strange and random happenstance

The English Wife by Lauren Willig
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: January 9th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Bayard Van Duyvil has the perfect life. The sole male heir of an old Knickerbocker family he has a beautiful English wife, for whom he's recreated her ancestral home on the banks of the Hudson, and two beautiful children, three-year-old fraternal twins Viola and Sebastian. But there are rumors that everything isn't as perfect as it seems. Why would Bayard and his wife Annabelle hide themselves away in Cold Springs? A beautiful house is no excuse to being a recluse when New York society thirsts for your lifeblood. Soon New York society will get exactly what it craves when during a lavish ball to celebrate Twelfth Night Bayard is found with a knife in his chest and the name Georgie on his lips while his wife has disappeared. Everyone believes that the rumors about Annabelle and the house's architect at true. She has murdered her husband and absconded with her lover! The only one who doesn't believe the salacious lies all the newspapers are printing is Bay's younger sister, Janie. She is expected to keep calm and wait for the scandal to die down. But it pains her to see Annabelle's name dragged through the mud, they didn't know her like she did. A chance encounter with a reporter from The News of the World, a Mr. Burke, leads Janie to form a tenuous alliance with a man who represents the scandal rags that are pulling her world apart. Before too long Janie realizes that perhaps she didn't know Annabelle or even Bay. But with the tenacious and increasingly devoted Mr. Burke helping her she will get to the bottom of her brother's death and perhaps solve the mysteries of his life.

Having first read Lauren back in 2007 a short time after her third Pink Carnation book, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, had hit bookshelves I don't want to claim I'm an expert on her writing, but I have been along for the ride for a decade now. She's even one of the reasons I decided to start my blog! While I have loved reading every single one of her books, finding characters to love and to hate, ones to root for and ones that I long to see fall flat on their faces, the greatest joy was seeing her mature as a writer. When she wrote her first standalone, The Ashford Affair, back in 2013 she tapped into something new. Her writing started to move beyond the dual timeline narrative where despite troubles everyone gets a happily ever after. While I am a fan of this wish fulfillment in writing sometimes I feel that it's unsatisfying. That it doesn't actually reflect the world around us. Sometimes I don't want everyone to get a happy ending. This was very much showcased with That Summer, Lauren's 2014 standalone which might just be my favorite book she's written. Here Lauren had matured to a point that she was willing to kill off characters that we, the readers, had very much fallen in love with. Thankfully after going a little darker Lauren didn't reign it in. She continued this exploration of the underbelly of humanity in The Other Daughter and now in The English Wife. Sometimes good intentions lead to death. Sometimes love can't conquer all. Sometimes there are secrets that will out no matter what. As for me, I loved every second of the seedier side, it's like Gossip Girl 1800s.   

If there is one linking thread through Lauren's work it would be her love of Shakespeare. Of course, seeing as he helped forge the very language we all use he could be considered important to every book ever written, but with Lauren it's special. I dare you to count the number of times her characters have had their mouth's stopped with a kiss as Benedick does to Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Here though we've reached a whole new level wherein Shakespeare seems another character in the story. Annabelle and Bay meet in London where she is working on stage in a musical evisceration of Twelfth Night at the Ali Baba Theater. If the play's the thing, Twelfth Night is the thing in The English Wife. Bay meets his death on Twelfth Night, their palatial recreation of Lacey Hall is renamed Illyria, and Bay and Annabelle's children are named after the hero and heroine of the play. But the references aren't just about infusing The English Wife with a bit of Annabelle's homeland via Shakespeare. The play itself is filled with confusion, merriment, love, gender, orientation, romance, and thankfully not a random lion like in As You Like It. These are themes that are all seen in Annabelle and Bay's story. Lauren has mined Shakespeare to help not only create a mirror to her story but to show the universality of it. I could quote Shakespeare here, but instead I feel like quoting Battlestar Galactica, "All of this has happened before and will happen again." Humanity has a basic universality to it. The building blocks are all the same. Shakespeare knew this and so does Lauren. Sure, everything is a tale as old as time, but it's how you go about telling it that makes it unique.

While Shakespeare is classic, there's another author to whom this moniker belongs that The English Wife shares some DNA with and that's Daphne Du Maurier. I'm going to say this right out, there is no one like Daphne Du Maurier. Therefore when any book that is mildly Gothic and has a house starts throwing around comparisons to this unparalleled author I just want them to shut it. Because whatever they have written will be a disappointment because comparisons are nothing more than a marketing ploy. The book won't deliver and you'll spend all your time wondering why you're just not re-reading Rebecca. When I read The English Wife back in August there were obviously no reviews yet. No one proclaiming that The English Wife is in the least like Du Maurier. Nothing to taint or sully my initial impressions. Therefore I was wonderfully surprised that the denouement of the book set during the inquest and a subsequent blizzard trapping our cast of characters at Illyria felt like a modern interpretation of Du Maurier. I'm not sure if Lauren purposefully set out to do this, because most attempts fail in the execution, and yet, here she is, bucking the odds. What I think helped is that instead of going for the big similarities, she started small, with Giles Lacey, Annabelle's cousin from England, who happens to share a name with Maxim de Winter's brother-in-law. Though THIS Giles would be mortified that I called him small! Instead of reminding me of Rebecca's former in-law, he reminded me of Rebecca's cousin Jack Favell, and in particular George Sanders's portrayal of him in the Hitchcock film. From there it snowballed into other similarities to the book and Hitchcock's adaptation, but always still being Lauren's voice. How Lauren has mastered this, I do not know, but she gets a tip of my hat.

