strange and random happenstance

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur
Publication Date: October 25th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

As Emily dances a man burns. How could she have thought the ballroom she was in was stuffy once she learns of the fate of Mr. Dillman? The heat as he was burned alive chained to his office window is horrible to contemplate, yet Emily and Colin must, as Colin has been sent in by the crown to investigate. But it's information they glean from Mr. Dillman's fiance, Cordelia Dalton, that shines a light on the investigation and shows a disturbing pattern. The day of Mr. Dillman's death the Sanders household was defiled with red paint and it was revealed at the ball that their daughter, Polly, was the illegitimate offspring of Mr. Sanders and a maid. Polly's betrothal to Thomas Lacey was ended and any chance she had of a good marriage went up in smoke. Cordelia informs Emily and Colin that Mr. Dillman's house was similarly vandalized the week before. What could Mr. Dillman's secret have been? If the revelation of Polly's parentage is anything to go by whomever is leaving these threatening and very public warnings seeks to out the deepest and darkest of secrets of the ton and Mr. Dillman's secret might just have followed him to the grave.

Soon more homes are vandalized and what seemed at first mildly titillating and a field day for gossips has the ton gripped in terror. How each family approaches their secret shame depends on how bad their crime. Some wait with baited breath, some flee England, some openly expose their own secrets, and some choose to take their secrets to the grave. Emily and Colin can see no connection between the victims aside from the fact that they had something to hide, which could apply to anyone they know, from the highest ranking individuals to their dearest friends. Soon their investigation narrows on a few individuals; Mr. Foster, a politician being groomed for Prime Minister, his best friend and policy shaper Mr. Barnes, who could never rise to power on his own being half West Indian, Mrs. Winifred Harris, an inveterate busybody, and the outlandish Lady Glover, whom the vandal appears to be in contact with when she's not taking her zebras for a stroll in the park. But if this individual wants to cause as much damage to as many individuals as possible why are they targeting Cordelia Dalton, someone peripheral to the first victim? When she goes missing it becomes clear Mr. Dillman is more important than the other victims. He might just be the key to catching this odious criminal and stopping their stranglehold on the city.

A Crimson Warning takes place about a year after Emily and Colin's last adventure in France and we get to see them settled into their new life in London. While I initially thought I was being mildly cheated by not getting to see Emily and Colin merge their households and their staff with all the ensuing chaos, I realized that I should never question Tasha because she knows what's right for her characters. The relative calm of the Hargreaves household is needed to serve as a counterpoint to the mania that is gripping the town. If they had a household in disarray while the town was balancing on a knife's edge the book would have ended up too frenetic. You need moments of calm, especially in a murder mystery, where you can gather your thoughts and let your heart stop racing with a nice cup of tea or glass of port. I think this is why I don't like action films, they don't understand the need for proper pacing. But then again, in an action film they rarely have a plot and if you were given a moments respite you might notice this. Whereas Tasha's writing is perfectly plotted, with just the right hints, red herrings, and reveals that you are enthralled until the very last page.

But what made me breathe the biggest sigh of relief? Because a year has passed since Colin was a total controlling dick in France, justifiable in his mind not mine, Emily and him have worked out their respective rolls in their marriage and in their investigations, smoothing over the bumps from his being reactionary and overprotective. Colin isn't shutting Emily out and Emily in turn isn't sneaking around behind his back trying to help while still trying to be a dutiful wife. They know where their strengths lie and know that they will ask for the others help when it is needed. When Colin flits away into the night to follow a new lead he has faith that Emily knows he doesn't need him at the moment, but the second he does he will call her into action. While Emily knows he won't interfere with her own line of inquiry and will even be there to help should she need it. They are in balance and oh how this made me happy. But not nearly as happy as when Emily stopped by Mr. Dillman's and the butler let her in to search the victim's possessions. Emily thought he let her in because she was so convincing in her justifications to him, but really it's because the butler had heard of the successful partnership of her and her husband. They have a reputation! A good one! This made Emily understandably flattered and made my heart sing that her reputation now proceeds her!

