strange and random happenstance: Fictional

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
Published by: Avon Books
Publication Date: September 24th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★
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Maggie Chase has been having a hell of a year. Not only did she find out that her husband was cheating on her with her best friend but he was able to worm his way into a "legitimate" claim as co-writer of her cozy mysteries. He took everything. And she gets the consolation prize of overhearing her fellow authors discuss her downfall at her publisher's Christmas party. What's worse is the eager listener is none other than Ethan Wyatt, Leather Jacket Guy. One of her least favorite things in the world and he just happens to be a number one New York Times bestselling author. Her other two least favorite things are Christmas and parties. She knew she should have stayed home. But her editor Deborah insisted. Back in her office she hands Maggie an envelope. Maggie has been invited to the home of one of her biggest fans in England for Christmas. This is a nightmare. She was lured to one party to invite her to another. Deborah insists that this is legit and that something very big might be coming Maggie's way if she just gets on that plane. What Deborah didn't tell her was that Ethan Wyatt would also be on that plane. He would be there, calling her Marcie, and just being all leather clad and in her face. Though perhaps it's worth it as they cross the stone bridge and approach the palace made of stone and glass and centuries. They have arrived at Mistletoe Manor. Ethan is sure that someone wants to hunt them for sport and Maggie insists that that's the plot to an Eleanor Ashley novel. The author who has been with her as a guiding light her entire life who Ethan claims to have never heard of. Maggie's frayed paperbacks are nothing compared to the wall of first editions at her publisher's office. That's why she signed with Killhaven Books, because they're Eleanor's publisher. And then all the pieces click into place and she realizes that her host for Christmas is none other than Eleanor Ashley. Well, that and the fact that Eleanor is standing right behind her. She will be spending Christmas with the Duchess of Death. And her family. All of whom have ulterior motives. Eleanor is a wealthy woman, and where there is wealth there are those wanting to separate you from it. Even if you are related to them by blood. But as a storm moves in Eleanor disappears from a locked room. Is this stunt? Is she in danger? Cut off from the outside world Maggie and Ethan are the only ones capable of investigating what has happened to Eleanor and revealing all the secrets held in Mistletoe Manor. Even their own.