Yet that isn't the only doffing of my hat that I must do in reviewing The English Wife! Now this isn't a brag, or even a faux humble brag, the fact is I'm just really good at figuring out plot lines. Be it a procedural show or a whodunit, I will solve it so fast that you won't know what hit you. A recent example of my weird "gift" was when I was watching Big Little Lies. Now I hadn't read the book but in a seven episode miniseries I was able to put ALL the pieces together and proclaim them as fact before the end credits rolled on the first episode. Six more wasted hours later and I was proven right. Sometimes to try to make things harder on myself I'll tune into a show halfway through and see if I can figure out what's going on without any exposition. Ironically Elementary has proven to be the easiest to crack. Now I think you can see why I like character driven stories that are quirky. Humor goes a long way to fill plot holes. So why am I going on about this bizarre quirk of my analytical brain? Because when someone actually pulls one over on me I feel this need to give them a standing ovation. In The English Wife I was so involved in two of the reveals that it's like Lauren smacked me upside the head with the biggest one and I didn't see it coming. At all. Bravo Lauren! It's like there were these shining motes of dust alighting on Bay and his wife and their marital woes and I was linking a to b to c and going ah yes, I see how it is, and yet I didn't see! It was there, looming right around the corner, and it pounced and got me. If Lauren were a lion I would be a goner.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daphne Du Maurier, Gossip Girl, Hudson Valley, Lauren Willig, Maxim de Winter, Rebecca, Shakespeare, That Summer, The Ashford Affair, The English Wife, The Other Daughter, Twelfth Night, Willig Winter

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead
Published by: Razorbill
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Lady Elizabeth Witmore, the Countess of Rothford, can't stand her life. Orphaned and raised by her grandmother on their ever diminishing funds she is being forced into a marriage with a distant cousin who has a very overbearing mother. Her household is being scattered and she is surprised to find out that one of her maids, Ada, has been approached by The Glittering Court. The Glittering Court is in essence a mail-order bride service for those wealthy men who have a pioneering spirit and have relocated to the New World, Adoria. The Court spends a year training the girls in all the skills Elizabeth has had drilled into her since birth and then they are sent to Adoria where hopefully a bidding war will ensue. The Court makes money and the girls are given a chance at a life they could never have dreamt of. Though Ada seems oddly reluctant. She'd far rather go home to her family's dairy than go to Adoria. Which gives Lady Elizabeth an idea. She will take Ada's place. The idea formed in her mind has to be acted on quickly. The Court is picking up Ada that night. Elizabeth quickly sends Ada off to the dairy of her dreams and feigns a headache. As soon as she is alone she dons Ada's clothes and leaves her house as Adelaide, leaving "Lady Elizabeth" behind.

The first hurdle happens almost immediately. Cedric Thorn, whom Ada and Elizabeth met that afternoon, is in the carriage and soon the alarm is raised for a missing Countess. But Cedric keeps her secret and when they arrive at the manor where "Adelaide" will be taught they reach an agreement, Cedric explaining how she mustn't excel, she must reign in all that is natural to her, and he won't tell anyone who she really is. Over the following months she feels freer than she ever has before. She has real friends in her roommates Mira and Tamsin. She has a future that is of her own making. But soon her heart starts to betray her. She's falling for Cedric and he's the number one person she shouldn't be falling for. As it turns out Cedric himself has secrets, and their bond grows stronger through the sharing of their true selves. Yet if anything, this friendship doesn't dampen "Adelaide's" desire to succeed, she throws caution to the wind and becomes the diamond in the crown of the Court. This might not have been the wisest plan, making herself so visible, but it affords her the greatest leeway in choosing a husband as well as helping to protect Cedric's big secret. Yet truth will out and soon life in the New World is more dangerous than just worrying about the natives.