While Emily is shocked to discover that she is now known for something more than being a little eccentric, A Crimson Warning is fascinating in that it's all about discovery. What do the people you know everyday have to conceal. Because it's made quite clear that when the scarlet mark appears on their door they know exactly to what secret it pertains. And most of the secrets are quite scandalous. Therefore it is quite surprising that of all Emily's friends the one most worried about finding their doorstep covered in paint is Ivy! Ivy has a secret! This really proves that you never really know someone. Because from the outset Ivy has always been depicted as the perfect Victorian bride. A perfect wife supporting her husband and a perfect mother now that she was blessed with a daughter. Of course Emily is always trying to corrupt her with sensational literature and port, but to all outward appearances Ivy is just perfectly normal. Though in a London filled with secrets normal apparently means she must have a secret as well. The way Tasha draws out the reveal with Ivy's journal entries is deliciously suspenseful. Will we learn Ivy's secrets from her own lips or from a red slash on her door? I'm obviously not going to spoil it, other than to say it's perfect.

Now though I need to address a serious question I have to raise. Is it possible to marry a fictional character who isn't just fictional but also dead? I'm talking about my complete adoration of Mr. Dillman. That fiance of his, Cordelia Dalton, sure lucked out in locking that one down, that is until he was murdered of course. Why my love of Mr. Dillman? Well, beyond the fact he is a good, kind man who takes care of his workers and has a social conscience, he is also bookish and encourages Cordelia to read literature that even Emily thinks is a little scandalous and therefore wants to read immediately! But more than that, he creates these amazing scavenger hunts for Cordelia that has her searching all over museums to find the right object that then ties into another stage of the hunt that ends in going through Mr. Dalton's library where Mr. Dillman has secreted a surprise for his fiance. I mean, my heart literally melted. I love scavenger hunts and literature, if someone cared about me this much to stage this amazing game, not once but often? That is the man for me ladies and gentlemen! The fact that this game ties into the overall plot just shows how much I love and adore Tasha's series. She creates memorable characters we love and care for but who also serve a purpose dramatically.

One aspect of Tasha's writing that is mentioned again and again in the pull quotes used for the back of her books is that Lady Emily has a sparkling wit and that humor imbues all her adventures. I'm not going to disagree with this statement. In fact I think all books need humor in order to work. Not just because I love me a little snark, but because you get a better sense of someone's personality by laughing with them. A Crimson Warning seems to me to notch up the humor a bit than previous installments. Again I think this is a balancing act that Tasha has carefully staged. Emily's life is calm while Rome burns, and the jokes become more prevalent the bleaker the situation Emily finds herself in. This installment we see even more of the horror of the lower classes in London and the humor is a nice way to combat the stark reality of the situations that Emily finds herself in. The humor never diminishes the suffering she sees, but it's a nice counterpoint to the suffering and helps to further form her social conscience with her wanting to do more and fight for women's suffrage with the Women's Liberal Federation. But all that analysis aside, nothing has made me laugh heartier recently than Emily's observations on Lady Glover and her zebras to Ivy: "Zebras, Ivy. Zebras," I said. "Why are we not better acquainted with this woman?"

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Crimson Warning, Alexander Autumn, Colin Hargreaves, Dangerous to Know, Fictional Romance, Humor, Lady Emily, Literature, London, Mr. Dillman, Murder, Secrets, Social Conscience, Suffrage, Tasha Alexander, Zebras

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander
Published by: Minotaur
Publication Date: October 25th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

As Emily dances a man burns. How could she have thought the ballroom she was in was stuffy once she learns of the fate of Mr. Dillman? The heat as he was burned alive chained to his office window is horrible to contemplate, yet Emily and Colin must, as Colin has been sent in by the crown to investigate. But it's information they glean from Mr. Dillman's fiance, Cordelia Dalton, that shines a light on the investigation and shows a disturbing pattern. The day of Mr. Dillman's death the Sanders household was defiled with red paint and it was revealed at the ball that their daughter, Polly, was the illegitimate offspring of Mr. Sanders and a maid. Polly's betrothal to Thomas Lacey was ended and any chance she had of a good marriage went up in smoke. Cordelia informs Emily and Colin that Mr. Dillman's house was similarly vandalized the week before. What could Mr. Dillman's secret have been? If the revelation of Polly's parentage is anything to go by whomever is leaving these threatening and very public warnings seeks to out the deepest and darkest of secrets of the ton and Mr. Dillman's secret might just have followed him to the grave.

