3 stars I received an ARC from Netgalley. Although I mostly love the books of Janna MacGregor, this series, Widow Rules, has been a disappointment. I gave the last book three stars; this was marginally better. Aside from the concept issues I mentioned in A Duke in Time, this particular book was missing something. I wish I could pinpoint what it was. While MacGregor does an adequate job of conveying Jonathan’s inner turmoil, I never quite connected with it. Constance, the perfect name for this character, is one of the widows of Meriwether, but has always been in love with Jonathan. Not sure exactly why she married Meriwether, but it did allow a good excuse for her to be pregnant, thus forcing Jonathan to push past his hesitancies to allow love into his life. His reluctance to allow anyone to get close to him only serves to highlight the importance of sharing our burdens with friends and family. Had he done so sooner, he might have avoided a lot of pain. Of course, Constance makes the same mistake, the difference being, she doesn’t allow her conflicts to interfere with her personal relationships. Nevertheless, both could have saved a lot of aggravation if they’d simply shared their troubles. Jonathan is described as a male version of Ms. Havisham (Great Expectations). Even his study is much like I imagined her parlor—curtains drawn, everything dusty and in disarray, basically closed off to the world and frozen in time. And when Constance first sees him, after a year apart, she thinks, “He looked like a hermit who’d found his way out of the woods after being lost for a year.” Luckily, he has a busybody butler who has been with his family since before he was born, and Mr. North doesn’t allow Jonathan to wallow as much as he might like. Which brings me to my favorite character: Mr. North. He cares for Jonathan and oversteps the bounds of a servant to bring Jonathan the love he so desperately needs. The banter between them is definitely a highlight of this story, as North continually pushes Jonathan to do better. When Constance first arrives at Jonathan’s estate, North tells her something Jonathan does which the household discourages. “The solicitous hum in his voice reminded Jonathan of a teacher’s pet currying favor by tattling on another.” During an argument: “Jonathan didn’t need to point out that he was the earl and North was the butler. It never made any difference.” Later, while discussing Jonathan’s newly-cleaned office, North comments, “Everyone is aware you prefer the putrid smell of powder burns mixed with dog.” Finally, during one argument, in which Jonathan accuses North of being an ill-bred haggard: “Don't you have responsibilities besides aggravating me?” Jonathan growled. North smiled demurely. “Of course, sir. Even ill-bred haggard butlers know their duties. It's to remind the dunderheaded lords of the manor what their responsibilities are.” Jonathan There were some really great descriptions of Jonathan’s walls coming down in the face of Constance’s persistent coaxing He observes Constance and thinks this: “Constance glided into the room with her unique, brilliant smile. It reminded him of an unwanted ray of sunshine interrupting a perfect morning sleep. Neither knew when they weren’t wanted.” When she tells him how desirable she finds him (despite his gnarled, lame leg), “Her words blasted a new hole in his heart, but the fickle organ mended itself immediately and started pounding against his ribs trying to reach her.” Still, he tries to fight the pull. He petulantly thinks, “She made people happy. He didn’t like it one bit.” Some problems: Near the end of the story, the narrator mentions that Constance danced with James Sewell, as if the reader should know who that is. However, this particular character is mentioned nowhere else in the story, so some context would have been helpful. And although this phrase only appeared twice throughout the book, it was unusual enough that it caught my eye and caused me to do a word search: “Then and there, Jonathan decided…” Maybe it’s because “then and there” wasn’t really necessary to tell the story, but there was something sophomoric about it. I expect better from Janna MacGregor. Will I read the next book in the series? Hope springs eternal so, yes. June 22, 2022
