Ok, another one bites the dust - I mean, I can check another one off the AAR Top 100 list. I feel so lucky to have gotten a hardcover 3-in-1 of all three Born In books (2 of them are Top 100s) at PBS for 1 credit! Whoo hoo!
But - uh - and I'm a NR fan, here - it wasn't that great. Yeah, go figure. It was ok - I liked the characters, I liked the story, but...
Maggie's a tempermental Irish glass artist. She has a sister Brianna. Her parents conceived Maggie before they wed, and her mother went pretty much off her rocker because I guess she just had that one passionate moment (I'm pretty sure he didn't rape her...) and that was the end of their love and passion. Forever. So Mom's bitter and unhappy and obnoxious, and Dad's a great guy who dies at the beginning of the book (the girls are in their 20s at this point). And by the way, get the title: Born in Fire (Maggie was conceived in their passion) and Born in Ice, the sister's story, and guess what it implies... Duh.
Ok, sorry to be cynical. Back to the plot.
Rogan (heh heh, get it? Rogue, Rogan - maybe it's just me) is a fabulously wealthy Irish guy who owns art galleries and some other industries. Fabulously wealthy, both by upbringing and in his own right. He discovers Maggie's art and decides he wants to represent her works, and won't take no for an answer - and when he meets her, he wants her, too. But he's not really a rogue, and he lets her take her time and come to him. But again he won't really take no for an answer.
Somehow the jacket blurb implies there are secrets - see, I'm part way through the next book (Born in Ice) where there are secrets but in Born in Fire there were really none. Maggie's stubborn and tempermental and loud and argumentative and fights against her feelings for Rogan; Rogan is nothing but patient and insistent and always there. Waiting. Flying her around, selling her artwork and working on her inner needy beast to just let him manage her art and her heart.
So it was a pleasant story but I wanted some more conflict (other than Maggie's temper tantrums and Mom's, well, personality) or something. I'm glad I read it but it left me thinking it was about a 3 star read. Likeable. Pleasant. But Top 100? Ah, I am a cynic.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Bride by Julie Garwood ***
Maybe it's just me. This is an AAR Top 100 book. I mean, I went back and re-read the AAR DIK review for this book, and that reviewer makes a passionate argument for how everyone, everywhere should love this book.
But I did not love this book. In fact, now that I've read 3 Garwood books, I think I can say without hesitation that I do not love her writing style. I don't even particularly like it. But I will read the others in the AAR Top 100 just to be sure, since I already have them.
Plot: Jamie, English lass, is chosen by Alec Kincaid, Scottish Laird, to be his bride as arranged by the current English king Henry as part of some political something or other. In other words, he has to marry an Englishwoman, and his choice is limited to the daughters of an English baron. She's feisty and independent and doesn't want to go along with this edict but does. She and he grow to love one another. As backstory, he's a widower whose first wife was thought to have committed suicide but as it turns out she was murdered, and the murderer has it out for Jamie too.
There's something - stilted? - I'm not sure what the word is, or the words are, that I need to describe her writing. The heroine's moods shift hither thither and yon without warning. It's almost - cartoony? - like Keystone Cops, the way people rush about, change direction both literally and in mood and thought. I found myself going back paragraphs, pages, to figure out exactly how we got where we were.
Yes, they develop a passion for each other, and yes, sometimes I found myself being affected - smiling, laughing, feeling things. But more often than not, I felt myself confused. Furrowing my brows and frowning, thinking WTF??
First of all, all that crying and moaning by her sisters. Was that - funny? Disturbing? I mean, 3 adult women moaning and wailing. WTF? Second of all, was Jamie Cinderella or not? We're told over and over at the beginning how she's the favorite, and she has all these skills, then later we're led to believe she'd been ill used, practically abused by her father (who was not really her father at all). WTF? And she's a skillful horsewoman with no sense of direction? WTF?? That direction thing was apparently a joke throughout the book.
Was it a comedy? A thriller? A murder mystery? Either way, Garwood is no Linda Howard, no Nora Roberts, no Elizabeth Lowell, in spinning a tale that contains all of these features.
