lady_ragnell (
lady_ragnell) wrote2023-09-28 01:06 pm
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2023 Books, Post 12
Slowed back down again! September has been a VERY busy month, and October and November are looking much the same, so we'll see what my book totals start looking like. Plus I have several difficult categories remaining for my book bingo with 3/4 of the year gone, whoops! I really need to get going on that.
The Way Home by Peter S. Beagle
I'd read half of this one before, the novelette sequel to The Last Unicorn, about the characters from the book several decades later and through the eyes of a village girl. I liked that half, melancholy as it was. The second half, which was a sequel to the first novelette but not really to the book, was ... more uneven, for me. For one thing, huge content warning for rape, it comes out of absolutely nowhere, lasts less than a page, and overall is handled without much grace. For another, it didn't really feel like the sequel that I was excited to read at the end of the first novelette. To the good, it was a cool Tam Lin-type story, in some ways, and focused on finding the heroine's sister, and I love sisters in fiction, plus there's another character I really enjoyed. But yeah, it was a bit weird and I overall wished it were other than what it was.
Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard
Continuing my lazy way through Goddard's works. The middle half of this book worked well for me, overall. I really liked the two main characters coming to know each other and themselves, and helping each other in those tasks. The first and last quarters weren't as good for me (in the first, I was having trouble finding a way into the story, and in the last, the future emperor showed up and--well, more on that in a moment), but the middle half at least left me feeling fond of it! However, and this was also the problem with "In the Company of Gentlemen," the related short story I also read in this batch but didn't record, Goddard really does write like you should know all these characters and events, like this is all fanfic of a canon everyone reading is likely to be familiar with. When the future emperor literally drops out of the sky onto the book's main characters, you're supposed to be delighted, and I wasn't (in part because "incredibly naive and yet somehow also incredibly competent and having an Innocently Marvelous Time" is largely not a character type that works for me), I just sighed over the abrupt derailment of the sweet slow love story I was reading. I just really wish Goddard, if she's going to give us a big sprawling canon, would do a bit more of the work of not assuming we already know or care about things. I like Goddard! It's just that what works for me in The Hands of the Emperor (in this case, the sense that this is a defensive fanfic epic for an unfairly fanon-maligned canon character) doesn't work for me always, and didn't here.
For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes
I'd seen this recced around, and was delighted to find it on my library's ebook service! A sweet and kinky romance with a trans heroine. The kinks therein aren't necessarily mine, but Aimes handled them really well, and handled the backstories of the characters with sensitivity and care, as well as their growing relationship. It's not so much a light and fluffy romance novel, but if you're in the mood for something angsty and kinky, I highly recommend! Warnings for past abusive relationships, with kink included in the abuse, and also specifically for the hero having fucked up big on that front (more explicitly, his inexperience as a dom led to him doing a 24/7 arrangement with his ex with no safeword set up so when she stopped having fun she had no way of letting him know. It is treated seriously and he is given a chance to learn and grow).
A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin
A pretty good romance novel that I remember nearly nothing about a few weeks later! More in the modern-Heyer vein of no-heat yes-banter romances, if that's a subgenre that works for you. There were some antics, the main couple had decent chemistry, and the book was consistently honest about how the heroine was a fortune hunter, but that she did not have any other options if she wanted to keep a roof over her and her sisters' heads. It was refreshing! The more I remember details the more I think it was actually really a very nicely done book, it just absolutely did not sink in for whatever reason. Make of that what you will!
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
I can't remember what list I found this on, but it sounded interesting and I realized it fulfilled my "set south of the equator" square for book bingo, so I was delighted when it was on my library ebook service! A dystopian YA novel set in a future city in Brazil, where women largely rule, and kings are elected and, with their deaths, choose the next queens, with an interesting sideline on how hard it is to learn and grow and succeed in a world where people are regularly living to and past 200 years old. There's a lot going on in this one! The heroine is interesting and difficult to like in the best ways, there are realistic teenage relationships and friendships, and some cool stuff about the city sort of having a consciousness and body modifications that allow interface with it. It was frequently rather brutal for my taste, but I liked it a lot, and it handled the concept of a world where people regularly live 200+ years way better than Kim Stanley Robinson did, in my opinion.
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
I feel like this one has to have been written in part in response to that thriller poster that twitter went wild about a couple years ago, with the woman pressing the man against the wall. Like, that scene doesn't happen here, but there are absolutely places that it's the vibe. Anyway, this one is really interesting! Once again, a heroine who is at times difficult to like, but in a way I enjoyed, and in a way that felt realistic. There were parts towards the end that didn't work as well for me, but largely, this was an interesting and rather grave romance, and I may read more from Grant sometime, when I'm in that mood.