When I was listening to the buzz surrounding this book I was all like, yeah, Elizabethan YA awesomeness, I'm so there! And yes, there's Elizabethan, but there's also Jamestown and Salem and the California Gold Rush and Braveheart and and and... there was too much and. The Glittering Court felt like a book with a multiple personality disorder, or to be more accurate a multiple period disorder. Richelle Mead clearly didn't know what time period she wanted to emulate so instead of forging the story's own unique blend she borrowed liberally from all these different periods. The key problem is this lack of integration. When the book is Elizabethan it's obviously Elizabethan, when the book is Salem it's obviously Salem. These abrupt shifts in period are jarring and take you out of the story. You never once get a true feeling for the world of Osfrid and Adoria, they are just aspects of our own past that aren't filtered through the narrative but clumsily transitioned to from one to the other. Each time period feels uniquely of it's own time never merging the story into a cohesive whole. Therefore the narrative never has a chance to be anything other than a clumsily told story that could have been so much more but instead is so much "other" that it never had a chance to be itself.

While these period shifts became more and more jarring I was surprised that I actually latched onto one of them. For a short while the book actually captured my attention. After Adelaide and Cedric have declared their love for each other and been ostracized from Adorian Society they try to make it panning for gold. This is obviously the California Gold Rush/Oregon Trail period of the book and totally not the Elizabethan book I had signed on for, but somehow it worked. By stripping the narrative of all the extraneous characters and customs and eras, by stripping it down to the bare minimum, all of a sudden I liked it. The book no longer had these multiple periods fighting for dominance and it proves 100% that if Mead had forged her own unique and simpler path then perhaps this book could have worked. Adelaide and Cedric panning for gold was delightful. For the first time you really felt their connection. Their relationship was no longer a plot contrivance and the HEA we were working towards. It was no longer them being thrown together, it was them coming together and forging their future. Plus, seeing the two of them outside their comfort zone and dealing with new challenges and everything this new environment threw at them was priceless. Cedric's lack of carpentry skills is truly a highlight of this book.

But this one little slice of the book didn't make up for how predictable and just plan meh it was overall. Literally each and every single "twist" was seen coming so far in advance it was like Mead was telegraphing the punches to come. Semaphore anyone? I mean as soon as I heard they had to sail to Adoria I'm all, shipwreck! And of course there is. But by that point I was all shipwreck fake out, and of course that was the case again. If I hadn't been trying to force myself to finish this book I might have been laughing at the book, instead I was groaning. I mean, seriously, the country they sail across the Sunset Sea to is Adoria!?! Horrid saccharine backlash, teeth aching from the sweetness. If at some point in your book about mail-order brides there is an attempted rape, perhaps tone down the Disney Princess vibe? The closest example to what this book reminds me of is the TV show Reign. Because despite being ostensibly about Mary Queen of Scots, it has modern pop music and dresses that sometimes look like they were designed by Dior. This combination of the Elizabethan time period and Gossip Girl works because of one key element, they know they are camp and play it up to the hilt and therefore it is fun. This lack of self-awareness, this inability to see what The Glittering Court really is it's downfall.

Yet even if Mead had camped it up or bothered to do some worldbuilding the book still couldn't have worked because of Elizabeth/Adelaide. I have so many issues with the lead I just want to smack her. Some of her faults could be blamed on her upbringing but keep in mind, she's fictional! So her tunnel vision, her self-absorbed, self-centered ways don't come off as quirks or obstacles to overcome, they just come across as annoying. Even when she's "helping" others it's really only to help herself. Oh, and her grief over her lost friend? Um... that seemed like self-indulgent whinging. Yes, there's pain, but she freakin' caused it by being so self-centered. If she had been a little self-sacrificing, perhaps she could have been redeemable, but even working the gold claim with Cedric is just so she can get Cedric. Every. Single. Thing. She. Does. Is. For. Herself. The ONLY aspect of her personality that I found interesting was her ability to forge artwork. This could have led somewhere, but instead it is a contrived plot device used as the deus ex machina. Imagine if this ability to mimic was used as a commentary on "Adelaide" herself? A girl who could be the perfect society woman, who could mimic what all the others did and in fact surpass them but in the end could never be unique. Now that would have added some depth to this book.

Yet, with a book titled The Glittering Court I should have realized it would all be surface, no depth. The old saying all that glitters isn't gold, just points out this is all glitter, the kind that rubs off onto your hands and gets everywhere. Because time and time again there were opportunities for depth, and time and time again they were pushed aside, and have resulted in a major plot hole. The central conceit of the book comes down to the feasibility of an actual "Glittering Court." Does this idea for fantastical Elizabethan mail-order brides seem possible? Well yes and no. Yes, what we've seen of it seems to work, but no because what about the previous brides? THIS is the plot hole. The previous members of the "Court" are mentioned ONCE in passing. Aiana is mentioned as an employee of the Court who checks up on the previous wives. But why is this the only mention of them? Don't you think that perhaps a goodly portion of these women are probably living in the main town in Adoria? Why don't we meet any of them? Don't you think that they could sell us, the readers, as well as the hesitant girls on accepting marriage proposals and the viability and success of this operation? But no, that's too much thinking for this book. Perhaps it will be addressed in a later volume. A volume which I won't be reading.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Art Forgery, Deus Ex Machina, Dior, Elizabethan, Gold Rush, Gossip Girl, Jamestown, Mail-Order Brides, Mary Queen of Scots, Oregon Trail, Reign, Richelle Mead, Salem Witch Trials, Shipwreck, The Glittering Court, YA