Soon more homes are vandalized and what seemed at first mildly titillating and a field day for gossips has the ton gripped in terror. How each family approaches their secret shame depends on how bad their crime. Some wait with baited breath, some flee England, some openly expose their own secrets, and some choose to take their secrets to the grave. Emily and Colin can see no connection between the victims aside from the fact that they had something to hide, which could apply to anyone they know, from the highest ranking individuals to their dearest friends. Soon their investigation narrows on a few individuals; Mr. Foster, a politician being groomed for Prime Minister, his best friend and policy shaper Mr. Barnes, who could never rise to power on his own being half West Indian, Mrs. Winifred Harris, an inveterate busybody, and the outlandish Lady Glover, whom the vandal appears to be in contact with when she's not taking her zebras for a stroll in the park. But if this individual wants to cause as much damage to as many individuals as possible why are they targeting Cordelia Dalton, someone peripheral to the first victim? When she goes missing it becomes clear Mr. Dillman is more important than the other victims. He might just be the key to catching this odious criminal and stopping their stranglehold on the city.

A Crimson Warning takes place about a year after Emily and Colin's last adventure in France and we get to see them settled into their new life in London. While I initially thought I was being mildly cheated by not getting to see Emily and Colin merge their households and their staff with all the ensuing chaos, I realized that I should never question Tasha because she knows what's right for her characters. The relative calm of the Hargreaves household is needed to serve as a counterpoint to the mania that is gripping the town. If they had a household in disarray while the town was balancing on a knife's edge the book would have ended up too frenetic. You need moments of calm, especially in a murder mystery, where you can gather your thoughts and let your heart stop racing with a nice cup of tea or glass of port. I think this is why I don't like action films, they don't understand the need for proper pacing. But then again, in an action film they rarely have a plot and if you were given a moments respite you might notice this. Whereas Tasha's writing is perfectly plotted, with just the right hints, red herrings, and reveals that you are enthralled until the very last page.

But what made me breathe the biggest sigh of relief? Because a year has passed since Colin was a total controlling dick in France, justifiable in his mind not mine, Emily and him have worked out their respective rolls in their marriage and in their investigations, smoothing over the bumps from his being reactionary and overprotective. Colin isn't shutting Emily out and Emily in turn isn't sneaking around behind his back trying to help while still trying to be a dutiful wife. They know where their strengths lie and know that they will ask for the others help when it is needed. When Colin flits away into the night to follow a new lead he has faith that Emily knows he doesn't need him at the moment, but the second he does he will call her into action. While Emily knows he won't interfere with her own line of inquiry and will even be there to help should she need it. They are in balance and oh how this made me happy. But not nearly as happy as when Emily stopped by Mr. Dillman's and the butler let her in to search the victim's possessions. Emily thought he let her in because she was so convincing in her justifications to him, but really it's because the butler had heard of the successful partnership of her and her husband. They have a reputation! A good one! This made Emily understandably flattered and made my heart sing that her reputation now proceeds her!

While Emily is shocked to discover that she is now known for something more than being a little eccentric, A Crimson Warning is fascinating in that it's all about discovery. What do the people you know everyday have to conceal. Because it's made quite clear that when the scarlet mark appears on their door they know exactly to what secret it pertains. And most of the secrets are quite scandalous. Therefore it is quite surprising that of all Emily's friends the one most worried about finding their doorstep covered in paint is Ivy! Ivy has a secret! This really proves that you never really know someone. Because from the outset Ivy has always been depicted as the perfect Victorian bride. A perfect wife supporting her husband and a perfect mother now that she was blessed with a daughter. Of course Emily is always trying to corrupt her with sensational literature and port, but to all outward appearances Ivy is just perfectly normal. Though in a London filled with secrets normal apparently means she must have a secret as well. The way Tasha draws out the reveal with Ivy's journal entries is deliciously suspenseful. Will we learn Ivy's secrets from her own lips or from a red slash on her door? I'm obviously not going to spoil it, other than to say it's perfect.

