strange and random happenstance

Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: July 1st, 2002
Format: Paperback, 408 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Yet another season in London. Nothing ever changes and boredom reigns. Lady Whistledown reports on the goings on of the ton, but it doesn't really seem like much is actually going on. Colin Bridgerton has returned from his latest sojourn abroad, but he will never be caught by the scheming mamas, he's too clever, and thus the status quo remains. So Lady Danbury rashly declares a bounty on Lady Whistledown. 1,000 pounds to whomever unmasks the writer! This puts everyone on high alert. Anything you say might be taken as a clue. Any odd behavior could signal you out. The mob mentality holds sway over the ton and Colin is worried. He's worried because he has an inkling he knows who Lady Whistledown is. Given whom Lady Whistledown reports on it's obvious that she, or he, is a member of the ton. What's more Lady Whistledown really does tend to talk about Colin, a lot. Which makes Colin think it has to be someone he knows. His sister Eloise has been acting suspicious. There's no doubt she has the brains and skill to pull this off. In fact all his younger sister are quite devious, it could be any one of them. So he turns to his dear friend Penelope. She's the only one he can think of who will listen to him and not think him insane. But Penelope seems different since his time abroad. She's more assured of herself. It's almost as if he's never really seen her before. Now that he has, the confirmed bachelor has more than just Lady Whistledown on his mind. And when Penelope asks for her first kiss he obliges and everything changes. Colin wants Penelope to be his. But while he's trying to get his mind around this life altering realization the odious Lady Twombley, formerly Cressida Cowper, announces that she is Lady Whistledown. No one believes it. She's too mean, she's too thick, she's too broke. And that's the key, she's scheming because she needs money and if she "unveils" herself who is to contradict her? Will the real Lady Whistledown stand up or will Penelope have her heart broken in more ways than one? Because to think that Lady Whistledown is Cressida breaks Penelope's heart in two. If only there was a Bridgerton to mend it...

You have to applaud Julia Quinn. She drew out the reveal of who Lady Whistledown is until the forth book in her series and yet it didn't feel unnecessarily drawn out. It felt right. So this is the book you've all been waiting for, Colin and Pen and the unmasking of Lady Whistledown. Or if you watched the first season of Bridgerton you already know who Lady Whistledown is. This was the main reason why I wanted to read the books before the series. I wanted to know how the author intended the reveal to happen before it was hastily shoved into the first season of the show because it would be too cruel to make a television audience wait. Because you just know that that was the first change they insisted on making as they mucked up the plot to make it that weird fairy tale amalgam where Dukes are telling young debutantes how to masturbate. In other words, I have issues with the adaptation. And for all my due diligence I was still spoiled on the big reveal. How you ask? Because I stupidly read an article about how the Featheringtons were inspired by the Kardashians and the "real" Lady Whistledown responded to Kim Kardashian and that as we say is that. I mean, it didn't say in big bold letters, THIS IS LADY WHISTLEDOWN, but it still spoiled it. Just another reason to hate the Kardashians. But now that my mini rant is over I'm trying to think how to write this review without spoiling if for those two people who don't know who Lady Whistledown is, because I don't want to be a Kardashian for you! OK, maybe if I ignore the Lady Whistledown reveal altogether and just say that the "hunt" led by Lady Danbury was pure comedy gold. Yes. I can say that because you don't necessarily know who they caught! Yes yes, semantics. But really, it's comedy gold. I love Landy Danbury so much. She reminds me of my grandmother. As for the romance, Colin! Pen! Finally! They are just a perfect couple. The whole friends become lovers trope played right. Because we as readers have always loved Pen and in several instances probably overly identified with her and her unrequited love. To see Colin finally SEE her and understand her and come to love her... Well, it brings me all the happy feels. And isn't that what reading Julia Quinn is all about?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Bounty, Bridgerton, Colin Bridgerton, Eloise Bridgerton, Julia Quinn, Kardashian, Lady Danbury, Lady Whistledown, Penelope Featherington, Regency Romp, Romance, Spoiled, Spoiler, Ton, Unmasking, Writer

Bunny and Biscuits: A Very Dorrington Valentine’s Day by Lauren Willig
Publication Date: February 14th, 2012
Format: Kindle
Rating: ★★★★★
To Read

Some couples lives entirely change when they enter the married state. Some couples aren't Miles and Henrietta. Not very much has changed since they were forced into wedded bliss. Their day to day lives are basically the same except for the simple fact that they share a bed. This starts to trouble Miles. He worries that Hen doesn't realize how much he actually loves her. What with the Duke of Dovedale putting on a huge production in front of the King and asking for Charlotte's hand Miles is worried that he should have done something equally grand for Henrietta. She is after all Charlotte's dear friend, who knows, was she jealous of that elaborate profession of love? Why didn't Miles think of using the King himself? Thankfully they are attending Penelope's wedding to Freddy where love will be the furthest thing from everyone's mind. Especially once Henrietta has a run in with a certain Gardener. Oh, he just pisses her off royally. He's so smug and so French. Hen begs Miles to chase after Penelope to warn her about a spy called the Marigold. It's very important. So important that Miles's attempt ends him in the drink. He literally ran after a ship that had already sailed. But that's how crazy he is about Hen. He'd do anything for her. In fact, he'd heard about this Saint Valentines chap and had decided to surprise his wife with champagne and flowers and foodstuffs, mmm, ginger biscuits. But she had asked him to chase down a ship. So without any hemming or hawing, or at least very little, he was willing to postpone his big declaration of love because that's how much he loves her. And now he's pretty sure he knows that she feels the same way. They were meant for each other. That's why it's been so easy. Well, relatively easy.