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 1st, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 468 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Cora Cash is the wealthiest heiress that Newport, New York, and possibly the world has ever seen. Not even the son of that historic family, the Van Der Leydens, is good enough for Cora, or so her mother keeps telling her. Mrs. Cash wants her daughter to rise up above the title the Americans have given her, the Golden Miller's Granddaughter. Mrs. Cash wants what only their new money can get overseas, a "new" title, and the prestige that comes with it. Taking Cora and her horses to England on the family's ship the SS Aspen, she is soon nestled in the bosom of the English Aristocracy. Her rumored equestrian skills secure her an invite to the home of Lord Bridport, Sutton Veney, where he is master of the famous Myddleton Hunt. The day of the hunt will change Cora's life forever. Her seat on her horse is impeccable, several people even comment that she could be mistaken for being English. Yet separated from the pack she falls off her horse in a copse of trees and is rescued by a young man.

The young man happens to be Ivo, the Duke of Wareham, whose estate, Lulworth, Cora happened to stumble into. Ivo has been shut away from the world since the passing of both his father and elder brother and the remarriage of his mother, making her a double duchess. Cora's mother couldn't have arranged a more felicitous meeting had she spent months plotting and scheming. The Duke is in desperate need of money, which her daughter Cora will be glad to give him in exchange for his hand. To Cora's mother it's all a business transaction, but to Cora, it's surprisingly an affair of the heart, which she realizes when Ivo proposes and she accepts out of love. But dreaming of being a Duchess and the reality are two separate things. The English way of life bears little resemblance to the life she has known. Secret codes of conduct, drafty houses, servants gossiping, Cora didn't know that this is what she was getting into. Add to that Ivo's ex, Charlotte Beauchamp. Charlotte seems to think of taking Cora down a peg in Ivo's eyes as her new favorite game. Can Cora figure out this new world she's thrust herself into, or will she do a flit.

The American Heiress isn't the most deep or philosophical of stories. The plot is pretty predictable, but somehow, the way the story is told and the ease of the storytelling rise it above the mundane and run of the mill and make it a wonderful read that I wanted to devour in one sitting. What makes the book so refreshing is that the story clips along at a great pace. We are never bogged down within the mire of effusive detail or unnecessary information, excepting the end house party which needed a little temporal help. Cora has her coming out ball and then the next chapter she's getting ready for her first hunt in England. Other authors might have documented the entire journey across the Atlantic and Cora's daily routine of walking her horses on the steamship, but thankfully not Daisy Goodwin. We also get the story from multiple characters, from Cora, then from her black ladies maid Bertha, occasionally Cora's mother, add to these multiple viewpoints from characters that aren't even integral parts of the narrative, insignificant characters like the millinery girl who helped Cora once and is now our conduit for Cora's wedding, from outside the church on a street in New York City, and there's a spark to the book that I can't really describe. Perhaps it is because we have more in common with that girl on the street corner and therefore connect with her voyeuristic interest in the story, but for whatever reason you want to give, it just seriously makes this book work.

As for Cora, the buccaneer who actually fell in love, it's almost like this is the promised Downton Abbey prequel, her name is even Cora!  You connect to Cora despite her being everything you're not and a little spoiled to boot. In my mind she's more then a little like Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. You like her but you're not quite sure why. I was actually worried about her parties and hoping she wouldn't make a mistake or social faux pas and therefore show herself to be a gauche American. She tries so hard to fit and fails or stumbles time and time again I just wanted her to be picked up by Ivo and cherished. And on the downstairs side of the narrative, we have Bertha. Bertha is also like Cora in that she is not fully likable. She takes care of her spoiled mistress, but all the while looking out for her own future with thinking of the resale value of clothes and gloves, or how she can parlay an accidental windfall to her advantage. She's a schemer, but also devoutly loyal. By these two main characters having such diametrically apposing characteristics they become more human, more real, because people don't make sense in reality.