Now though I need to address a serious question I have to raise. Is it possible to marry a fictional character who isn't just fictional but also dead? I'm talking about my complete adoration of Mr. Dillman. That fiance of his, Cordelia Dalton, sure lucked out in locking that one down, that is until he was murdered of course. Why my love of Mr. Dillman? Well, beyond the fact he is a good, kind man who takes care of his workers and has a social conscience, he is also bookish and encourages Cordelia to read literature that even Emily thinks is a little scandalous and therefore wants to read immediately! But more than that, he creates these amazing scavenger hunts for Cordelia that has her searching all over museums to find the right object that then ties into another stage of the hunt that ends in going through Mr. Dalton's library where Mr. Dillman has secreted a surprise for his fiance. I mean, my heart literally melted. I love scavenger hunts and literature, if someone cared about me this much to stage this amazing game, not once but often? That is the man for me ladies and gentlemen! The fact that this game ties into the overall plot just shows how much I love and adore Tasha's series. She creates memorable characters we love and care for but who also serve a purpose dramatically.

One aspect of Tasha's writing that is mentioned again and again in the pull quotes used for the back of her books is that Lady Emily has a sparkling wit and that humor imbues all her adventures. I'm not going to disagree with this statement. In fact I think all books need humor in order to work. Not just because I love me a little snark, but because you get a better sense of someone's personality by laughing with them. A Crimson Warning seems to me to notch up the humor a bit than previous installments. Again I think this is a balancing act that Tasha has carefully staged. Emily's life is calm while Rome burns, and the jokes become more prevalent the bleaker the situation Emily finds herself in. This installment we see even more of the horror of the lower classes in London and the humor is a nice way to combat the stark reality of the situations that Emily finds herself in. The humor never diminishes the suffering she sees, but it's a nice counterpoint to the suffering and helps to further form her social conscience with her wanting to do more and fight for women's suffrage with the Women's Liberal Federation. But all that analysis aside, nothing has made me laugh heartier recently than Emily's observations on Lady Glover and her zebras to Ivy: "Zebras, Ivy. Zebras," I said. "Why are we not better acquainted with this woman?"

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Crimson Warning, Alexander Autumn, Colin Hargreaves, Dangerous to Know, Fictional Romance, Humor, Lady Emily, Literature, London, Mr. Dillman, Murder, Secrets, Social Conscience, Suffrage, Tasha Alexander, Zebras

Bewitching Season (Leland Sisters Book 1) by Marissa Doyle
Published by: Henry Holt and Co
Publication Date: April 29th, 2008
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Persephone and Penelope Leland are about to come out in society. Though Persy would rather not. She is convinced that she will somehow embarrass herself and her twin sister Pen when being presented to the Queen and therefore ruin Pen's chances of a great match. So it's much better Persy just stays at home, in the country, for the rest of her life, and studies magic. London only holds one lure for Persy, and that's Princess Victoria. Princess Victoria is a heroine to the twins. Not only will Victoria be the next queen, but she shares their birthday. And if Persy is truly honest with herself, London has another lure; Lochinvar Seton. Lochinvar grew up near the Leland's estate and they have always been close. Ever since Persy and Lochinvar found a shared love of reading Persy's heart was forever lost to him.

But London holds more worries for Persy than tripping in front of the Queen, her beloved governess and magical tutor Ally has gone missing. This is so unlike Ally that the twins and even their little brother Charles are worried. Even Ally's family don't know what to make of this shocking situation. Sadly shopping for gowns and matching shoes take up way too much time and the search for Ally is continually postponed. Yet as the day of Princess Victoria's birthday draws closer Persy discovers that the Princess is the target of a dangerous plot using Ally and her magical abilities. Will Persy be able to save her heroine, Ally, and get the man of her dreams? Whatever happens it will be a season to remember.