Was the stilted writing meant to bring to mind how one would speak in Medieval English/Scots? Did people say "spit" then like we say "dang"? Does it matter? Well, maybe not. Would the residents of the Scottish Highlands in 1100 have been speaking both English and Gaelic? I really do not know the history of the 2 languages well enough to know. Maybe that isn't really important to the story.
And yet, in spite of the trouble I had reading it - I didn't hate it. I didn't find her characters Too Stupid To Live, or too annoying to keep reading. I didn't dislike the storyline of an arranged marriage between and English subject and a Scottish laird. I didn't dislike the way they came to love one another, or the mystery of someone unknown trying to kill the Laird's wives. I just did not like the writing style. The Keystone Cop-ishness. The weird switches back and forth of moods.
OK I just don't like Garwood's writing style. That's all I can figure. So, I'll give it 3 stars and try 2 more times to see what it is that makes her books so popular. And if those 2 books don't do it, I'm done with her books - there are just too many Nora Roberts books to read, plus I haven't finished Lowell or Howard's backlists, and there's more Jo Goodman, and jeez, I just got started on Jennifer Crusie, and... No point in wasting time, is there?
But I did not love this book. In fact, now that I've read 3 Garwood books, I think I can say without hesitation that I do not love her writing style. I don't even particularly like it. But I will read the others in the AAR Top 100 just to be sure, since I already have them.
Plot: Jamie, English lass, is chosen by Alec Kincaid, Scottish Laird, to be his bride as arranged by the current English king Henry as part of some political something or other. In other words, he has to marry an Englishwoman, and his choice is limited to the daughters of an English baron. She's feisty and independent and doesn't want to go along with this edict but does. She and he grow to love one another. As backstory, he's a widower whose first wife was thought to have committed suicide but as it turns out she was murdered, and the murderer has it out for Jamie too.
There's something - stilted? - I'm not sure what the word is, or the words are, that I need to describe her writing. The heroine's moods shift hither thither and yon without warning. It's almost - cartoony? - like Keystone Cops, the way people rush about, change direction both literally and in mood and thought. I found myself going back paragraphs, pages, to figure out exactly how we got where we were.
Yes, they develop a passion for each other, and yes, sometimes I found myself being affected - smiling, laughing, feeling things. But more often than not, I felt myself confused. Furrowing my brows and frowning, thinking WTF??
First of all, all that crying and moaning by her sisters. Was that - funny? Disturbing? I mean, 3 adult women moaning and wailing. WTF? Second of all, was Jamie Cinderella or not? We're told over and over at the beginning how she's the favorite, and she has all these skills, then later we're led to believe she'd been ill used, practically abused by her father (who was not really her father at all). WTF? And she's a skillful horsewoman with no sense of direction? WTF?? That direction thing was apparently a joke throughout the book.
Was it a comedy? A thriller? A murder mystery? Either way, Garwood is no Linda Howard, no Nora Roberts, no Elizabeth Lowell, in spinning a tale that contains all of these features.
Was the stilted writing meant to bring to mind how one would speak in Medieval English/Scots? Did people say "spit" then like we say "dang"? Does it matter? Well, maybe not. Would the residents of the Scottish Highlands in 1100 have been speaking both English and Gaelic? I really do not know the history of the 2 languages well enough to know. Maybe that isn't really important to the story.
And yet, in spite of the trouble I had reading it - I didn't hate it. I didn't find her characters Too Stupid To Live, or too annoying to keep reading. I didn't dislike the storyline of an arranged marriage between and English subject and a Scottish laird. I didn't dislike the way they came to love one another, or the mystery of someone unknown trying to kill the Laird's wives. I just did not like the writing style. The Keystone Cop-ishness. The weird switches back and forth of moods.