Yet beneath all these trappings of wealth and luxury, Daisy Goodwin is bringing up serious subjects within the confines of an upstairs, downstairs narrative. There is the most obvious, the us versus them mentality that comes between servants and masters, but there is also the us versus them of American versus English, black versus white. Poor Bertha is an outcast in many senses, being black, American, and a servant, she really doesn't fit in anywhere, and therefore those misanthropes among the readers, me included, connect to her plight. But there's also how different Cora and Ivo are. Ivo can not handle the celebrity of wealth that is second nature to Cora growing up in the states, while Cora can't grasp Ivo's reserve or his shame at how she will willingly thrown money at a situation. It's these opposing dynamics that make the book so much more then a love story. And in the end, was it really a love story? The ending was a little too open for my liking...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blair Waldorf, Cora Cash, Daisy Goodwin, Double Duchess, Downton Abbey, Downton Denial, Duchess, Duke, England, Gossip Girl, House of Ware, The American Heiress, Upstairs Downstairs

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 1st, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 468 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Cora Cash is the wealthiest heiress that Newport, New York, and possibly the world has ever seen. Not even the son of that historic family, the Van Der Leydens, is good enough for Cora, or so her mother keeps telling her. Mrs. Cash wants her daughter to rise up above the title the Americans have given her, the Golden Miller's Granddaughter. Mrs. Cash wants what only their new money can get overseas, a "new" title, and the prestige that comes with it. Taking Cora and her horses to England on the family's ship the SS Aspen, she is soon nestled in the bosom of the English Aristocracy. Her rumored equestrian skills secure her an invite to the home of Lord Bridport, Sutton Veney, where he is master of the famous Myddleton Hunt. The day of the hunt will change Cora's life forever. Her seat on her horse is impeccable, several people even comment that she could be mistaken for being English. Yet separated from the pack she falls off her horse in a copse of trees and is rescued by a young man.

The young man happens to be Ivo, the Duke of Wareham, whose estate, Lulworth, Cora happened to stumble into. Ivo has been shut away from the world since the passing of both his father and elder brother and the remarriage of his mother, making her a double duchess. Cora's mother couldn't have arranged a more felicitous meeting had she spent months plotting and scheming. The Duke is in desperate need of money, which her daughter Cora will be glad to give him in exchange for his hand. To Cora's mother it's all a business transaction, but to Cora, it's surprisingly an affair of the heart, which she realizes when Ivo proposes and she accepts out of love. But dreaming of being a Duchess and the reality are two separate things. The English way of life bears little resemblance to the life she has known. Secret codes of conduct, drafty houses, servants gossiping, Cora didn't know that this is what she was getting into. Add to that Ivo's ex, Charlotte Beauchamp. Charlotte seems to think of taking Cora down a peg in Ivo's eyes as her new favorite game. Can Cora figure out this new world she's thrust herself into, or will she do a flit.

The American Heiress isn't the most deep or philosophical of stories. The plot is pretty predictable, but somehow, the way the story is told and the ease of the storytelling rise it above the mundane and run of the mill and make it a wonderful read that I wanted to devour in one sitting. What makes the book so refreshing is that the story clips along at a great pace. We are never bogged down within the mire of effusive detail or unnecessary information, excepting the end house party which needed a little temporal help. Cora has her coming out ball and then the next chapter she's getting ready for her first hunt in England. Other authors might have documented the entire journey across the Atlantic and Cora's daily routine of walking her horses on the steamship, but thankfully not Daisy Goodwin. We also get the story from multiple characters, from Cora, then from her black ladies maid Bertha, occasionally Cora's mother, add to these multiple viewpoints from characters that aren't even integral parts of the narrative, insignificant characters like the millinery girl who helped Cora once and is now our conduit for Cora's wedding, from outside the church on a street in New York City, and there's a spark to the book that I can't really describe. Perhaps it is because we have more in common with that girl on the street corner and therefore connect with her voyeuristic interest in the story, but for whatever reason you want to give, it just seriously makes this book work.

As for Cora, the buccaneer who actually fell in love, it's almost like this is the promised Downton Abbey prequel, her name is even Cora!  You connect to Cora despite her being everything you're not and a little spoiled to boot. In my mind she's more then a little like Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. You like her but you're not quite sure why. I was actually worried about her parties and hoping she wouldn't make a mistake or social faux pas and therefore show herself to be a gauche American. She tries so hard to fit and fails or stumbles time and time again I just wanted her to be picked up by Ivo and cherished. And on the downstairs side of the narrative, we have Bertha. Bertha is also like Cora in that she is not fully likable. She takes care of her spoiled mistress, but all the while looking out for her own future with thinking of the resale value of clothes and gloves, or how she can parlay an accidental windfall to her advantage. She's a schemer, but also devoutly loyal. By these two main characters having such diametrically apposing characteristics they become more human, more real, because people don't make sense in reality.

Yet beneath all these trappings of wealth and luxury, Daisy Goodwin is bringing up serious subjects within the confines of an upstairs, downstairs narrative. There is the most obvious, the us versus them mentality that comes between servants and masters, but there is also the us versus them of American versus English, black versus white. Poor Bertha is an outcast in many senses, being black, American, and a servant, she really doesn't fit in anywhere, and therefore those misanthropes among the readers, me included, connect to her plight. But there's also how different Cora and Ivo are. Ivo can not handle the celebrity of wealth that is second nature to Cora growing up in the states, while Cora can't grasp Ivo's reserve or his shame at how she will willingly thrown money at a situation. It's these opposing dynamics that make the book so much more then a love story. And in the end, was it really a love story? The ending was a little too open for my liking...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blair Waldorf, Cora Cash, Daisy Goodwin, Double Duchess, Downton Abbey, Downton Denial, Duchess, Duke, England, Gossip Girl, House of Ware, The American Heiress, Upstairs Downstairs

In Charm's Way by Madelyn Alt
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A brand new Bewitching mystery that will leave readers spellbound. When a real corpse is discovered among the props of a Halloween haunted house, Maggie O'Neill- resident witch of Stony Mill, Indiana- must use her charms to prove her friend innocent of the crime and get to the bottom of the mystery. "

So, I'm a huge fan of this series. It's fun, it's like, it's a perfect fall read... I mean what goes better together than witches and October I ask you?