I rarely draw comparisons between books by different authors because all writing is so unique and different. Yet comparisons can be useful in trying to convince someone to pick up a book. Or even, in that most drastic of circumstances, to get someone to avoid a book. So while I hesitate in this review to point out that there is a definite Lauren Willig vibe about this book, the other part of me goes, but it must be said! If you're a follower of my blog you know how much I love Lauren's writing. I think I've convinced you all of that by now. The reason I feel this vibe in Bewitching Season isn't so much to do with the writing style, the London ton, or anything really logical, other then a deep connection with the characters. The reason I love Lauren Willig's books is this connection I feel to her characters. I don't just want to know what happens in all their lives, I NEED to know. I feel what they feel, I love what they love.

I become insanely worried about these characters that are fictional to other people but to me are old friends. Despite never reading anything my Marissa Doyle previously I felt this connection. I felt like I was visiting old friends. I felt as if I've known Persy my whole life. She is SO like me, we're kindred spirits. She's bookish and doesn't like large gatherings, preferring studies over balls, oh how I can relate! Yet she's drawn into this glitzy world just for the hope of seeing Victoria! Just replace Victoria with I don't know, David Tennant, and that's me in a nutshell. With all the mix ups and crossed signals, my heart was breaking with worry that things wouldn't work out. And that's the greatest gift a writer can give, to make you care so much that you don't believe the happily ever after is guaranteed.

I can not stress enough the importance of a good relatable heroine. Shy bookish girls, come to me! But what is great about Persy and Pen is that we're getting a one-two punch. I thought at first that it would be gimmicky having twins, but instead I really liked how this played out. Because outwardly they are the same, but inwardly, and especially to Lochinvar, they are so very very different. Everyone in the ton kind of views them as curios, yet they are so complex. While we spend the most time with Persy, her being the primary heroine, it's interesting to see the contrast with Pen, who wanted all that Persy didn't. Yet Pen isn't all she seems as well. Yes, she wanted nothing more than to have the perfect season, but instead of looking for her own happiness, she is secretly trying to secure her sisters. Complicating matters further is Persy becoming, not secretive, but self-reflective and not sharing her secrets with Pen.

The divide that opens up and is eventually sealed between the sisters is a right of passage for anyone who has a close friend or sibling who you grew distant from. There's just so much that I relate to that I want to just take these girls out for a night of magical fun. Returning to Lochinvar, can I just say how perfect he is for Persy? Despite his good looks, he's literally a spaz. He loves learning, and schooling, and books, and damn, that really is the perfect man now isn't it? The only character that worried me was Charles. Precocious younger siblings or relations can easily mean the death of a good story. They are the bane of everyone, especially the Brady Bunch. But somehow Charles walks the fine line between overly cute and annoyance just perfectly. It doesn't hurt that he actually wants to help and that his suggestions often are very useful.

But just having a bunch of great characters wandering around does not make for a good book. There needs to be a story, a narrative that is equal to the characters. While I have always loved Historical Fiction, the lure of living in another time, it's always a more satisfying read when there's that hint of history. The merging of fact and fiction elevates a story to a new level. It's not just about the setting, but about the reality it imbues the narrative with, even in a magical world it gives it a good grounding. Here the story is entwined with Queen Victoria's rise to power. I have to admit I have a strong fondness for the young Victoria, and no, it has nothing to do with the Julian Fellowes movie of that name. I have a fondness for the miniseries Fellowes so blatantly ripped off, Victoria and Albert, staring another Victoria, Victoria Hamilton, and the lesser Firth, Jonathan.

The struggles with her mother and Sir John Conroy that were brought to the small screen here crackle with the same animus, but with an otherworldly threat to the young Victoria. It's like the idea of Queen Elizabeth's adviser, John Dee, actually having magical powers and using them, but brought forward to Victorian times. Seriously, I was insanely happy about these magical underpinnings being logically placed in a historical context. Merging characters I loved and bringing historical figures I love and making them into flesh and blood people interacting with these characters, oh yes, I am a happy girl. And oddly, what made me happiest was the little detail that Victoria did a drawing of her dog Dash. It's always the little things that help inform the bigger picture.