Bunny and Biscuits holds a very very special place in my heart. In 2012 the most favorite of Lauren’s couples, voted on by the readers, was to get a Valentine’s Day novella. The much loved Miles and Henrietta Dorrington, stars of The Masque of the Black Tulip, trounced the competition. One day I was trolling Lauren's site, as I do, and I noticed that the time had come to name the upcoming story. Everyone was throwing out flowery names, but I literally had an instant of pure clarity, and Bunny and Biscuits just came into my head. The title roles off the tongue in an alliteration that I hope Miss Gwen would approve of, and if not it can be Miles and Hen’s crime fighting aliases for when they get a 60s style Avengers TV show. Much like Henrietta I had a cute yet redundantly named duo of stuffed animals when I was little. Hen had Bunny-the-Bunny, I had Big Bear Bear and Little Bear Bear, the little one was obviously smaller, and the Big was added to Bear Bear so that they would both have unique names once the little one appeared on the scene. Therefore, despite perhaps being an easily forgettable fact of Hen’s childhood to most readers, to me it made us simpatico. And that’s where the "Bunny" came from. As for "Biscuits" well, all Dorrington men past and present have a love of ginger cookies, or biscuits as the Brits would say… So the title made itself really, as all good titles do. It was there in the work waiting to be said. And I said it and I won. Yet my greatest joy was to come when reading the story, because ginger biscuits and Bunny the Bunny played an important part. So it felt like the story was written for me. Yeah, I know it wasn’t, but I can pretend. I have always had a deep connection to Lauren's characters, but here...here I felt like every word was for me and I love them all the more as the years pass.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Very Dorrington Valentine's Day, Big Bear Bear, Bunny and Biscuits, Bunny-the-Bunny, Competition, Henrietta Selwick, Little Bear Bear, Miles Dorrington, Novella, Regency Romp, The Avengers, Valentine's Day

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From award-winning author Nghi Vo comes a dazzling new novel where immortality is just a casting call away.

It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic.

"No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers." Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill - but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid.

But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes - even if that means becoming the monster herself.

Siren Queen offers up an enthralling exploration of an outsider achieving stardom on her own terms, in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page."

THE author of last year brings us some Golden Age Hollywood that's magical. Literally.

The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
Published by: Doubleday
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
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The official patter:
"A luxurious African safari turns deadly for a Hollywood starlet and her entourage in this riveting historical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant.

Tanzania, 1964. When Katie Barstow, A-list actress, and her new husband, David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti for their honeymoon, they envision giraffes gently eating leaves from the tall acacia trees, great swarms of wildebeests crossing the Mara River, and herds of zebras storming the sandy plains. Their glamorous guests - including Katie’s best friend, Carmen Tedesco, and Terrance Dutton, the celebrated Black actor who stars alongside Katie in the highly controversial film Tender Madness - will spend their days taking photos, and their evenings drinking chilled gin and tonics back at camp, as the local Tanzanian guides warm water for their baths. The wealthy Americans expect civilized adventure: fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice maker, dinners of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell over lunch back on Rodeo Drive.

What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: a kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding their hostages into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a simple thing: to see the sun rise one more time. A blistering story of fame, race, love, and death set in a world on the cusp of great change, The Lioness is a vibrant masterpiece from one of our finest storytellers."

And this is classic Hollywood in Africa!

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Jason Rekulak, Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a supernatural thriller about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late."

I got chills just reading the description!

The Beloved by Harriet Evans
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""It's a funny old house. They have this ceremony every summer...There's an old chapel, in the grounds of the house. It's half-derelict. The Hunters keep bees in there. Every year, on the same day, the family processes to the chapel. They open the combs, taste the honey. Take it back to the house. Half for them -" my father winced, as though he had bitten down on a sore tooth. "And half for us."

Catherine, a successful barrister, vanishes from a train station on the eve of her anniversary. Is it because she saw a figure - someone she believed long dead? Or was it a shadow cast by her troubled, fractured mind?

The answer lies buried in the past. It lies in the events of the hot, seismic summer of 1989, at Vanes - a mysterious West Country manor house - where a young girl, Jane Lestrange, arrives to stay with the gilded, grand Hunter family, and where a devastating tragedy will unfold. Over the summer, as an ancient family ritual looms closer, Janey falls for each member of the family in turn. She and Kitty, the eldest daughter of the house, will forge a bond that decades later, is still shaping the present...

'We need the bees to survive, and they need us to survive. Once you understand that, you understand the history of Vanes, you understand our family.'"

