that I'm grateful to have read - glad to have read - and that I know I will think back to in the future.





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Review: Above All, Honor by Radclyffe

Above All, Honor by Radclyffe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Maybe it's something about books with "Honor" in the title (see also the series by David Weber that I'm slowly working my way through) but having found the first three books in this series and read through them at a clip in the past few days, I'll certainly be buying the rest, and the Justice Series, and probably the First Responders series as well. I'll have to ration the buying out as rewards, but I definitely want to read more of these.

Recent Romances

Given Laura Vivanco's post yesterday on the Australian Women Writers Challenge blog, I feel that I ought to post proper reviews of two recent romances I've read, both by female Australian authors.   Both by the *same* female Australian author, actually: Stephanie Laurens.  (I have already reviewed Elizabeth Rolls' His Lady Mistress.)

I currently read and have in my past read romance novels.  I went through a massive glut when I was about 17/18 years old, with a particular focus on the "Loveswept" label.  They seemed to my teenaged brain to be of a higher quality of writing than your average Mills & Boon.  (I had a friend whose mother practically lived on M&B; I read a few, but the repetitiveness got to me.)  Between the ages of 16 and 20 I also went through a Danielle Steele phase, with particular focus on her historicals, like Jewels, Zoya, No Greater Love and Message From Nam (all of which I still own, as I enjoy re-reading them so very much!)  Danielle Steele was my favoured author for airplane reading at a time when I was doing a lot of 14-hour flights, and every so often, one of her titles will occasionally appeal to me.

But it has to be said that I've gone along with giving the romance genre a bad rap.  On Goodreads my tag for romance is "trashy trashy romance".  This shelf includes Stephanie Laurens, Jane Feather, Elizabeth Rolls, and an attempt at Amanda Quick (or if it doesn't, it ought to.)  I unreservedly love Stephanie Laurens, in particular, for her message that love is at the centre of all that is: that marriage without love is lacking, and (in "The Edge of Desire", for example) that love is love, no matter what the pairing.  And because of that unreserved love, I feel rather bad about the shelf-label of "trashy trashy romance".  I still believe that Laurens is a light read as compared to someone like Chloe Hooper or perhaps even Sulari Gentill (wait until I've read her).  But although  I think there's still no liklihood of a flat romance winning any literary awards anytime soon, I don't know why we don't acknowledge writers like Stephanie Laurens, who has to be one of Australia's best known writers when you come down to numbers.

And so: here are my reviews of the latest two Stephanie Laurens books that I've read.:

The Edge of Desire

Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue

Review: Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue

Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue by Stephanie Laurens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Heather. Is. Awesome.

There are no two ways about it. Heather is simply awesome. Brilliant. Beyond description. Heather is a Girl Guide and a Regency Heroine bound up in one. Heather is awesome. Intelligent and thoughtful and after she's thought for a while, able to cope with the concept that Timothy Davers isn't actually ridiculous.

It's still a regency romance. It still comes under my personal definition of "trashy trashy romance". And yet it still is readable, the characters loveable, and the thing is, it's just totally Stephanie.

I enjoy Regency Romance. Somehow the historical moment overcomes the sickliness of what can be a contemporary romance. And having said that, it's the modernity of SL's characters that appeals to me: the fact that - like an Austen heroine, they've rarely been entirely on the shelf. They have almost always managed to refuse someone first, before finding their True Love. And the fact that they mange to have sex well before marriage is all about "yay" for the fact that these are liberated ladies who don't belive that a priestly blessing is requried prior to pleasure (even though it always strikes me as historically anachronistic).

Anyway. Love the book: looking so very much forward to books two and three.





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Review: The Edge of Desire

The Edge of Desire by Stephanie Laurens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Possibly one of the most engaging Bastions I've read so far, due to the depth of the mystery on the one hand, and the intransigence of the heroine on the other. I simply adore a heroine who refuses to let the hero coddle her, and in Letitia that's exactly what the reader has. She is awesome, in the true sense of the word. She refuses to let Derne, Dalziel, or any of the Bastion club overrule her, and she is as much a part of solving the puzzle as any of them.

For as much of a puzzle as there is to solve.

Of course, I'm coming at this book from the wrong angle entirely, having already read the book in which Dalziel's true identity is revealed and the traitor hunted to ground. In fact, I read that book quite some time ago. And yet, I still think this one of the most engaging Bastion Club novels of the series.

I have to admit that I really don't tend to expect much of a Laurens: an enjoyable romp, Regency-style balls and accoutrements, and a happy ending.

The Edge of Desire gave me all this, and a frolicking, rolicking mystery as a side dish. Twelve points to Stephanie Laurens!



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Review: "His Lady Mistress" by Elizabeth Rolls

His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I started reading this because it was on my Kobo (it was on my Kobo because it was free) and because I didn't feel like reading anything I had on the go at the time.

But when I opened the book and reached the bio, it turned out to have been written by an author who has lived in Australia long enough that I'm counting her for the AWW challenge.

To review the book itself - look, it's a romance. There's a reason I have a "trashy trashy romance" shelf on GR: every so often I read a lot of romance. (See last year's list of books read.) It's a Regency romance, and it's not a Stephanie Laurens. But I enjoyed it. Sure, I wanted to bash the hero and heroine's heads together at times, because geeze, were they being dense! If they'd just *spoken* to each other, the book would have been half the size at most.

When I read books like this, I don't read them critically. I read them for the adventure, for the jaunt. I read them for the fun of it - for the froth and joy of the ball at Netherfield in the 1996 P&P. And while it wasn't at the level of a Laurens for me, it was a lovely, engaging read.

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