Though in the end it comes down to magic. Does this book actually use magic well? The answer is damn right it does! As Marissa mentions in her profile post she loves "starting out with history and then layering magic in underneath it, I tend to prefer real-world historical settings where magic is secret and known only to a few, rather than alternate history where magic is an accepted part of the world." This is an interesting take, because usually, at least in most Regency Magic books, magic is known about and regulated, yet here, here it is a secret. So what's delicious about this idea is that this could conceivable be what really happened! Yes, Marissa is stating that just perhaps a Regency was averted and Victoria became Queen unimpeded due to magic. It's a wonderful idea isn't it? That magic is all around us but we're just not away of it.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bewitching Season, Dash, David Tennant, Historical Fiction, Jonathan Firth, Julian Fellowes, Lauren Willig, Magic, Marissa Doyle, Queen Victoria, Regency Magic, Secrets, Victoria and Albert, Victoria Hamilton

The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: NAL
Publication Date: January 19th, 2016
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Olive is a maid in the opulent Pratt Mansion on the upper east side. She wasn't raised to be a maid, far from it, her father was a famous architect and had ambitions of grandeur for his family. Ambitions that ended when the Pratt's refused to pay for his work on the mansion and he ended his life. Olive has infiltrated the household to clear her father's name, little thinking that she might find something other then vengeance inside those four walls her father built. Almost thirty years later Olive's daughter Lucy hears her mother's deathbed utterance of the name Harry and has become convinced, in part due to her overbearing grandmother, that the Harry her mother spoke of was Harry Pratt. Could she be related to that once great family? She takes a job in the city working for the firm that handles the Pratt estate and gets a room at Stornaway House, a respectable boarding house for young women that was once the Pratt Mansion.

Though Lucy isn't the only one looking into the Pratts. John Ravenel, the son of the famous painter Augustus Ravenel, is trying to find a connection between the Pratts and his father. Lucy's life is caught up in the secrets of the past and present but can her heart endure the discoveries? More then twenty years have passed and World War II is raging, Stornaway House is now a hospital and they have a very competent female doctor on staff, Kate Schuyler, the daughter of Lucy. On a stormy night they receive a new patient, Captain Ravenel. The only room available is a disused and forgotten room at the top of the once great mansion that Kate has been sleeping in. Up in this secret aerie will Kate and her Captain connect the dots and reconcile the past and the present to make a future for themselves?

Books with multiple authors that aren't anthologies or short story collections are an interesting breed apart. You often get husbands and wives writing together, sometimes under a combined pseudonym, A.A. Aguirre is Anne Aguirre and her husband Andres, Ilona Andrews is Ilona Gordon and Andrew Gordon, something I didn't know until I met them. Even two good friends writing together happens, look at Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia. The key to these writing partnerships is that they have a bond that goes beyond the writing to an understanding of each other so they can form a cohesive narrative. There are even ways to work around cohesion, this being a more epistolary approach where each author takes a character and is their voice, much as Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer did with their Sorcery and Cecelia series. But to have more then two authors is a rarity.

To have three authors each tackling a different time period but working together to mesh their writing styles so that it feels like a cohesive whole seems in the abstract like an insurmountable task. Even when marketing this book Lauren commented on how the PR department had a hard time conveying that that they "were three authors writing a single novel... rather than an anthology." Yet when you start to read the book all your doubts leave. Aside from the minor exception that Kate's section is written in the first person the book feels like a cohesive whole, not like loosely strung together stories. I haven't read any other books by Karen White or Beatriz Williams, I signed on initially just for Lauren, but seeing how they worked together I'm excited to see what they all do next.

Even though the three writers created this cohesive story I still found myself liking certain characters more than others. I mean, it's nearly impossible not to pick favorite characters in a book, but when all those characters are in a certain section and you have to read two other sections to get back to them, it's hard not to be occasionally frustrated. What was must frustrating to me though is how the narrative is constructed so that only one of the three women gets the happily ever after. Seeing my favorite character NOT get her HEA, that got on my nerves, even if I figured it was inevitable. But seeing my least favorite character, Kate, get the HEA? Oh, yeah. I'm not a happy woman. So much of the love stories seemed to hinge on the star-crossed lovers motif that when the women used common sense and logic to settle down I was frustrated.