OK I just don't like Garwood's writing style. That's all I can figure. So, I'll give it 3 stars and try 2 more times to see what it is that makes her books so popular. And if those 2 books don't do it, I'm done with her books - there are just too many Nora Roberts books to read, plus I haven't finished Lowell or Howard's backlists, and there's more Jo Goodman, and jeez, I just got started on Jennifer Crusie, and... No point in wasting time, is there?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Homeport by Nora Roberts ****
I'm working hard at catching up on Nora Roberts - although I figure if I just stopped everything and read and read and read, maybe I'd have her backlist done by Christmas, 2009. So I'll just keep picking up her books at PBS or at Hastings when I can get them for under $5, and reading them from time to time. (Not that I won't pay full price (well, maybe not for hardcovers) - I have, and will!) They're another comfort read - sometimes I love 'em, sometimes I just like 'em but always I'm entertained.
Homeport is about a couple of interesting, not-quite-stock characters. Dr. Miranda Jones is a tall redhead PhD of, well something I couldn't pronounce and now can't remember, something to do with authenticating art, ooold art. Think 400-500 years old. She's a little uptight - ok, she's really uptight. I thought it was interesting that in her own mind she was shy and uncomfortable, but to her employees she was daunting and unapproachable and, well, practically a slave-driver. Not that we got a lot of their thoughts on this, just a couple of times, and it seemed a little odd because I was so inside her head I couldn't believe they saw her that way!!
Her hero is not exactly heroic - the man's a THIEF by golly - a serious cat burglar! Ryan comes from a large loving Irish/Italian family, most of whom are also engaged in not-quite-aboveboard activities. He also runs successful art galleries. Apparently his parents were/are artists of not-quite-the-highest caliber, which meant something had to fund a large family, so why not Ryan's burglary skills? After all, a gift from God shouldn't be wasted, now, should it?
Go figure, I agreed with Ryan's mom on that one, at least long enough to read the story and enjoy it.
There's a further complication: when Ryan steals the statue he's after (from Miranda's family's art institute), he discovers it's a fake, and boy does that make him mad. This coming on the heels of Miranda authenticating a potential Michelangelo that is later proven to be fake is kinda ruining things, like Dr Jones' reputation, her day, her family, her week, her relationships - well, it's just not good. And it sure made Ryan mad that he'd been duped.
But there's some chemistry betwixt Miranda and Ryan, and he decides to sorta help her out instead of strangling her. In a blackmail, cat-burglar kinda way, he is going to find the originals, and help prove her original finding correct and then take the originals for himself and no one will be the wiser. Yeah right. He should realized Nora wasn't going to let him get away that easily, him being the hero and all.
There's a strong contrast between Miranda's family and Ryan's - Ryan's is more like a Roberts novel family, loving and supportive, and Miranda's is all ice and distance, literally and figuratively. Miranda has a great supportive older brother who is also in the family business. He's also a divorced alcoholic who isn't over his ex-wife except it seems he's still harboring feelings for his first love too. He's a conflicted guy.
There's intrigue - mystery - murders - gun play - this one has it all. I thought I had it figured out, then I wasn't sure, then I was proved right the first time.
AAR has 2 reviews, and interestingly it was the first NR book for each reviewer. Weird, huh? One gave it a B, the other a C+, and I'm thinking, there are actually reviewers for AAR who have never read NR?? And neither reviewer is listed on any of her other books. Too bad, because I wouldn't offer Homeport to anyone as the 1st NR book to read.
Well - I rate it somewhere around 3.5 but because I've limited myself to single digits, I'll round it up to 4 stars. I liked it, I was entertained, but I wasn't wowed. (is that a word?)
Homeport is about a couple of interesting, not-quite-stock characters. Dr. Miranda Jones is a tall redhead PhD of, well something I couldn't pronounce and now can't remember, something to do with authenticating art, ooold art. Think 400-500 years old. She's a little uptight - ok, she's really uptight. I thought it was interesting that in her own mind she was shy and uncomfortable, but to her employees she was daunting and unapproachable and, well, practically a slave-driver. Not that we got a lot of their thoughts on this, just a couple of times, and it seemed a little odd because I was so inside her head I couldn't believe they saw her that way!!
Her hero is not exactly heroic - the man's a THIEF by golly - a serious cat burglar! Ryan comes from a large loving Irish/Italian family, most of whom are also engaged in not-quite-aboveboard activities. He also runs successful art galleries. Apparently his parents were/are artists of not-quite-the-highest caliber, which meant something had to fund a large family, so why not Ryan's burglary skills? After all, a gift from God shouldn't be wasted, now, should it?