India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol Carr
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Black is back-Her Majesty's favorite spy is off to Scotland in this new adventure to ensure the Queen doesn't end up getting killed.

When Queen Victoria attends a séance, the spirit of her departed husband, Prince Albert, insists she spend Christmas at their Scottish home in Balmoral. Prime Minister Disraeli suspects the Scottish nationalists plan to assassinate the Queen-and sends the ever resourceful India and the handsome British spy, French, to the Scottish highlands.

French will take the high road, looking for a traitor among the guests-and India will take the low road, disguised as a servant in case an assassin is hiding among the household staff. India is certain that someone at Balmoral is determined to make this Her Majesty's last Christmas..."

Queen Victoria and a séance? You really need to know nothing more, expect perhaps my love of the Doctor Who episode where Queen Victoria becomes, how shall I say... a werewolf. Yeah Victoria and Scotland!

Wolf at the Door by Mary Janice Davidson
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The howlingly good spin-off of the Undead series from the New York Times bestselling author.

Rachel, a werewolf/accountant, is asked to keep one eye on Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor and the other peeled for a rogue werewolf who's itching to start a war. But her attention is mostly on a sexy, mysterious stranger she wishes she could trust."

Ok, so maybe the start of October means I just recommend things with wicthes and werewolves... I love a good werewolf story done right!

Down These Strange Streets by Charlaine Harris et al.
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"All new strange cases of death and magic in the city by some of the biggest names in urban fantasy.

In this all-new collection of urban fantasy stories, editors George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois explore the places where mystery waits at the end of every alley and where the things that go bump in the night have something to fear...

Includes stories by New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Diana Gabaldon, Simon R. Green, S. M. Stirling, and Carrie Vaughn, as well as tales by Glen Cook, Bradley Denton, M.L.N. Hanover, Conn Iggulden, Laurie R. King, Joe R. Lansdale, John Maddox Roberts, Steven Saylor, Melinda Snodgrass, and Lisa Tuttle."

Look at all the writers I love! Many of which have written about werewolves... hmm, this is a disturbing trend. I must be lupine-centric of something.

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
Published by: Hyperion
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 544 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
" In The Lost Hero, three demigods named Jason, Piper, and Leo made their first visit to Camp Half-Blood, where they inherited a blood-chilling quest:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

Who are the other four mentioned in the prophesy? The answer may lie in another camp thousands of miles away, where a new camper has shown up and appears to be the son of Neptune, god of the sea. . .

With an ever-expanding cast of brave-hearted heroes and formidable foes, this second book in The Heroes of Olympus series offers all of the action, pathos, and humor that Rick Riordan fans crave."

No werewolves here! (That I know of). Sure to be an instant hit...

Gossip Girl Psycho Killer by Cecily von Zeigesar
Published by: Poppy
Publication Date: October 4th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep-sometimes with each other. It's a luxe life, but someone's got to live it . . . until they die.

So begins Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer, a re-imagined and expanded slasher edition of the first groundbreaking Gossip Girl novel, featuring all new grisly scenes and over-the-top gore by #1 New York Times bestselling author Cecily von Ziegesar.

Just as in the original story, Serena returns from boarding school hoping to make amends with her BFF Blair Waldorf--things just haven't been the same since Nate Archibald came between them. But here's where our dark tale takes a turn: Serena decides that the only way for her to make things right with Blair is to eliminate Nate. If that means killing him, well, c'est la vie. Her attempted murder doesn't go unnoticed by Blair, however, who isn't about to let Serena kill whoever she wants-not when there's Cyrus Rose and Chuck Bass and Titi Coates and everyone else who's ever irritated Blair to get rid of first . . . .

American Psycho's Patrick Bateman has met his match in Manhattan's newest, most fabulous trendsetting serial killers, Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen."