The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson
A fun mystery, focused around the concept that, basically, there was another mystery writer in the 30s who was a rival to Christie and whose sleuth was, essentially, Phryne Fisher, where the three women who have or are about to play her on screen are at a fan convention where a murder occurs. This one was a fun romp and quite meta, and if the implied sequel comes, I shall probably read it! Not much to say about it, though, just a fun way to spend a day or two, I read the majority during a power outage and it was a perfect companion.
Nobody's Princess by Erica Ridley
Continuing to have fun with Ridley's series of, essentially, Regency Leverage! This one was very good, I liked the relationship arc and how the various conflicts got resolved here. I never have much to say about Ridley's books, despite enjoying them while I read them! They are fun, and they do not need to be anything besides that for me to keep on with them.
Princess Princess Ever After by Kay O'Neill
A sugar-sweet graphic novelette that I think I'd read at least most of in webcomic form at some point! It's a nice little story, and one I think I would specifically love to put in the hands of my younger self in about the fourth or fifth grade, when I was in that drifting middle space between fairy tales and Robin McKinley readalouds and the Tortall books. As an adult, it was mostly a little half-hour palate cleanser, but I enjoyed it!
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
A book of short stories inspired by fairy tales, which was overall lovely and atmospheric, if not necessarily to my taste in places (which is fully on me, it's just a bit more literary than I tend to prefer, this is not meant as a backhanded compliment at Link, who is clearly a master of her craft). My favorite was the most fairy-tale-ish one, inspired by Janet and Tam Lin, though I was also delighted by the first story, because White Cat's Castle/Puddocky is a vastly underadapted tale-type, so I was glad to see it here, even if it went off my taste towards the end at least a bit. Still, if you like fairy tale short stories and the more Weird And Literary side of those retellings, give this collection a try! If you've read and enjoyed one of Helen Oyeyemi's fairy tale retellings, it's that vibe.
And that's all for this time! My TBR shelves are absolutely groaning right now, so I'm hoping I can speed up a little bit again soon, but we'll see how it goes.
The Way Home by Peter S. Beagle
I'd read half of this one before, the novelette sequel to The Last Unicorn, about the characters from the book several decades later and through the eyes of a village girl. I liked that half, melancholy as it was. The second half, which was a sequel to the first novelette but not really to the book, was ... more uneven, for me. For one thing, huge content warning for rape, it comes out of absolutely nowhere, lasts less than a page, and overall is handled without much grace. For another, it didn't really feel like the sequel that I was excited to read at the end of the first novelette. To the good, it was a cool Tam Lin-type story, in some ways, and focused on finding the heroine's sister, and I love sisters in fiction, plus there's another character I really enjoyed. But yeah, it was a bit weird and I overall wished it were other than what it was.
Derring-Do for Beginners by Victoria Goddard
Continuing my lazy way through Goddard's works. The middle half of this book worked well for me, overall. I really liked the two main characters coming to know each other and themselves, and helping each other in those tasks. The first and last quarters weren't as good for me (in the first, I was having trouble finding a way into the story, and in the last, the future emperor showed up and--well, more on that in a moment), but the middle half at least left me feeling fond of it! However, and this was also the problem with "In the Company of Gentlemen," the related short story I also read in this batch but didn't record, Goddard really does write like you should know all these characters and events, like this is all fanfic of a canon everyone reading is likely to be familiar with. When the future emperor literally drops out of the sky onto the book's main characters, you're supposed to be delighted, and I wasn't (in part because "incredibly naive and yet somehow also incredibly competent and having an Innocently Marvelous Time" is largely not a character type that works for me), I just sighed over the abrupt derailment of the sweet slow love story I was reading. I just really wish Goddard, if she's going to give us a big sprawling canon, would do a bit more of the work of not assuming we already know or care about things. I like Goddard! It's just that what works for me in The Hands of the Emperor (in this case, the sense that this is a defensive fanfic epic for an unfairly fanon-maligned canon character) doesn't work for me always, and didn't here.