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5 stars After reading A Reckless Match, I couldn’t wait to read Carys and Tristan’s story. I received an ARC from Netgalley and absolutely loved this book, #2 in the Ruthless Rivals series. Carys is a force of nature, a fiery redhead with a flamboyant and impetuous nature. Tristan is pretty much the opposite of that. Plus the Davies and Montgomerys are sworn enemies, never mind that Tristan’s sister and Carys’ brother recently married. Carys is so much fun, but I think one of the things I liked most was her outrageous sartorial choices. Her outfit in the opening scene is memorable for the details described. “Her own outfit was still the most remarkable. The sheer white fabric left one shoulder bare and draped, Grecian-style, diagonally across her body before flowing in liquid pleats to the floor. The wide silver belt encircling her waist matched the quiver of arrows on her back, and the crescent moon that nestled in her hair surrounded by a galaxy of bobbing silvery stars. It was the transparency of the material that had everyone whispering behind their fans…” In short, “Her dress was as sheer as a whisper, as if Botticelli’s Venus had stepped out of her giant shell and donned a chemise made of spiderwebs.” Carys had a bad experience and decided she does not wish to marry. Rather than remaining a burden on her brother, she is considering marriage to a man who poses no risk to her, but I don't want to spoil why. Still, she wonders whether there’s any reason to want what marriage has to offer. “...logically she understood that making love couldn’t be unpleasant for everyone. Having listened to her brothers’ ribald comments on the subject, she was quite sure men enjoyed it. Then again, men seemed to enjoy plenty of unpleasant things, like chasing foxes and bludgeoning fish on the head, and getting so drunk they vomited in flowerpots, so their opinion hardly seemed reliable.” Carys is inordinately pleased whenever she can make Tristan lose control, because he is so tightly wound. She loves to taunt him, but he also enjoy teasing her. After a shared kiss “...she was pleased to notice that while his cravat was still impeccable, she’d managed to disrupt the perfection of his hair. A tiny tuft was sticking out in the wrong direction, just behind his ear. It seemed like a small but important victory.” Because they have so convinced everyone that they are enemies, no one thinks anything of them spending time alone. They’re neighbors and have known each other all of their lives. Tristan asks Carys to walk with him and she asks, “Won’t it cause speculation, if we disappear off into the woods together.” He responds, “Not the kind you mean. They’ll think one of us is luring the other into the forest for a spot of murder. Lots of places to hide a body around here.” Naturally, they fall in love, but each is determined to hide their feelings. Carys is quicker to realize she loves Tristan and decides she must hide it at all costs. Tristan takes longer to realize it, fighting it every step of the way, until he finally acknowledges that it has always been Carys who he has imagined as his wife. Then, he can’t keep it to himself. The plot is fun, the characters are interesting, and the banter is amusing. All in all, it’s a great book and I recommend it. I think Morgan and Harriett are next, and I’m looking forward to it. June 21, 2022 3 stars I think I’ve given every other book in this series five stars. I received an ARC because I’m a fan of Emma Lombard. I’ve enjoyed reading about the adventures of Silas and Grace, and their family. Peripheral characters were interesting, but I didn’t feel a burning need to read any books about them. That said, if I were offered an ARC, I’m sure I’d be happy to read such a book because I know it would be good. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for this one. As always, Lombard’s attention to historical details is impressive, and that’s part of the reason I’ve bumped my rating from two to three stars. The writing is good with some wonderful metaphors. In her attempt to feature all of the extras from the White Sails series, Ms. Lombard has included mini-stories, with a chapter dedicated to each character and where they are ten years after the last book in the series. I didn’t remember a lot of the details associated with each of them, and although Lombard did an adequate job of reminding me, it didn’t make me care a whole lot more. Worse though, there was no true resolution of their current problems. The only chapter I really liked was the one devoted to Wee Granny Mac and Old Quill, and maybe that’s because there was a resolution. There were also some great visuals. “Old Quill’s snowy brows clashed together like two ancient maggots at war.” Describing the warm night: “...hot air lay across her like a second skin, slick skin…” These two have the best banter, refusing to acknowledge their love for one another, when every action clearly demonstrates it. This one was funny. Granny said: “Ha! The last time ye flipped me in bed, yer poker barely warmed my hearth.” Old Quill’s shoulders jiggled. “I only flipped you so as I didn’t have to look at the mantelpiece while stoking the fire.” “Ye cheeky beggar!” She jabbed his forearm with her bony knuckles. “What makes ye think I fancied yer dried leather strap anyway?” The chapter devoted to