Regency Magic
Last year I read a lot of Regency themed books for my Regency Romp. Which made me actually question whether doing Regency Magic might have been a tad too much too soon. Yes, it's been four years since I last did Regency Magic and this subgenre is such a favorite of mine that I am a little baffled I didn't squeeze it in somewhere. And yes, I do totally organize my blog around the "what do I feel like reading" versus "what is popular" which means I have a legitimate excuse to indulge in something Austenesque with a side of magic. But somehow I just didn't. And then the question of should I even be doing it now kept repeating in my head on a loop. But then two things happened, I started craving anything set in the Regency and I picked up C.C. Aune's The Ill-Kept Oath. The cravings were obviously caused by my withdrawal after reading so many Regency set books last year and The Ill-Kept Oath was one of those books you read and it's just sheer perfection. You want to inhale it all and yet you never want it to end and I felt myself falling in love with Regency Magic all over again. And then I picked up Jacey Bedford's Rowankind series and the same thing happened again! I wasn't just falling in love with a subgenre all over again I was falling in love with reading all over again! Therefore I am beyond delighted to spend the next two months with C.C. Aune and Jacey Bedford, as well as the much loved Stephanie Burgis, and the new to me H.G. Parry. I can't wait for you to read their books! Join me on this journey, read along with me, keep an eye out for an Instagram giveaway or two, and if we ever meet in person, excuse me for yelling at you to pick up The Ill-Kept Oath by describing it as Jane Austen with trolls. And yes, that did happen. More than once.
A Shakespearean ghost brought us the phrase "murder most foul." I'm sure, given that it was spoken in Hamlet, that Shakespeare knew the basic human drive to be enthralled and strive to solve an unnatural death. It's the crux of the play's forward momentum to that gory end. We, as humans, are drawn to puzzles and hunt for clues like they're candy. Murder mysteries can even be comforting. There's a whole subgenre just of cozy mysteries! There's nothing I like better than being transported away from reality by a book, and mysteries tend to transport me more than most because I'm not just enjoying the narrative, I'm trying to pick up all the clues, throw aside all the red herrings, and figure out whodunit before the author actually tells us. Yes, I like to be one step ahead at all times. Of course there are so many different types of whodunits that one could read nothing but mysteries and not even dent the genre. And yet, that doesn't stop us from trying. From devouring one murder after another like they were a big box of chocolates, which thankfully, in this instance, aren't out to poison us. So here's to the mystery genre, to all those murders most foul. Here's to kicking off the holiday season the right way, with a corpse or two.