This is a book I was determined to love. I mean, even if it wasn't great anything was better than the cover. Seriously, that artwork, those horrid fonts, who designed this and where do they live!?! And there are aspects of the book I love, the leads have chemistry, there's incisive observations on what it's like to be gaslit and how that seeps into your every single decision, plus Thrombey level relatives. But there are two things I can't get past. Maggie and Ethan have wonderful snarky banter when she's under the misapprehension that they are each other's nemesis. And then halfway through the book her eyes are opened as Ethan comes in as a second narrator and the book stagnates. Now it's not that they aren't the perfect couple, because there are swoonworthy moments, it's that the pacing and the mystery of Eleanor Ashley are forgotten and it's more important for them to make out next to the entrance to the secret tunnel than to explore said secret tunnel. It was so...damn...glacial. I raced through the first half of the book and then limped to the finish line. That is not a momentum you should strive for in your storytelling. Yet, that could have been forgiven and forgotten. Because, as I've said, they are a perfect couple who I might have wished stayed more snarky than Nick and Nora once they hooked up, but then Ally Carter ruined it in the end. How you ask? Well, that requires spoilers, which I'm totally about to drop. You have been warned. So Ally Carter got the idea for this novel after learning about Agatha Christie's disappearance. This is a mystery that will endure forever. Where was she for those eleven days? Was it a mental break? Was it a PR stunt? Was she undercover solving a mystery? Was it giant alien space wasps? And yes, these are all theories that have been posited. Obviously one on Doctor Who, so that one probably isn't accurate. Or is it? So here's the fictional Eleanor Ashley, key FICTIONAL. She magics herself away from a locked room and the answer for how she did it is that she's Eleanor Ashley. That is a freakin' cop out of the highest magnitude. This is fiction, fiction is for resolution, not for giving us yet another unsolved mystery. This just enraged me. I was strongly reminded of the book Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois which was a fictionalized account of the Amanda Knox case. Again, fictional. And we got no resolution. None. And in the case of Cartwheel it has the EXACT SAME setup only for the answers to life's greatest mysteries to be what? Ineffable? Give me the answers or get out of my face. Which means that Ally Carter can still save this book with an additional epilogue for the paperback release. Let's make it so.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Agatha Christie, Ally Carter, Amanda Knox, Cartwheel, Christmas, Eleanor Ashley, Ethan Wyatt, Fictional, Jennifer DuBois, Maggie Chase, Murder Most Foul, Resolution, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: January 12, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 401 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
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Lady Frederick Staines. Penelope will probably never get used to the name or the fact that her identity has been subsumed into that of her husband. What a joke, Freddy, her husband. She's nothing more to him than a bed warmer while her dowery has been his ante into innumerable card games. To make matters worse they have been exiled to India to take the taint off their rather precipitous union. They are five months journey away from the world they knew. What is Penelope going to do in India while Freddy is off playing at politics? What is to become of this person she has become? Who is going to shake their head at her worryingly and sigh "Oh Pen?" That's where Captain Alex Reid enters in. He is the couple's escort to Hyderabad. He is to get Lady Frederick Staines and spouse safely to the residency. A grueling journey by land and sea. Of course it would be easier if Penelope would just behave as a British woman recently arrived in India would. If she'd not show off her fine seat on a horse or her ability to jump into a river to save a drowning man. If she'd just sit in the palanquin and sleep through the heat of the day that would be great. But freed of the strictures of the ton, well, Penelope has to have an outlet for her sheer frustration of the situation she landed herself in. Because it was no one's fault but her own. She was the one who told Freddy to come hither. She got herself sent off to the subcontinent. But if there's one slight silver lining, it's Alex. While he worries about Penelope, he's never pitied her. He's amazed by this proud woman he's met. A woman that is giving him feelings that he shouldn't be having about someone who is married, even if it's clear it's not a happy union. But their personal struggles coming to grips with their romantic feelings will have to take a back seat when some spies with flowery sobriquets appear on the scene. If only Pen had listened to Henrietta and Charlotte rambling on about spies instead of luring Freddy into every available alcove maybe she'd have some idea as to what she is up against. Instead she's just trying to piece it all together on the fly with what she half remembers and what she and Alex are able to figure out. A cobra in her bedchamber isn't just a warning, it's a sign they are on the right track. But will they all make it out of India alive?

The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is a turning point in the Pink Carnation series. Before it was rather more contained, more of the drawing room spies and keeping up with the ton. Now we see the full scope of the ambitions of the French and the world stage it happened on and our flowery spies are right there on the subcontinent. This is Pink Carnation grownup, and we get a far more grownup heroine. I really enjoy Penelope as a heroine, she's a hot mess and doesn't have anything figured out, let alone the path she has flung herself onto. With her starting out the book already married to a man she doesn't love we are in a far different position than Lauren's previous novels. Instead of an innocent happy virginal character, we have someone a little flirty, a little more worldly, a little bitter, and very much taken. And I am here for that! As for her romantic partner, Alex, oh, do I love them together. Alex is a good upstanding man with many a family woe, but with morals and a fierce loyalty to India and eventually to Penelope. Their dialogue crackles and sparkles and just keeps the pages turning late into the night. But what I found interesting while discussing this book during Lauren's Pink Carnation Read Along is that many people took issue with the adultery angle of this book. Firstly, it's just a book, secondly, Freddy is scum in a pretty package, and thirdly, Alex and Pen are endgame! To whomever commented that in a few years Penelope's eye would wander again and leave Alex, NO! That's not how these books work, this is literally the only time adultery is acceptable; when it's fictional and you're cheating on a lout who cheated first. Many, many, MANY times. Also, let's not forget he was involved in raping a fourteen year old girl! I really was shocked that so many people took Pen's adultery to heart. Plus, it's not like Alex and Penelope go into their affair with their eyes closed. Their eyes are fully open. And again, this is FICTIONAL! But I get it, Lauren is so good at writing that you truly forget these characters are fictional. Her characters are fully rounded people, not just "spunky" heroines because that's in vogue, but because of everything that has happened to them, everything that has led to this moment. Nothing happens without a purpose. Even the villain is fully rounded! And if anyone is blind to consequences... well, look to the Marigold!