Go figure, I agreed with Ryan's mom on that one, at least long enough to read the story and enjoy it.
There's a further complication: when Ryan steals the statue he's after (from Miranda's family's art institute), he discovers it's a fake, and boy does that make him mad. This coming on the heels of Miranda authenticating a potential Michelangelo that is later proven to be fake is kinda ruining things, like Dr Jones' reputation, her day, her family, her week, her relationships - well, it's just not good. And it sure made Ryan mad that he'd been duped.
But there's some chemistry betwixt Miranda and Ryan, and he decides to sorta help her out instead of strangling her. In a blackmail, cat-burglar kinda way, he is going to find the originals, and help prove her original finding correct and then take the originals for himself and no one will be the wiser. Yeah right. He should realized Nora wasn't going to let him get away that easily, him being the hero and all.
There's a strong contrast between Miranda's family and Ryan's - Ryan's is more like a Roberts novel family, loving and supportive, and Miranda's is all ice and distance, literally and figuratively. Miranda has a great supportive older brother who is also in the family business. He's also a divorced alcoholic who isn't over his ex-wife except it seems he's still harboring feelings for his first love too. He's a conflicted guy.
There's intrigue - mystery - murders - gun play - this one has it all. I thought I had it figured out, then I wasn't sure, then I was proved right the first time.
AAR has 2 reviews, and interestingly it was the first NR book for each reviewer. Weird, huh? One gave it a B, the other a C+, and I'm thinking, there are actually reviewers for AAR who have never read NR?? And neither reviewer is listed on any of her other books. Too bad, because I wouldn't offer Homeport to anyone as the 1st NR book to read.
Well - I rate it somewhere around 3.5 but because I've limited myself to single digits, I'll round it up to 4 stars. I liked it, I was entertained, but I wasn't wowed. (is that a word?)
Monday, August 4, 2008
Be My Baby encore
I was in the mood for some comfort - you know, the mac-n-cheese of reading, so I picked up one I knew would do the job: Susan Andersen's Be My Baby. I already reviewed it, so no need to rehash it all here. I'd love to have heard narrator supreme Kate Fleming read this book, because I know she would have done justice to the accents. Unfortunately, Ms. Fleming is no longer with us, which is a terrible tragedy on a number of levels, not just for the audio book world.
Last August, I listened to The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke. It's a Dave Robicheaux mystery, and it was read by actor Will Patton. He nailed the south Louisiana and New Orleans accents (except for a few notable exceptions...) and would also be a good candidate for this book, assuming he could do Juliet's Boston blue blood heritage proud as well. (One of Patton's notable exceptions in his otherwise spot-on pronunciations: he tried to Cajunize the name of Cameron Parish. Those of us raised in south Louisiana know it's plain CAM'run, but he kept saying Cam - ROHNG, you know that French way of not exactly pronouncing the final N but sorta nasalizing it?)
Be My Baby worked its charm on me and I'm feeling much comforted knowing Juliet and Beau got their happy ending all worked out. Plus I managed to allow myself to let go of 2 favorites I recently read (Duchess by Night and Your Scandalous Ways) to get more PBS credits because God knows I need to add more books to my TBR mountain!
Last August, I listened to The Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke. It's a Dave Robicheaux mystery, and it was read by actor Will Patton. He nailed the south Louisiana and New Orleans accents (except for a few notable exceptions...) and would also be a good candidate for this book, assuming he could do Juliet's Boston blue blood heritage proud as well. (One of Patton's notable exceptions in his otherwise spot-on pronunciations: he tried to Cajunize the name of Cameron Parish. Those of us raised in south Louisiana know it's plain CAM'run, but he kept saying Cam - ROHNG, you know that French way of not exactly pronouncing the final N but sorta nasalizing it?)