It's been too long since I've read a Harriet Evans book. This will rectify that wrong!

Someone in Time edited by Jonathan Strahan
Published by: Solaris
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 420 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Anthology of inclusive tales of people through time looking for one another and for ways for the world to be better.

Even time travel can’t unravel love.

Time-travel is a way for writers to play with history and imagine different futures - for better, or worse.

When romance is thrown into the mix, time-travel becomes a passionate tool, or heart-breaking weapon. A time agent in the 22nd century puts their whole mission at risk when they fall in love with the wrong person. No matter which part of history a man visits, he cannot not escape his ex. A woman is desperately in love with the time-space continuum, but it doesn’t love her back. As time passes and falls apart, a time-traveller must say goodbye to their soulmate.

With stories from best-selling and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Alix E. Harrow and Nina Allan, this anthology gives a taste for the rich treasure trove of stories we can imagine with love, loss and reunion across time and space.

Including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan Coleman, Margo Lanagan, Sameem Siddiqui, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, Ellen Klages."

SO HERE for Zen Cho, among others!

Misrule by Heather Walter
Published by: Del Rey
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Does true love break curses or begin them? The dark sorceress of "Sleeping Beauty" reclaims her story in this sequel to Malice.

The Dark Grace is dead.

Feared and despised for the sinister power in her veins, Alyce wreaks her revenge on the kingdom that made her an outcast. Once a realm of decadence and beauty, Briar is now wholly Alyce’s wicked domain. And no one will escape the consequences of her wrath. Not even the one person who holds her heart.

Princess Aurora saw through Alyce’s thorny facade, earning a love that promised the dawn of a new age. But it is a love that came with a heavy price: Aurora now sleeps under a curse that even Alyce’s vast power cannot seem to break. And the dream of the world they would have built together is nothing but ash.

Alyce vows to do anything to wake the woman she loves, even if it means turning into the monster Briar believes her to be. But could Aurora love the villain Alyce has become?

Or is true love only for fairy tales?

Book Two of the Malice Duology."

I have been obsessed my whole life with anything to do with Sleeping Beauty!

Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron by Julia Quinn
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: HPaperback, 160 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes this irresistible treat, a charming and jaunty graphic novel, based on story snippets peppered throughout a number of her books. Originally mentioned in It’s in His Kiss - one of the Bridgerton novels which inspired the smash Netflix series Bridgerton - Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron is finally told here in its entirety for the first time.

A madcap romantic adventure, Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron has appeared in several Julia Quinn novels and enthralled some of her most beloved characters. Now this delicious tale of love and peril is available for everyone to enjoy in this wonderfully unconventional graphic novel.

Born into a happy family that is tragically ravaged by smallpox, Miss Priscilla Butterworth uses her wits to survive a series of outlandish trials. Cruelly separated from her beloved mother and grandmother, the young girl is sent to live with a callous aunt who forces her to work for her keep. Eventually, the clever and tenderhearted Miss Butterworth makes her escape...a daring journey into the unknown that unexpectedly leads her to the "mad" baron and a lifetime of love.

Delightfully illustrated by Violet Charles, told in Julia Quinn’s playful voice, Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron is a high-spirited nineteenth-century romp that will entertain and enchant modern readers."

Because after reading all the books, watching the show multiple times, what you need is a new book!

This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes
Published by: John Murray
Publication Date: May 10th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkey to the Cadbury's Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, Miriam Margoyles, OBE, is the nation's favourite (and naughtiest) treasure. Now, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story - and it's well worth the wait.

Find out how being conceived in an air-raid gave her curly hair; what pranks led to her being known as the naughtiest girl Oxford High School ever had; how she ended up posing nude for Augustus John as a teenager; why Bob Monkhouse was the best (male) kiss she's ever had; and what happened next after Warren Beatty asked 'Do you fuck?'

From declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave to being told to be quiet by the Queen, this book is packed with brilliant, hilarious stories. With a cast list stretching from Scorsese to Streisand, a cross-dressing Leonardo di Caprio to Isaiah Berlin, This Much Is True is as warm and honest, as full of life and surprises, as its inimitable author."

Fuck I love Miriam Margoyles!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Catherynne M. Valente, Chris Bohjalian, Harriet Evans, Heather Walter, Hollywood, Jason Rekulak, Julia Quinn, Margo Lanagan, Miriam Margolyes, Nghi Vo, Seanan McGuire, Sleeping Beauty, Theodora Goss, Zen Cho