Dr. Billy Sykes was confusing. I couldn't figure out what his actions and thoughts meant. If it was meant to reflect his conflicted thinking, it did, but it also confused me. This phrase was used to describe his ‘love’ interest. “She offered him the tea, her smile sucking the blood from his gut like a malnourished hookworm.” So why was he interested in her? Also, I ended up really not liking Adelia because of her judgmental attitude. Overall, I was disappointed. For anyone dying to know what happens to the supporting characters in the White Sails series, this book is for you. But you’ll only get a snippet. As for me, I’d have been happy to read about Old Granny Mac and leave it at that. June 19, 2022 5 stars I don’t think I’ve ever had anything bad to say about a Zoe York book, which is why I was so excited to receive an ARC of the book from the author. This one does not disappoint. It’s about another one of the Kincaid brothers, Seth. A second-chance love story (my favorite kind), Seth comes back to Pine Harbor and runs into his high school best friend/girlfriend whom he has avoided for the past twenty years. Her name is January. Now, I’ve never met anyone with that name, but okay. What I thought made it extra weird is that her sister was named August, and August named her daughter Summer (and her son Levi). Was February unavailable? I know families can be weird about how they make the choices for their childrens’ names, but I would have liked to know WHY her parents named them after months (and why did August name her daughter after a season?). I mean, I wouldn’t be able to ask a real person, so it would have been nice to have fictional characters’ names explained to me. My quibbles with the female character names did not affect my review, which is really based on the story itself, and on character development (names aside). Zoe York tells stories in a casual voice, like someone would retell a story of something that happened to them, combined with explicit sex scenes and emotional interactions. Still, it’s easy reading, and you shouldn’t expect to run into advanced vocabulary or convoluted sentences. It’s very reader-friendly. It’s told in third-person, past-tense, by an omniscient narrator. I’m not one to include an overview of the story in my reviews because, honestly, the author takes a lot of time crafting a blurb, so who am I to reword it? What I do like to do is share some of my favorite quotes from a story, so here I go. January is quite smitten with Seth, but doesn’t want him to know. In her head, she makes an excuse for why she should take a picture of him (for someone else), and denies that it’s because she wants it. Then the narrator says: “No. Did she? Maybe. Probably not. Possibly.” Seth is also fighting his growing feelings for January, reminiscing, “She was the best part of his life, at the worst time of his life…” There are many questions of what-if? It’s natural to wonder about what could have happened in our lives if we’d made different decisions. Seth and January naturally wonder what could have been if Seth hadn’t enrolled in the Royal Military College and they had stayed together. In the end, they come to realize that the love they shared for one another when they were young was too much for them to cope with when they were young, and they both needed to go off and live their own lives. They needed to mature to truly be thankful one another. January says: “I used to tell myself that we didn’t love each other when we were young. But that’s not exactly true, is it?” He shook his head. “I loved you so much, it was too bright for me to see it as love. And you loved me—so much that you helped me to leave you. Maybe you’re right. Maybe that was a grown-up kind of love we couldn’t appreciate at the time.” The story ends with a teaser for Josh Kincaid’s story next. I’m looking forward to Rebel at Heart. June 17, 2022 5 stars I received an ARC of this book from the author, the fourth in the Popov Bratva series. I’ve been enjoying this series so far, and I enjoyed this book too. It focuses on Dom, Lev’s twin brother, and his budding relationship with Leah, a famous country singer whom he does not know. I must confess, I loved the circumstances under which Dom and Leah meet—when he tries to steal her car. Not many would be stupid enough to confront a carjacker, but then, not many are like Leah. Dom is surprised, to say the least. Obviously, he doesn’t kill her, as most carjackers would probably do, so don’t try this at home. Dom and Leah are both similar in their unwillingness to allow anyone to get too close to them. Dom is still mourning the loss of his mother a year ago (in Lev and Siena’s story) and Leah lost her mother at 14, and ended up in a series of lousy foster homes. The final one was the worst. Leah has some BIG secrets in her past, although