Be My Baby worked its charm on me and I'm feeling much comforted knowing Juliet and Beau got their happy ending all worked out. Plus I managed to allow myself to let go of 2 favorites I recently read (Duchess by Night and Your Scandalous Ways) to get more PBS credits because God knows I need to add more books to my TBR mountain!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Amber Beach by Elizabeth Lowell
Amber Beach is the first in a 4 book series about the Donovan family. I picked this up as a used hardcover at Hastings, where I like to buy any hardcover romance that's under $5. I'm conflicted on Elizabeth Lowell as an author - I love some of her books, and others leave me cold and/or frustrated - sometimes using the same techniques she used in the books I love!
This one is a solid 4 star read for me, though - didn't love it but liked it quite a lot. Honor Donovan is the heroine - she has a twin, Faith, that we only hear about; a brother Kyle who's gone missing along with a fortune in Baltic amber; the eldest brother Archer that we meet at the end; and 2 brothers I guess are also twins that, like Faith, we only hear about. I'm trying to figure their ages since Archer is the eldest at 34 and Faith and Honor the youngest at 30. Mom and Dad were busy there for a few years, I guess.
The hero is Jake Mallory, who answers Honor's ad for a fishing guide when she moves into Kyle's home in the Pacific Northwest. She's hoping to find someone who will teach her to use Kyle's boat so she can putter around the San Juan Islands and find him. She doesn't know Jake is one of Kyle's best friends who thinks Kyle has betrayed him - because now the Donovan family thinks Jake betrayed and possibly killed Kyle and stole the amber for himself.
Lowell gives them terrific dialog, biting and fast and sarcastic and witty, that comes across as real albeit often confusing (I found myself counting out the lines when I lost track of who said what). And the chemistry between the 2 was instant, and pretty good. Although Honor doesn't immediately suspect Jake's involved in the disappearance of Kyle, though, she should have sooner than she did - didn't she think it was weird for a dufus fishing guide to have so many questions about her brother??
The plot involves several governments and some goons, all wanting Kyle and the amber, so there's a sexy female US agent who is Jake's former lover, a sexy female Lithuanian freedom fighter who is Kyle's lover, some mentioned but never revealed SEALS, an overworked Coast Guard guy and some Russian thugs, a break-in and some boat chases and some gun play. Frankly, I never did figure out why the US government was involved, but there ya go - you just have to follow the author's premise, and if the story is good, you overlook things like credibility. After all, I read time travel books, why should I question this plot??
As I said, it was a solid 4 star read for me because I enjoyed it enough but didn't love it like I love some of her other books (Only His, Only Love, To The Ends of the Earth, Too Hot to Handle, to name a few) and I didn't throw it against the wall like some of her books either (which I managed to give 3 stars to, dangit, just because although they made me mad, I didn't actually HATE them, go figure).
This one is a solid 4 star read for me, though - didn't love it but liked it quite a lot. Honor Donovan is the heroine - she has a twin, Faith, that we only hear about; a brother Kyle who's gone missing along with a fortune in Baltic amber; the eldest brother Archer that we meet at the end; and 2 brothers I guess are also twins that, like Faith, we only hear about. I'm trying to figure their ages since Archer is the eldest at 34 and Faith and Honor the youngest at 30. Mom and Dad were busy there for a few years, I guess.
The hero is Jake Mallory, who answers Honor's ad for a fishing guide when she moves into Kyle's home in the Pacific Northwest. She's hoping to find someone who will teach her to use Kyle's boat so she can putter around the San Juan Islands and find him. She doesn't know Jake is one of Kyle's best friends who thinks Kyle has betrayed him - because now the Donovan family thinks Jake betrayed and possibly killed Kyle and stole the amber for himself.
Lowell gives them terrific dialog, biting and fast and sarcastic and witty, that comes across as real albeit often confusing (I found myself counting out the lines when I lost track of who said what). And the chemistry between the 2 was instant, and pretty good. Although Honor doesn't immediately suspect Jake's involved in the disappearance of Kyle, though, she should have sooner than she did - didn't she think it was weird for a dufus fishing guide to have so many questions about her brother??