The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig
Published by: NAL
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2009
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Charlotte has been waiting at Girdings for her knight in shining armor to come, just like those glorious murals on the walls depicting her ancestors bravely battling their foes on long forgotten battlefields or in the books she consumes copiously. She even has her own dragon with her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Dovedale. In fact, she's not the only one who would compare her grandmother to a fire-breathing monster, but no one would dare say that to her grandmother's face. Then on Christmas Eve, out of the snow, Robert returns. Fleeing the family home for India all those years ago, the Duke of Dovedale returns like a knight returning from a long crusade in the Holy Land. Charlotte instantly starts picturing her world in that special rose tinted way with a happy ending of hunting unicorns with jam tarts and kissing Robert in the sun, never mind it's bleak midwinter and her grandmother has surrounded her with rogues and dimwits in a final attempt to marry her off. The worst of the lot being Sir Francis Medmenham, descendant of the nefarious founder of the Hellfire Club. But why did Robert return? Is he here to court fair maiden? Or does he have darker designs... He has taken to Medmenham rather fast. The course of true love never ran smooth, especially when misunderstandings abound. If Robert had just talked to Charlotte maybe things would have gone better... Because Robert is out for revenge but he can't let the fair maiden know of his deceit. Breaking her heart for her own good, Robert sinks deeper into Medmenham's world while Charlotte is bustled off to court to wait on the Queen. But following a startling discovery and evidence that the King is going mad once again, Charlotte takes on her own adventure for King and Country. Could it be that Robert's nemesis and the men behind Charlotte's uncovered plot are connected? If only through libraries and boat rides and dark tunnels used for darker purposes Charlotte and Robert could work together and not fret about what ifs, might-have-beens, and almost kisses. Maybe they could save England.

If I were a fictional character who lived in Regency England, there is no doubt in my mind that I'd be Charlotte. During Lauren's Monthly Zoom Read Along I could see in the comments so many of the other bookish Pink fans were declaring how much they were like Charlotte. And I totally believe them. Who else but modern Charlottes would be geeking out over an author holding a monthly Zoom book club for a series that ended years and years ago? Though there is something I would disagree with. Everyone loved reading a book that had a character they so identified with. Me, not so much. See, I read books to escape. I like to read about other people and places, and yes, I get a kick out of it when I see someone who I can relate to, but the problem isn't relating to Charlotte, it is being her. I don't want to read a book about myself. And The Temptation of the Night Jasmine is the closest I've ever come to reading about myself. Now sadly a Robert hasn't shown up and there's a distinct lack of jam tarts at the moment but that is thankfully balanced by the lack of spies and Hellfire Clubs. Whenever I re-read the whole Pink Carnation series this is the book that is always my stumbling block. I just can't get into it because I'm not going away from myself but towards myself, if that makes sense. But at the same time this is a book that for one perfect moment I fell into so deeply I was literally in it. The first time I read The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, fall of 2008 if you're interested in knowing, I went full Thursday Next and fell into it. The scene in the book is right after dinner when Charlotte takes Robert up onto the roof of Girdings. The chill air, the friendly statuary, the kiss. I. WAS. THERE. It was beyond freaky. I usually never see action, even in my dreams, from my point of view, but as an outside observer, but there I was, fully in this book. I expected Robert to ask what I was doing there. Thankfully it didn't get that weird. But all these experiences mean I'm the most ambivalent about The Temptation of the Night Jasmine than any other Pink book... But that doesn't mean for an instant I don't love it. But like the love you have for an Aunt that can sometimes really annoy you. Oh, or the love you have for a dragon of a grandmother?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charlotte Lansdowne, Girdings, Hellfire Club, Lauren Willing, Pink Carnation Read Along, POV, Regency Romp, The Dowager Duchess of Dovedale, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, Thursday Next, Zoom

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: 1996
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

A cache of documents has been found. Could it be true that Jane Austen, that famous Regency writer, solved crimes when she wasn't writing her novels and sent the tales off to her nieces? Because that is what appears to be the case as Jane writes about what happened when she went to Scargrave Manor. Jane had just broken off her hastily made and even more hastily ended engagement to Harris Bigg-Wither. She had been lured in by the idea of a home and a family, but in the end realized that her and Harris Bigg-Wither would not suit. Needing to be elsewhere and not wanting the recriminations of her family Jane decides to visit her dear friend Isobel Payne. Jane and Isobel had became acquainted when the younger lady came to England from Barbados looking for a husband with her aunt and cousin in tow. She found a match in the older Earl of Scargrave. In fact they have just returned home from their honeymoon on the continent and are to have a lavish ball to celebrate their nuptials at their country seat. Jane arrives the night of the festivities, her friend seems happy, her new husband full of joy, but Isobel's husband takes a turn as the evening wears on. All assume it's just an attack of indigestion. He has seen a London doctor for a few years for his complaint. That doctor is summoned to the Earl's bedside and arrives in time to watch him die. How can Isobel be a widow in the early hours after her bridal ball? If all this wasn't bad enough, Isobel receives a poison pen letter saying that she did kill her husband because she is the lover of the new Earl, formerly the Viscount Payne! How could anyone say she was unfaithful to her husband with his heir? Yes, she secretly admits to Jane that they were in love, but she never acted on her feelings. But things look dire for the two. Yes, Jane could point the finger at George Hearst, the Earl's nephew who argued with him the night of his death, or Thomas Hearst, George's brother who was in a spot of bother. And what about Lord Harold Trowbridge? Arriving to torment Isobel because he wants her property in Barbados. There are too many suspects but only two with motive and means according to the law. So it is up to Jane to save her dear friend and find the real killer.