For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes
I'd seen this recced around, and was delighted to find it on my library's ebook service! A sweet and kinky romance with a trans heroine. The kinks therein aren't necessarily mine, but Aimes handled them really well, and handled the backstories of the characters with sensitivity and care, as well as their growing relationship. It's not so much a light and fluffy romance novel, but if you're in the mood for something angsty and kinky, I highly recommend! Warnings for past abusive relationships, with kink included in the abuse, and also specifically for the hero having fucked up big on that front (more explicitly, his inexperience as a dom led to him doing a 24/7 arrangement with his ex with no safeword set up so when she stopped having fun she had no way of letting him know. It is treated seriously and he is given a chance to learn and grow).
A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin
A pretty good romance novel that I remember nearly nothing about a few weeks later! More in the modern-Heyer vein of no-heat yes-banter romances, if that's a subgenre that works for you. There were some antics, the main couple had decent chemistry, and the book was consistently honest about how the heroine was a fortune hunter, but that she did not have any other options if she wanted to keep a roof over her and her sisters' heads. It was refreshing! The more I remember details the more I think it was actually really a very nicely done book, it just absolutely did not sink in for whatever reason. Make of that what you will!
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
I can't remember what list I found this on, but it sounded interesting and I realized it fulfilled my "set south of the equator" square for book bingo, so I was delighted when it was on my library ebook service! A dystopian YA novel set in a future city in Brazil, where women largely rule, and kings are elected and, with their deaths, choose the next queens, with an interesting sideline on how hard it is to learn and grow and succeed in a world where people are regularly living to and past 200 years old. There's a lot going on in this one! The heroine is interesting and difficult to like in the best ways, there are realistic teenage relationships and friendships, and some cool stuff about the city sort of having a consciousness and body modifications that allow interface with it. It was frequently rather brutal for my taste, but I liked it a lot, and it handled the concept of a world where people regularly live 200+ years way better than Kim Stanley Robinson did, in my opinion.
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
I feel like this one has to have been written in part in response to that thriller poster that twitter went wild about a couple years ago, with the woman pressing the man against the wall. Like, that scene doesn't happen here, but there are absolutely places that it's the vibe. Anyway, this one is really interesting! Once again, a heroine who is at times difficult to like, but in a way I enjoyed, and in a way that felt realistic. There were parts towards the end that didn't work as well for me, but largely, this was an interesting and rather grave romance, and I may read more from Grant sometime, when I'm in that mood.
The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson
A fun mystery, focused around the concept that, basically, there was another mystery writer in the 30s who was a rival to Christie and whose sleuth was, essentially, Phryne Fisher, where the three women who have or are about to play her on screen are at a fan convention where a murder occurs. This one was a fun romp and quite meta, and if the implied sequel comes, I shall probably read it! Not much to say about it, though, just a fun way to spend a day or two, I read the majority during a power outage and it was a perfect companion.
Nobody's Princess by Erica Ridley
Continuing to have fun with Ridley's series of, essentially, Regency Leverage! This one was very good, I liked the relationship arc and how the various conflicts got resolved here. I never have much to say about Ridley's books, despite enjoying them while I read them! They are fun, and they do not need to be anything besides that for me to keep on with them.
Princess Princess Ever After by Kay O'Neill
A sugar-sweet graphic novelette that I think I'd read at least most of in webcomic form at some point! It's a nice little story, and one I think I would specifically love to put in the hands of my younger self in about the fourth or fifth grade, when I was in that drifting middle space between fairy tales and Robin McKinley readalouds and the Tortall books. As an adult, it was mostly a little half-hour palate cleanser, but I enjoyed it!
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
A book of short stories inspired by fairy tales, which was overall lovely and atmospheric, if not necessarily to my taste in places (which is fully on me, it's just a bit more literary than I tend to prefer, this is not meant as a backhanded compliment at Link, who is clearly a master of her craft). My favorite was the most fairy-tale-ish one, inspired by Janet and Tam Lin, though I was also delighted by the first story, because White Cat's Castle/Puddocky is a vastly underadapted tale-type, so I was glad to see it here, even if it went off my taste towards the end at least a bit. Still, if you like fairy tale short stories and the more Weird And Literary side of those retellings, give this collection a try! If you've read and enjoyed one of Helen Oyeyemi's fairy tale retellings, it's that vibe.
And that's all for this time! My TBR shelves are absolutely groaning right now, so I'm hoping I can speed up a little bit again soon, but we'll see how it goes.
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Oooh, Regency Leverage, you say? That is Very Intriguing to me. :D
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And yes, the Wild Wynchesters series! Because they're romances, they tend to focus more on that than on the cons, but there are definitely Leverage Jobs going on at least in the background. If you want some Regency candyfloss with a Leverage vibe, you can't go wrong with them.
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