The plot involves several governments and some goons, all wanting Kyle and the amber, so there's a sexy female US agent who is Jake's former lover, a sexy female Lithuanian freedom fighter who is Kyle's lover, some mentioned but never revealed SEALS, an overworked Coast Guard guy and some Russian thugs, a break-in and some boat chases and some gun play. Frankly, I never did figure out why the US government was involved, but there ya go - you just have to follow the author's premise, and if the story is good, you overlook things like credibility. After all, I read time travel books, why should I question this plot??
As I said, it was a solid 4 star read for me because I enjoyed it enough but didn't love it like I love some of her other books (Only His, Only Love, To The Ends of the Earth, Too Hot to Handle, to name a few) and I didn't throw it against the wall like some of her books either (which I managed to give 3 stars to, dangit, just because although they made me mad, I didn't actually HATE them, go figure).
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Duchess by Night by Eloisa James
I lucked onto this book on my recent road trip, when we stayed with a fellow romance reader who had a bag of like-new romances she was getting ready to donate to charity. Since I had to fly home, and hadn't planned on including 30 books in my suitcase, I only grabbed 8.
This is a new-to-me author, one I've known about but hadn't yet put in my TBR piles. When I noticed it was wishlisted at PBS, I figured I should read it before turning it into a PBS credit - and I'm really delighted I did!
The book is the 3rd in a series, so I was conflicted because I prefer to read series in order. However, I decided to throw caution to the winds and jump into it mid-stream! The series is called "Desperate Duchesses" on Ms James' website - a tribute to Desperate Housewives, but apparently only in name. That's just as well, since I haven't seen much of Desperate Housewives anyway.
The desperate duchess in this case is Harriet, whose duke/husband committed suicide 2.5 years ago over his passion for chess. I actually kept waiting for a deeper darker secret than a chess game, which never came. Hmmmm. What a tortured soul he must have been.
Harriet's duchy is in the country, and she's only 27 but feeling somewhat spinsterly, countrified and dowdy when she appears at an impromptu masquerade as Mother Goose, since the other women have chosen more risqué costumes. As she discusses it with 2 other duchesses (I guess they are the heroines in some other books...) and a male friend (was Villiers a duke?), she decides she wants to be wild just once and agrees to accompany her friends Isidore and Villiers to an ongoing house party that is reputed to have a lot of loose women and plenty of debauchery. To protect her reputation, she dresses as a man so that no one need know who she is. She only wants to observe, not participate.
I liked the fact that they planned it out in advance, tailoring the clothing for her, spending time having her learn how to walk and act like a man. She wasn't a hoyden, after all, preferring riding astride and such. She just wanted to have an adventure!
Lord Strange aka Jem is a wonderful character - rich as Croesus, apparently, and involved in politics, as well as an inventor. He is widowed and has a precocious 8-year-old daughter that he keeps practically imprisoned in one wing, theoretically for her own good. While he does come across as a doting father, he also maintains this house party - basically his house is always open (by some kind of open invitation) to certain people, mostly theater people and politicians it seems. The women are loose; the men are there for the loose women and the hobnobbing (yes, interestingly, no gigolos here). It's as if he has two lives, one the debaucher, one the loving father.
Jem is immediately attracted to "Harry" when she arrives, and is disgusted with himself for it. If this is what getting old involves, he thinks, he wants no part of it. He is warned by his butler that Harry is too innocent for the goings-on at Strange Manor (Fonthill), and he takes young Harry under his wing, to protect him and sorta build him up. Jem teaches him to ride (astride! ouch!) and fence, and gives him advice about women.
The subplot involving Isidore is that she wants to have a scandal so that her husband, whom she has never met (so she is still a virgin after several years of marriage) will come home from Africa to claim her. Isidore, in spite of instigating the entire trip, is too shocked by the goings on to participate. It seems she does manage to get her husband to appear, and it seems they will be the focus of the 4th Desperate Duchess book.