I find Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James very problematic. James obviously wanted to write a book on the oddities of Georgian and Regency law and quickly realized no one would want to read it so added a thin veneer of Jane Austen in order to trick us Janeites into reading her abysmal law treatise. If only she had done her research and realized her concept had been accomplished fifteen years prior far more successfully on every front, from understanding the trial process to actually making it about Jane Austen, by Stephanie Barron. Because a book about Jane Austen or her characters should be about her first and foremost and Stephanie got that. What amazes me is that Stephanie's long running series dropped at just the right time. America's obsession with Austen is dated firmly to 1996; Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility won all the awards, there were two versions of Emma, one on the small screen and one on the large, and who can forget Colin Firth and his wet shirt? Into this mix Stephanie Barron published her first Jane Austen mystery. So yes, I feel a little late to the party picking up the first book now, but at least this means I have a large back catalog to enjoy! Though it did take me awhile to warm to this murder mystery conceit. The bare bones are exactly the kind of book I dream of, a murder at a county estate during Christmas where everyone in the family is a suspect. But it took awhile to click because of two reasons; the footnotes and Austen's voice. So, this book has footnotes as part of the conceit that these events really happened to Jane and they are uncovered letters and journals. Therefore the footnotes are for clarity because in 1996 not many people were as Austen obsessed or Austen literate as now. So I found them intrusive and unnecessary, until I started to learn some interesting facts, so accepted them. As for Austen's voice, Barron perfectly captures it, it's just that where my brain was at when I started the book I wasn't sharp enough to enjoy it and therefore found it a hurdle that I had to overcome. But once the second murder happened it's like everything clicked into place. And I realized that it was the victim of the second crime that really did it for me because as I get older I have come to realize how much enjoyment I get out of the murder of uppity lady's maids. The Gilded Age really brought this home to me this year. In other words, kill the right person and I'm a happy camper.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Christmas, Colin Firth, Death Comes to Pemberley, Emma, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, Jane Austen, Lady's Maid, Murder, P.D. James, Regency Romp, Sense and Sensibility, Stephanie Barron

Book of Night by Holly Black
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black makes her stunning adult debut with Book of Night, a modern dark fantasy of betrayals, cabals, and a dissolute thief of shadows, in the vein of Neil Gaiman and Erin Morgenstern.

Charlie Hall has never found a lock she couldn’t pick, a book she couldn’t steal, or a bad decision she wouldn’t make.

She's spent half her life working for gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows to peer into locked rooms, strangle people in their beds, or worse. Gloamists guard their secrets greedily, creating an underground economy of grimoires. And to rob their fellow magicians, they need Charlie Hall.

Now, she’s trying to distance herself from past mistakes, but getting out isn’t easy. Bartending at a dive, she’s still entirely too close to the corrupt underbelly of the Berkshires. Not to mention that her sister Posey is desperate for magic, and that Charlie's shadowless, and possibly soulless, boyfriend has been hiding things from her. When a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie descends into a maelstrom of murder and lies.

Determined to survive, she’s up against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, gloamists, and the people she loves best in the world - all trying to steal a secret that will give them vast and terrible power."

Holly Black FINALLY making the jump to adult books!

Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire, Seasonal Fears is the extraordinary companion novel to Middlegame.

The king of winter and the queen of summer are dead. The fight for their crowns begins!

Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul.

Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world.

So, when a new road is laid out in front of them - a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together - walking down it seems to be the only option.

But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts.

It looks like Destiny has a plan for them, after all...."

Her third of at least five books this year... If she works a little harder we could probably get a book a month!

The Fanged and the Fae by Melissa Marr
Published by: MM Ink
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Paperback, 3284 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The three Faery Bargains novellas in a book length collection.

"Blood Martinis and Mistletoe" (Set after book 1)
Half-dead witch Genevi ve Crowe makes her living beheading the dead - and spends her free time trying not to get too attached to her business partner, Eli Stonecroft, a faery prince in self-imposed exile in New Orleans.

A walking-dead relative and a deadly but well-paying job make the holidays a lot more complicated than anyone needs. With a killer at her throat and a blood martini in her hand, Genevi ve accepts what seems like a straight-forward faery bargain. Eli's terms might make the holidays a little more bearable, but if she can't figure out a way to escape this faery bargain, she'll be planning a wedding soon.

"Daiquiris and Daggers" (Set after book 2)
A fun spa weekend away with friends in a city free of monsters, what could be better? Gen's necromancy had been on the fritz, so a recharge sounds perfect - until she arrives in San Diego to discover that either the spa is too steps beyond weird or there's magic afoot

"Champagne and Commitments" (Set right before book 3)
Bonded for eternity isn't enough for family and friends - or her future citizens. It's time to plan a wedding ceremony. Unfortunately there isn't enough champagne available to deal with an undead-great-grandmother, a faery king who's trying to romance Gen's assistant, and a city where Halloween is a holiday worth dying to enjoy."

We are being SPOILED for Melissa Marr content right now!

Heroic Hearts edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
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The official patter:
"An all-star urban fantasy collection featuring short stories from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, and more...