Ok, so, changing a novel like Pride and Prejudice to add Zombies, stupid really... unless Jane did it herself, maybe it would work. But Gossip Girl where they're all killers, that just sounds a) plausible and b) full of win. Then have the actual author write it, totally full of win!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Carol Carr, Cecily von Ziegesar, Down These Strange Streets, Gossip Girl, In Charm's Way, India Black, Madelyn Alt, Mary Janice Davidson, Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune, Werewolf, Wolf at the Door

Prospero in Hell by L. Jagi Lamplighter
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: August 17th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In this epic sequel to 2009's Prospero Lost, Lamplighter continues the Amberesque adventures of an ancient family caught up in matters of mythic significance. The immortal sorcerer Prospero is missing, sucked into Hell after one of his plans went awry. His far-flung, quarrelsome children have come together for the first time in years to face down the ever-present threat of the Three Shadowed Ones, who hunt them for the legendary magical artifacts they possess. As Miranda, Prospero's ever-dutiful eldest child, struggles to keep her siblings in line, she's repeatedly thrown off guard by a series of unsettling revelations. The only false note is a pivotal scene where a monster rapes a woman to steal her power. The story is convoluted and occasionally overwrought, but the rich imagery, fast pace, and masterful use of mythology make this a real page-turner."

I picked up the first book in this series due to it's haunting cover, and now I can't wait to add this to my shelves as well.

Gossip Girl Manga by Cecily von Ziegesar
Published by: Yen Press
Publication Date: August 17th, 2010
Format: Paperback, 249 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The original Gossip Girl cast returns in a reimagination of their high school days in which Blair and Vanessa become unlikely roommates! Blair and Serena were BFFs ...until Blair discovered that her boyfriend, Nate, cheated on her with Serena! As if that wasn't enough, Serena then disappeared without a word. Now she's back and trying to make amends with Blair. Too bad Serena's former best friend has no intention of forgiving her. After seeing Serena with her new boyfriend, Dan, Blair intends to respond in kind! Will a photo of Dan kissing Blair put an end to Serena's budding relationship ...? "

They've made Gossip Girl into a Manga. Please stop, my sides hurt from laughing. The tears they won't stop. Seriously, stop it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl, L Jagi Lamplighter, Manga, Prospero in Hell, Prospero Lost

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
Published by: Poppy
Publication Date: 2003
Format: Kindle Edition, 224 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

I picked this up first because I love the trashiness of the show, but second because it was only $2.99 on the Kindle and I wanted to read a book on it right away. My love of the Kindle has been confirmed with reading this book, my love of the book series, not so much. I really enjoy the tv show, which does surprise people, because it's a trashy teen show and I am more of the refined BBC broadcasting girl (yeah I know that phrase is repetitive, but it works). The naked facts are these, I grew up watching and loving Dallas, and Gossip Girl is, in essence, Dallas for teens, set on the Upper East Side. So, being a book girl, and one who really has to read the original book of an adaptation at one point or another, either before or after (sometimes simultaneously, like with Vanity Fair, but that got annoying, especially having to stop watching and then read a bit, and then having the miniseries spoil me on a major plot point), I really had no choice in checking out Cecily van Ziegesar's book. Honestly, I didn't.

For Banned Book Week, I thought I'd do a nice topical book review, ie one of the most contested of 2008. So my analysis...it was really boring. Why even bother banning this book? What they are able to make look smooth and polished on tv with all the glitz and glamor, and surprisingly really good casting, the show has Wallace Shawn after all, is really just vapid and shallow. Of course I'm not saying that I expected Shakespeare here, but the characters had no redeemable qualities at all. Nate smokes pot all the time, they all smoke like chimneys, and Jenny has really big boobs that get mentioned, a lot. Plus the whole book was only like one episode, which I think is a smart decision, as an hour of tv it works, as a 200 plus page book, not so much! The entire plot centers around Serena's return to New York from boarding school after being expelled, not for anything lascivious, but for showing up three weeks late, and then her subsequent exile from her old posse while they prepare for the "Kiss on the Lips" falcon benefit. Much bitching about Serena, Nate being stoned and unable to choose Blair or Serena and Dan loving Serena while Jenny tries to become part of the in crowd. Nothing very new or original or interesting. One plus, it was an extremely fast read.

In the end, I think I won't be picking up any more of this series to read. While it's fun to watch these characters and revel in their tawdry little world on tv I don't think I could stand living in their world for more than an hour a week. It's better to observe them from afar and not have to actually listen to what passes for "thoughts" in their little alcohol, pot and pill soaked brains.

Also what was the picture of Serena really? Couldn't we at least have had closure on that? Cause I'm not picking up another one of these just to find out.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:01 AM 5 comments  

Labels: Blair, Cecily von Ziegsar, Dallas, Dan Brown, Gossip Girl, Jenny, Kindle, Nate, Serena, Shakespeare, Wallace Shawn

Sometimes I reflect on what it would be like to have lived at a time when books were not so readily available and the thought just scares me. To not have the wonderful stories and worlds right there at my fingertips is a frightening prospect. When you think that there was once a time when books were the most sacred and valuable possession someone owned because the printed word was scarce and cost so much you realize how lucky we are that we live now. But to think of a time, our time, when knowledge is readily accessible, when words and books can be found almost anywhere and be available to anyone and then have that taken away by censors. That just terrifies me to me very core. There are appropriate and inappropriate books, there are good books and bad books, but there is no one who has the right to tell you that a book is not fit to be read. Anything that has been written has the right to be read if someone wants to read it. There is not some all powerful governing body who has any right to tell me I can't read a book. Knowledge is not to be monitored, it is to have an ever expanding ceaseless horizon. Go out a increase your world view and read a banned book.