once we know the main ones, we have a pretty good idea about the one she really doesn’t want to tell anyone. And now, some bad people are after Leah, and it’s because they recognized her when following Dom. Even if he doesn’t want a relationship with her (spoiler: he does), he feels responsible and determined to protect her. Lev and their cousin, Sacha, immediately offer to help. To no one’s surprise, Dom and Leah overcome their fear of commitment and learn to trust one another. It’s a simple story, but it’s well told with compelling characters. Plus, it’s part of a series and each one leads you to want to read the next. 5+++ stars Thanks to Amazon Prime Reading for this book, which I now want to share with everyone. This review is going to be long because this book is so, so good. This is the kind of book I’ll always remember, at least snippets of it, because it is so expansive and all-encompassing. It covers generations, or maybe it just seems that way because it jumps back and forth between centuries and characters, connecting them in unforeseeable and shocking ways. It’s a masterpiece of writing, and the research that went into it is epic. In fact, as soon as I finished it, I immediately launched into the notes at the back and learned the true extent of Kadish’s efforts to not only understand, but also to impart the lives and philosophies of Jews in London during the 1600s. She does a truly amazing job of sharing what she learned, and I chuckled when I read how she struggled to understand the religious philosophies and confided to her agent that she felt like “the Milli Vanilli of metaphysics.” Prompted by the question posed by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own: if William Shakespeare had had an equally talented sister, what would her fate have been? Kadish creates Ester, a young girl of the 1600s, nearly forbidden (though not completely) from learning, yet fascinated by the Torah and other religious teachings. Through several cruel twists of fate, she becomes the scribe for the renowned Rabbi HaCoen Mendes, and this allows her to pursue her desire. It also causes her to question faith itself and to lie to the rabbi to conceal her writing. This, despite the love she feels for him, and the unquestionable love he feels for her which, at times, is poignant. At one point, she considers, “Lying had become her clothing—without it she’d freeze.” The two other main characters are Helen and Aaron, living in 2001. Helen is an aging history professor, preparing to retire, and filled with regret for choices made in her youth. Like Ester, Helen chose knowledge over any other desires she might have had. Aaron is a postgraduate history student, struggling with his thesis, and with his life. He struggles with self-doubt and strives to become a man he can be proud of. He and Helen make an unlikely pair, neither particularly liking the other, but as they come to know one another better, and as they come to know Ester, they gain respect and care for one another. In fact, later in the story, Aaron reflects: “...he knew that he would never be able to tell her that he loved her as a foundering ship loves a lighthouse, even though the lighthouse is powerless to save it.” Kadish tells this story with sentimentality that never veers into the maudlin, and with poetry that never becomes arcane. Helen is described thusly in chapter one: “On a narrow window beside the door, a reflection of her own bent figure. As she leaned closer, it rippled as though on the dark surface of a stream: a pale, aging professor in her outdated suit. Tilted to one side, leaning on her cane.” Sitting through a stilted meeting over tea, we’re told, “The amber liquid was loud in the silent room.” Not long after meeting Helen, Aaron describes her: “She’s the sort of person you can’t imagine having an actual home. It’s as though she turns a corner leaving her office and is shelved overnight in some storage unit for the terminally pedantic, and only materializes again on her return to work the next morning.” This reminds me of what children often think about their teachers, and as one teacher told me, they are often shocked to find that same teacher at the local grocery store or out enjoying life with her own family. Helen is struggling with Parkinson’s and her doctor prescribes a medication that “had left long, dark spaces between her thoughts, each thought an island in a sea of nothing, the islands few and far between. The feeling had not been unpleasant, and that was the problem. Waking in the middle of the night to an inky peace that stretched on and on with no break, she’d become frantic. She could not recognize her own mind. The quiet in her head was the silence of defeat. She’s spent the night shivering in her thin nightdress, terrified. Unable to lie down lest she lose what remained