In this short story collection of courage, adventure, and magic, heroes - ordinary people who do the right thing - bravely step forward.

But running toward danger might cost them everything....

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s “Little Things,” the pixie Toot-Toot discovers an invader unbeknownst to the wizard Harry Dresden...and in order to defeat it, he’ll have to team up with the dread cat Mister.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs’s “Dating Terrors,” the werewolf Asil finds an online date might just turn into something more - if she can escape the dark magic binding her.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s “The Return of the Mage,” the Britlingen mercenaries will discover more than they’ve bargained for when they answer the call of a distress beacon on a strange and remote world.

And in #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s “Comfort Zone,” the necromancer Chloe Saunders and the werewolf Derek Souza are just trying to get through college. But they can’t refuse a ghost pleading for help.

ALSO INCLUDES STORIES BY Annie Bellet * Anne Bishop * Jennifer Brozek * Kevin Hearne * Nancy Holder * Kerrie L. Hughes * Chloe Neill * R.R. Virdi."

What with Soul Taken being pushed back, get your Patricia Briggs fix here with Asil on ANOTHER blind date!

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero
Published by: Peachtree Teen
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Magic will burn you up.

Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez - a biracial Jewish girl - finds herself torn between her dream of becoming a violinist and her immigrant parents’ desire for her to pursue a more stable career.

When she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth.

But Benjamin isn't the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her and the music she plays. He offers to share his magic, so Ilana can be with Benjamin and pursue her passion for violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him - forever.

With spellbinding verse prose, R.M. Romero channels the spirit of myth into a brilliantly original tale, inspired by her experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe."

Here for the magic of Prague and history.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
Published by: Vintage
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
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The official patter:
"A summer house party turns into a thrilling whodunit when Jane Austen's Mr. Wickham - one of literature’s most notorious villains - meets a sudden and suspicious end in this brilliantly imagined mystery featuring Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a party at their country estate, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances - characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered - except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In this tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party - before an innocent person is sentenced to hang."

I'm here for any story the bumps off Mr. Wickham!

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches...

During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears - but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark the doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom."

Name check two of my favorite books and throw in The Exorcist and I am SOLD!

Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When a crime on a beautiful Italian island stumps the police, locals turn to the trusted elderly widow Nonna Maria in this transporting mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra, "one of the all-time greats" (Jeffery Deaver).

Nonna Maria has lived on Ischia, an island in the Gulf of Naples, her entire life. Recognizable by the widow’s black she’s worn every day for decades, she always has pasta on the stove and espresso in the pot for the neighbors who stop by to ask her advice on life and love. Everyone knows her, and she knows everyone’s business. So if something goes wrong, islanders look to her, not the local carabinieri, to find the solution.

When a recently engaged woman confesses that she’s afraid her fiancé, a stranger to Ischia with a murky past, might not be who he seems, Nonna Maria helps her disappear so she can investigate the true nature of her betrothed. The stranger has also raised the suspicions of Captain Murino of the carabinieri, but he’s occupied investigating the death of a tour boat captain who drowned in the wee hours of the morning. Captain Murino believes it was an accident, but Nonna Maria knows the man was a born sailor and too good a swimmer to drown, no matter how much wine he might have drunk. While Captain Murino has his hands full, she pours herself a glass of white wine and gets to work, even though getting involved will expose her to the dangers lurking just beneath the surface of her idyllic home."

Because everyone needs a good Italian crime story every once in awhile.

Idle Gossip by Renee Patrick
Published by: Severn House Publishers
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Gossip columnist Lorna Whitcomb knows every dirty secret in Hollywood...except who killed her tipster. Sleuthing duo Lillian Frost and Edith Head investigate in this head-turning mystery.

1940, Los Angeles. Hollywood's famous gossip columnist, Lorna Whitcomb, has summoned Lillian Frost and her sleuthing partner, costume designer extraordinaire Edith Head, to her office. Lorna's 'leg man' Sam Simcoe - the man who finds the scandalous material for her column - is in trouble. Tipster Glenn Hoyle has been murdered, and Sam is the LAPD's only suspect. But Sam didn't just find Glenn's body when he paid him a visit. Hiding in a wastebasket was a list of three names - a starlet, a producer and a director - and Sam's sure Glenn had an explosive story on all of them. Was it just idle gossip, or could it explain his murder?

Lorna wants Edith and Lillian to find Glenn's killer before her powerful enemies strike. In a town full of secrets, Edith and Lillian must expose the dirtiest one of all: who killed Glenn Hoyle?"

ALWAYS here for Edith Head!

When She Dreams by Amanda Quick
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Return to 1930s Burning Cove, California, the glamorous seaside playground for Hollywood stars, mobsters, spies, and a host of others who find more than they bargain for in this mysterious town.

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client, but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

In spite of the verbal fireworks between them, they are fiercely attracted to each other, but each is convinced it would be a mistake to let passion take over. They are, after all, keeping secrets from each other. Sam is haunted by his past, which includes a marriage shattered by betrayal and violence. Maggie is troubled by intense and vivid dreams - dreams that she can sometimes control. There are those who want to run experiments on her and use her for their own purposes, while others think she should be committed to an asylum.