Olive and Lucy both seem resigned to their fates that they couldn't be with the ones they loved. Seriously, all I could think of was the 30 Rock episodes with Michael Sheen where he meets Tina Fey's character and he thinks that she is his settling soulmate. That the "universe wants us to settle for one another... fate is telling us this is the best we're ever going to get. We're each other's settling soulmates." Not the one true love, the one that you settle for. This is so depressing to me. There's this connection between the women of this family and the Ravenel men that passes down the line, they are inevitability drawn to each other like magnets yet it takes them three generations to get it right? Disgruntled sigh. But who I feel the worst for is the poor schmoes that Olive and Lucy marry. These two men ADORE these women, they are the loves of their lives and the women know this and settle and become bitter. Those men deserved women who loved them as much as they loved!

As for all these women searching out the truth and connecting with these Ravenel men, it makes you realize the importance of asking questions before it's too late. Family secrets build and fester and this shows what happens when you wait too long; you don't get the truth. Or you don't get the whole truth. The fact of the matter is we never think to ask questions of our parents or our grandparents when there's time. Why does the ancestry bug bite people in their 50s and 60s? If we could jump start this a little earlier than perhaps we could learn more, get the answers, even get answers to questions we never thought to ask! This is how we lose our ancestral identity, through laxity. Yes this book takes place in a different time, in fact several different times, when openness wasn't the order of the day. But still, there is silence because people were willing to accept it as the status quo. We need to be willing to ask the hard questions of our parents before it's too late, learn of their life and loves, and even their frustrations and sins. A few too many deathbed utterances could easily be replaced with truth. But then, from a fictional standpoint, where's the mystery?

Another product of the times is the pervasive sexual harassment within this story. In fact at times it's so prevalent you feel drawn out of the story. Yes, I know it's not historically inaccurate, it's a sad truth, but making it such a theme takes something away from the book. It leaves an uncomfortable aftertaste in your mouth. If it was important to the narrative I would understand it's presence, but it just seems to be used as a signifier of the times. The worst is Kate's fellow Doctor, Dr. Greeley. He is a worm. A slimy, slippery, creep. I just don't understand why with him. Not the why he behaves the way he does, but why Kate lets him. Yes, she's a female in a male dominated profession. Yes, he could make life uncomfortable for her. But no, that doesn't mean she should acquiesce to dinner dates and gropings in cupboards. In fact her unwillingness to stick up to this creep is probably the number one reason I like her least of the female trio. She has the ability to stand up to him, she just won't. And that's the problem with sexual harassment. Too many women not willing to raise their voices up. Kate is a woman ahead of her times, not a product of her times, and she accepts something that is unacceptable. Ugh. No.

But among all the characters there's one character that I just couldn't connect with, and that's the Pratt mansion. Because the mansion is just as much a character as any of those of flesh and bone. I just didn't buy the building as an actual location. It doesn't work. There seems to be no real handle on the building. The structure seems to shift and morph. In fact this would be the only time where the three authors I think are most obvious, because it seems they all have slightly different interpretations of this one place and they don't quite jive. I think they needed a real life counterpart to actually walk around in to get the architecture right. For the longest time I thought Lucy was actually rooming in "the forgotten room" only to be shocked in her last section to find out she was living in the servants quarters the floor below. In fact "the forgotten room" seems to be able to be accessed several different ways, at one point the stairs go all the way there, later there's only the secret stairs in a hidden cupboard. Also, was this room even really forgotten? It's seems to have fairly regular usage, and therefore the moniker of "forgotten" seems to be just desperate to add mystique. The reason I'm harping on about this is because a story needs to be grounded. This house was to be that. Instead it's like building your story on shifting sand. It works for awhile, but sometimes something is lost to the sea.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 1890s, 1920s, 30 Rock, Ancestry, Architecture, ARCs, Beatriz Williams, Gilded Age, HEA, Karen White, Lauren Willig, Multiple Authors, Secrets, Settling Soulmate, Sexual Harassment, The Forgotten Room, WWII