OK, enough about plot - I truly loved this book! I'm always delighted to find another new author who is fun to read. While I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny like a Julia Quinn story, it was witty and amusing. I bought the whole dressed-as-a-man idea more than the AAR reviewer did. It made me think of an episode in Charmed where Prue is turned into a man temporarily, and had to learn to think and walk and stand as a man. Prue observed the hunky next door neighbor, and imitated his walk and mannerisms, which is what I imagined "Harry" doing before arriving at Strange's. I really liked that she wasn't already a tomboy, going against society, but a woman daring to act out a fantasy. While dressed as a man, she realized the freedoms that men take for granted, and I felt she grew as a character in that way, learning more about herself and her potential.
I also want to mention that I'm in love with the step-back cover although the woman in it in no way resembles "Harry" as described in the book. After all, she was passing as a man, with short hair, not the long blonde locks of the woman in the picture. Still, the pose, the look on the man's face, as if he were getting ready to eat her alive - well, I found it very enticing.
so it's a 5 star read for me, and will soon also be a PBS credit as well! (wait, how can I keep the picture??)
This is a new-to-me author, one I've known about but hadn't yet put in my TBR piles. When I noticed it was wishlisted at PBS, I figured I should read it before turning it into a PBS credit - and I'm really delighted I did!
The book is the 3rd in a series, so I was conflicted because I prefer to read series in order. However, I decided to throw caution to the winds and jump into it mid-stream! The series is called "Desperate Duchesses" on Ms James' website - a tribute to Desperate Housewives, but apparently only in name. That's just as well, since I haven't seen much of Desperate Housewives anyway.
The desperate duchess in this case is Harriet, whose duke/husband committed suicide 2.5 years ago over his passion for chess. I actually kept waiting for a deeper darker secret than a chess game, which never came. Hmmmm. What a tortured soul he must have been.
Harriet's duchy is in the country, and she's only 27 but feeling somewhat spinsterly, countrified and dowdy when she appears at an impromptu masquerade as Mother Goose, since the other women have chosen more risqué costumes. As she discusses it with 2 other duchesses (I guess they are the heroines in some other books...) and a male friend (was Villiers a duke?), she decides she wants to be wild just once and agrees to accompany her friends Isidore and Villiers to an ongoing house party that is reputed to have a lot of loose women and plenty of debauchery. To protect her reputation, she dresses as a man so that no one need know who she is. She only wants to observe, not participate.
I liked the fact that they planned it out in advance, tailoring the clothing for her, spending time having her learn how to walk and act like a man. She wasn't a hoyden, after all, preferring riding astride and such. She just wanted to have an adventure!
Lord Strange aka Jem is a wonderful character - rich as Croesus, apparently, and involved in politics, as well as an inventor. He is widowed and has a precocious 8-year-old daughter that he keeps practically imprisoned in one wing, theoretically for her own good. While he does come across as a doting father, he also maintains this house party - basically his house is always open (by some kind of open invitation) to certain people, mostly theater people and politicians it seems. The women are loose; the men are there for the loose women and the hobnobbing (yes, interestingly, no gigolos here). It's as if he has two lives, one the debaucher, one the loving father.
Jem is immediately attracted to "Harry" when she arrives, and is disgusted with himself for it. If this is what getting old involves, he thinks, he wants no part of it. He is warned by his butler that Harry is too innocent for the goings-on at Strange Manor (Fonthill), and he takes young Harry under his wing, to protect him and sorta build him up. Jem teaches him to ride (astride! ouch!) and fence, and gives him advice about women.
The subplot involving Isidore is that she wants to have a scandal so that her husband, whom she has never met (so she is still a virgin after several years of marriage) will come home from Africa to claim her. Isidore, in spite of instigating the entire trip, is too shocked by the goings on to participate. It seems she does manage to get her husband to appear, and it seems they will be the focus of the 4th Desperate Duchess book.
OK, enough about plot - I truly loved this book! I'm always delighted to find another new author who is fun to read. While I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny like a Julia Quinn story, it was witty and amusing. I bought the whole dressed-as-a-man idea more than the AAR reviewer did. It made me think of an episode in Charmed where Prue is turned into a man temporarily, and had to learn to think and walk and stand as a man. Prue observed the hunky next door neighbor, and imitated his walk and mannerisms, which is what I imagined "Harry" doing before arriving at Strange's. I really liked that she wasn't already a tomboy, going against society, but a woman daring to act out a fantasy. While dressed as a man, she realized the freedoms that men take for granted, and I felt she grew as a character in that way, learning more about herself and her potential.