When the pair discovers someone is impersonating Aunt Cornelia at a conference on psychic dreaming and a woman dies at the conference, the door is opened to a dangerous web of blackmail and murder. Secrets from the past are revealed, leaving Maggie and Sam in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance."

I wish I could live in 1930s California, at least I can through literature!

The Patient by Jane Shemilt
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A shocking and twisty novel of psychological suspense about a boundary-breaking love affair between a doctor and her patient, by Jane Shemilt, Edgar-nominated, #1 international bestselling author of The Daughter.

What price would you pay for falling in love?

Rachel is a respected doctor who lives in a picturesque and affluent English village where her husband Nathan teaches at an elite private school. Competent, unflappable, and nearing 50, Rachel has everything in her life firmly in her control, even if some of its early luster has worn off. But one day a new patient arrives at her practice for emergency treatment. Luc is a French painter married to a wealthy American woman who’s just bought and restored a historic home on the edge of Rachel’s posh neighborhood. The couple has only recently arrived, but Luc is struggling with a mental disorder, and so he goes to the nearest clinic…to Rachel.

Their attraction is instant, and as Rachel’s sense of ethics wars with newly awakened passion, the affair blinds her to everything else happening around her. A longtime patient appears to be following her every movement, turning up unexpectedly wherever she goes. Her somewhat estranged adult daughter Lizzie is hiding a secret - or at least, hiding it from Rachel. Nathan has grown sour and cold as well - or is that merely Rachel’s guilty conscience weighing on her? But when one of her colleagues winds up murdered and Luc is arrested for the crime, everything Rachel didn’t know about her life explodes into the open - along with her affair with her patient - a disgrace and scandal that will have consequences no one could have predicted."

The doctor patient relationship is always one worth exploring psychologically.

22 Seconds by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Published by: Little, Brown and Company
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"22 seconds...until Lindsay Boxer loses her badge - or her life.

SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has guns on her mind.

There’s buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home.

Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies:

You talk, you die.

Now it’s Lindsay’s turn to choose."

New Women's Murder Club!

Breathless by Amy McCulloch
Published by: Anchor
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A high-altitude thriller that will take your breath away - Cecily Wong is on her most dangerous climb yet, miles above sea level. But the elements are nothing compared to one chilling truth: There's a killer on the mountain.

There’s a killer on the mountain...

Journalist Cecily Wong is in over her head. She’s come to Manaslu, the eighth-highest peak in the world, to interview internationally famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh on the last leg of a record-breaking series of summits. She’s given up everything for this story - her boyfriend, her life savings, the peace she’s made with her climbing failures in the past - but it’s a career-making opportunity. It could finally put her life back on track.

But when one climber dies in what everyone else assumes is a freak accident, she fears their expedition is in danger. And by the time a second climber dies, it’s too late to turn back. Stranded on a mountain in one of the most remote regions of the world, she’ll have to battle more than the elements in a harrowing fight for survival against a killer who is picking them off one by one."

This takes the stranded in the snow with a killer to the next level. Literally.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amanda Quick, Amy McCulloch, Claudia Gray, Edith Head, Holly Black, Isabel Cañas, James Patterson, Jane Shemilt, Jim Butcher, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Melissa Marr, Patricia Briggs, R.M. Romero, Seanan McGuire

Ivy and Intrigue: A Very Selwick Christmas by Lauren Willig
Publication Date: August 28th, 2011
Format: Paperback, 112
Rating: ★★★★★
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It's been nine months since Richard Selwick was unmasked as the Purple Gentian and he fled France in the arms of his lady love Amy Balcourt. Nine months away from the action and rusticating with the new missus. Nine months in which the newlywed sheen has dulled just a little under the stresses of the everyday, not to mention the pressures of family and the holidays. Amy and Richard are celebrating their first Christmas together at Uppington Hall with both their families and surprisingly Richard's ex Deirdre. The Deirdre who had sonnets written to her and who was Richard's first love. The Deirdre that resulted in Tony's death due to her unscrupulous lady's maid. Of course her presence is more for Lady Uppington's benefit, to knock Deirdre's nose out of joint and show off her new daughter-in-law Amy, but still, she is one more stress. Especially once the snow strands her at Uppington Hall. Deirdre is the embodiment of all that Richard left behind, all that he was forced to give up because of Amy. If it wasn't for her Richard would still be a romantic hero. While standing nearby Richard's thoughts are veering along the same lines, that it was he who cut short Amy's potential as a super spy, the potential that Jane took and made a reputation of as the Pink Carnation. If he let Amy go back to France could she be happy? He knows he wouldn't be but at least they both wouldn't be miserable. Can these two sort through their holiday misunderstandings and do what they do best, work as a couple? Or will French spies once more try to thwart their chance at happily ever after?