Top 10 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
   Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group
2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
   Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
   Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
   Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
   Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
   Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group
9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
   Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group
10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
    Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:03 AM 4 comments  

Labels: And Tango Makes Three, Banned Book Week, Banned Books, Bless Me, Gossip Girl, His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, Scary Stories, The Kite Runner, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, TTYL, Ultima

Young Adult books, just by their name carry a stigma to some, but I say trash that, as my friend said over on her blog the other day, Ya for A! Young Adult books are no longer just for the teens, do not feel bad for looking at these books in the bookstore! With authors like Neil Gaiman stepping into this genre and winning the Newbury, you can see that these are books everyone should be reading (a note, a Newbury winner doesn't guarantee a good book, but pick up The Graveyard Book and you won't be let down). I personally believe that while Young Adult books have always been around and good it wasn't until Harry Potter came that J. K. Rowling was able to dent the preconceived notion of what defines childrens and what defines adult literature. She broke down the stereotypes to an extent, opening the flood gates to a whole new world of well written extremely successful Young Adult authors, from Shannon Hale, even to Stephenie Meyer.

Young Adult seems to be broken down into two categories. The first is the more true to life, or at least mildly realistic and more confessional books. These range from The Gossip Girl series, which can be over the top, some would say overly mature for their age bracket, to my favorite, the Georgie Nicholson books by Louise Rennison. I love the Georgie Nicholson books because they are quite literally if Bridget Jones had written books as a teenager. Georgie is very British, very funny and her, some would say, bastardization but I will say inventiveness, with the English language is priceless. (There is even a British to American, aka Hambuger-a-go-go-ese, dictionary.) Her tenth and final book is out this month in England, look for it stateside in the fall.

The second category is Science Fiction/Fantasy, where I usually dwell. In fact a lot of my favorite authors are considered part of this genre. I personally like Young Adult Sci Fi/Fantasy because unlike the adult books you don't get unnecessary graphic sex. I'm not a prude, but I think that the sex should be a part of the story and occur naturally, and not all be lesbian, I mean come on, not all women in this genre will go for other women if given the chance no matter what the typical fanfic and slash writers think. Even George R. R. Martin falls prey to this with some of his characters and I ask why? Young Adult writers are doing pretty good without it (aside from Stephenie Meyer) thank you!

So I suggest you go out to your local library or bookstore and spend some time in the Young Adult section. You might get some strange looks, but I guarantee you will find something you like, and maybe even something you love.

Authors I would strongly recommend:
Cornelia Funke - Her Inkworld series dealing with literally inhabiting books is wonderfully dark and very reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm. The first book, wrongly translated as Inkheart, it's real title is Inkblood, is the weakest, but the final two should not be missed.

Neil Gaiman - If you haven't read his teen books you are missing his best writing, check out Corlaine and The Graveyard Book.

Shannon Hale - Her books of Bayern, starting with a re-telling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl are wonderful. Also recommended is her Book of a Thousand Days.

R. L. LaFevers - Her Theodosia Throckmorton books encompassing the world of Egyptology are fabulous. I'd especially recommend her for fans of Arthur Conan Doyle, The Mummy, or what it reminds me most of, the best movie ever, Young Sherlock Holmes!

Christopher Paolini - I love him, though most people say his fantasy about Dragons is just a mish-mash of other writers, I still love them, and find them better written than most.

Terry Pratchett - His Tiffany Aching series about a young witch brings back all the Discworld witches we know and love and uses them as background for a young witch in training. And the Nac Mac Feegles! Och Eye!

Louise Rennison - Bridget Jones if she was a slightly funnier and loonier teen.

Authors I would avoid:
C.S. Lewis - Narnia, yeah it's good for awhile, but it goes all religious weird and then he kills everybody! Except Susan, cause she likes make-up...personally I'd be siding with Susan if it meant I lived.

Stephenie Meyer - What started out as a good series with a chance to be different ended up showing us that even in a world of Vampires you need to have a man and a child to be complete.

Authors I have not made my mind up on:
Melissa Marr - I just started her Wicked Lovely series, and I like the dark fairies and the different courts, but it does have a boy that can sparkle...so it might be headed the way of Stephenie Meyer...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:14 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Christopher Paolini, Cornelia Funke, Georgie Nicholson, Gossip Girl, Louise Rennison, Neil Gaiman, Newbury, R. L. Lafevers, Shannon Hale, Stephenie Meyer, Terry Pratchett