I also want to mention that I'm in love with the step-back cover although the woman in it in no way resembles "Harry" as described in the book. After all, she was passing as a man, with short hair, not the long blonde locks of the woman in the picture. Still, the pose, the look on the man's face, as if he were getting ready to eat her alive - well, I found it very enticing.
so it's a 5 star read for me, and will soon also be a PBS credit as well! (wait, how can I keep the picture??)
Friday, August 1, 2008
Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts
This is the 4th book in the Chesapeake Bay/Quinn Brothers series. The first three were written as a trilogy of the adult Quinn brothers who were taking care of Seth as a child. This is Seth's story, 18 years later.
While focusing on Seth's return to St. Christopher, and his developing relationship with a newcomer, Drusilla, Roberts brings us up to date on all the other characters I loved in the first three books: Cam and Anna, Ethan and Grace and Aubrey, and Phillip and Sybill, as well as all their children. Aubrey was Grace's daughter before she married Ethan, and is now 20 years old, and a major player in the Boats by Quinn business.
Drusilla aka Dru comes from money and power in D.C., and has moved to the quiet town in Maryland to escape the pressures of that life. She had been engaged to a D.C. mover and shaker who cheated on her during the engagement. Her parents use her as a pawn in their own tortured relationship, and she just wants a quiet, uneventful life as a florist, away from those people and pressures.
The intrigue in the story comes again from Seth's birth mother Gloria, who was a major thorn in the side of the first 3 books. Somehow she convinces Seth, starting at age 14, that he must continue to pay her hush money as Ray Quinn did, to keep her quiet about what she knows and what she makes up about Seth and the other Quinn brothers. Although it really isn't enough to cause an actual scandal, she threatens to harm the Quinn children, and Seth believes her. Now that he is a famous artist, he has a lot of money and she wants it.
Although the cover blurb hints at secrets in their pasts, I'll go ahead and give a spoiler - there aren't any Quinn secrets we haven't already learned, which is good because I kept wondering what could have happened that we didn't already know. It's a wonderful comfort read to catch up on the lives of the Quinns and to watch as the relationship blooms between Dru and Seth. Dru is drawn in by a number of factors, one of which is the wonderful Quinn family life, which is so different from her own.
5 stars.
While focusing on Seth's return to St. Christopher, and his developing relationship with a newcomer, Drusilla, Roberts brings us up to date on all the other characters I loved in the first three books: Cam and Anna, Ethan and Grace and Aubrey, and Phillip and Sybill, as well as all their children. Aubrey was Grace's daughter before she married Ethan, and is now 20 years old, and a major player in the Boats by Quinn business.
Drusilla aka Dru comes from money and power in D.C., and has moved to the quiet town in Maryland to escape the pressures of that life. She had been engaged to a D.C. mover and shaker who cheated on her during the engagement. Her parents use her as a pawn in their own tortured relationship, and she just wants a quiet, uneventful life as a florist, away from those people and pressures.
The intrigue in the story comes again from Seth's birth mother Gloria, who was a major thorn in the side of the first 3 books. Somehow she convinces Seth, starting at age 14, that he must continue to pay her hush money as Ray Quinn did, to keep her quiet about what she knows and what she makes up about Seth and the other Quinn brothers. Although it really isn't enough to cause an actual scandal, she threatens to harm the Quinn children, and Seth believes her. Now that he is a famous artist, he has a lot of money and she wants it.
Although the cover blurb hints at secrets in their pasts, I'll go ahead and give a spoiler - there aren't any Quinn secrets we haven't already learned, which is good because I kept wondering what could have happened that we didn't already know. It's a wonderful comfort read to catch up on the lives of the Quinns and to watch as the relationship blooms between Dru and Seth. Dru is drawn in by a number of factors, one of which is the wonderful Quinn family life, which is so different from her own.
5 stars.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)