In this cute little Christmas novella full of Yuletide charm we get to catch up with those Selwicks we know and love. As Lauren has said, this is her A Very Brady Christmas without anybody being trapped in the debris of a building. Yes, for some reason the building collapse is all I really remember from the TV movie. But what this novella does so wonderfully is give of a sweet story, sweet revenge that is, while also doing a "where are they now" roll call. Because there were loose ends that needed tying up as the series moved away from the set cast of characters we know and love and moved on to deeper and darker plot developments. Plus, Amy and Richard, more than any other couple in this series, really are just thrown into their happily ever after and sail off into the sunset, while at the same time ignoring that they both kind of ruined what they were best at for the other, spying. So yes, they run the spy school, but they haven't really felt it's importance until Jane mentions the need for Miss Grey. What's more, when one of their working weekends ruined Henrietta's reputation and Richard and Miles's friendship... Well, those are loose ends that need to be mended. And I loved that Richard and Miles are slowly bridging the gap back to how they were before Miles and Hen's precipitous marriage. Also seeing Uppington Hall, first through the eyes of Eloise, and then through her Regency heroes', made for a lovely Christmas treat, not to mention, Richard swinging from the chandelier in his best Errol Flynn imitation a hundred years before Errol Flynn, a move that Eloise would love to have seen. Ah, what's Christmas without a little chandelier swinging and an ex in custody?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Very Brady Christmas, A Very Selwick Christmas, Amy Balcourt, Christmas, Errol Flynn, Ivy and Intrigue, Lauren Willig, Novella, Regency Romp, Richard Selwick, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: December 5th, 2000
Format: Kindle, 1053 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Sophie Beckett's life was never going to be a fairy tale. She was born illegitimate and unwanted. Yes, her father touted her as his "ward" in order to give her a semblance of respectability, but when he married, his new wife did everything in her power to grind Sophie down. After his death Sophie became nothing more than a servant to those who should have loved and cared for her. Her only joy in life is reading Whistledown and dreaming of the world right outside her door. The parties in ballrooms throughout London where it seems anything could happen. A life she will never be a part of, until the other servants concoct a scheme for Sophie to attend Lady Bridgerton's masked ball. In spangles and silver she enchants all those who see her. But she instantly captures the heart of Benedict Bridgerton, as he does hers. At midnight she flees, never to see that ballroom or Benedict again, or so she thinks. Her life will have to be bearable with the memory of this one perfect night. But then her stepmother discovers her deceit and throws her out onto the street. With nowhere to go she flees to the country and eventually ends up working as a maid in a country house. It's not ideal. She sells her hair for money and loses too much weight, she's unrecognizable to even herself, but she is making do until her master's son and his friends attempt to assault her and she flees right into the arms of Benedict. Benedict has been looking for the mysterious lady from the ball for years. She is the only one he wants to marry and yet she is elusive. The girl he rescues from some louts at a house party is sweet, but not the woman of his dreams. Or is she? As Sophie nurses Benedict back to health after he takes ill after a long ride in the rain, he starts to wonder if perhaps a real flesh and blood girl is better than a figment of his imagination that he has been embellishing for years. The only problem is her station in life. Can they overcome society and a scheming stepmama to get a chance at a happy ending?

Benedict Bridgerton is the apotheosis of white male privilege. He is toxic masculinity hiding behind a veneer of savior complex. Oh, look, he has a rock from the day his dad died, boo hoo, does that humanize him as he tries to defile a woman of a lower station? NO! I just couldn't with Benedict. He is not a romantic hero, he is an ass who is totally incapable of empathy. He can not see that by forcing Sophie to take him as her lover he is destroying her heart and soul. She is incapable of saying no because she is deluded enough to think that she loves him. A delusion born of a time when he thought her his equal and therefore treated her as such. Now that she is "below" him he thinks nothing of taking her to bed despite the very real consequences that could happen. He doesn't get how having a child out of wedlock would destroy her. He just doesn't get it because he is a white man and everything has always gone his way. Consequences are for other people, not him. Oh, how I hated him. I wanted to claw out his eyes. Every interaction he had with Sophie made my skin crawl. And she just takes it. She puts up with his bullshit because, sadly, his bullshit is less horrific than the other bullshit she had to deal with in this very inadequate reimaging of Cinderella. Here's the thing, I think everyone out there, if they know one fairy tale, they know Cinderella. It's like genetically coded into humankind of something. Therefore when it is reinterpreted it really has to get it right because every single one of us has expectations born of genetic knowledge. In my mind there are literally only two that work, the film Ever After, and the book Cinder by Marissa Meyer. That is it. There are no others. The Viscount Who Loved Me doesn't even chart. There is no depth, no truths brought forward by seeing the story in another light, there is just an asshole "prince" who forces himself on his "true love" and I guess they have a happily ever after. Personally if I had to be in a room with Benedict for more than a minute I would not be a happy camper. Lucky for Benedict that Sophie isn't that picky.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An Offer From a Gentleman, Benedict Bridgerton, Bridgerton, Cinder, Cinderella, Ever After, Fairy Tale Retelling, Julia Quinn, Lady Whistledown, Marissa Meyer, Regency England, Regency Romp, Toxic Masculinity