of herself as she slept, her hands climbing at her throat, her temples.” She decides she prefers her tremor. Obviously, history is a recurring theme, and it is depicted as a living being—actually, another character. Aaron, long frustrated by “lifeless months of dissertation research” feels “History, reaching out and caressing his face one more…The gentle, insistent touch of something like a conscience, stilling him. Waking him to a lucid new purpose….his bones had balked at supporting his weight…” And now, we’re also introduced to another recurring character: death. “He’d felt himself waver, almost fail as he caught his balance—as though they (the papers discovered under the stairs) understood already decades ahead of Aaron, about death.” They did. Not surprisingly, Ester is quite familiar with death and finds herself longing for the end of each day for “the sweet sleep she now craved more than almost all else. The death of each day’s life.” And as she witnesses the death of the rabbi, she realizes “For death—so it seemed to Ester now—awaits agreement, even where it must persuade and threaten and insist without mercy until agreement is granted.” Ester struggles with the desire for death and the desire to live. Later, she tells someone, “Death tarries and tarries, then speeds when we beg for just another hour.” Kadish’s description of Ester traversing London Bridge is spellbinding, but too long, and too good in its entirety, to quote it here. However, it is here that she wants to warn people: “never let your true thought be known, for it is by truth that you are noosed and for truth burnt.” Most of the noteworthy phrases come from Ester’s portion of the story, probably because Helen and Aaron are simply reacting to it and applying it to their own lives. Ester is warned by her friend Mary’s mother, “If you find a way to live as you wish, unnatural though it might be, you’ll carry on your shoulders the weight of thousand wives’ wishes. Though aloud all may curse you as a very devil.” Ester’s thoughts on the nature God and of life take up a good portion of the story: “How could desire be wrong—the question seized her—if each living being contained it? Each creature was born with the unthinking need to draw each next breath, find each next meal. Mustn't desire then be integral—a set of essential guideposts on the map of life’s purpose? And mightn’t its very denial then be a desecration?” “A woman’s body, said the world, was a prison in which her mind must wither.” “The greatest act of love—indeed, the only religion she could comprehend—was to speak the truth about the world. Love must be, then, an act of truth-telling, a baring of mind and spirit just as ardent as the baring of the body. Truth and passion were one, and each impossible without the other.” “Yet how can a kindness that blights the life of even one—though it benefit others—be called good? Is it in fact kindness to sever oneself from one’s own desires? Musn’t the imperative to protect all life encompass—even for a woman—her own? Then must we abandon our accustomed notion of a woman’s kindness, and forge a new one.” She sounds like one of the original feminists, although the term would have been foreign to her. There are also a few situations in which Ester finds herself in danger, with Rivka (the rabbi’s housekeeper) at her side. Stuck in the darkness, she has an out-of-body experience: “No candle, no light from the street. Ester had the sensation that neither she nor Rivka was real—that were she to try to locate her own body in the room, try to touch her own arm or leg or shoulder, she’d touch nothing.” Of course, that’s nothing compared to the eternal darkness experienced by the rabbi, who was blinded by the Inquisitors in Portugal. He tells her the first thing he realized after losing his sight, and continued to realize every day, “The distances between things are vast.” He understands her love of the written word because “the weight of ink” is one of the first things he realized he would miss. She reads to him, but it’s only a substitute for what he really loves. When London is afflicted by the plague, a frightening man decides he will have the house and everything within it, even though Ester and Rivka are living inside of it. “Through the mullioned panes, Bescos looked like a man assembled out of tiles, each laid alongside the next to form the semblance of a man.” She goes on to surmise that he is suffering, probably from the loss of the woman he loved, and has tried to piece himself back together, with partitions to protect himself from the pain. Understanding him doesn’t mean she lets down her guard. He’s dangerous and poses a great risk to the women. Aaron has the ultimate realization at the end: “He’d always pitied those ensnared in the time periods he studied—people captured in resin, their fates sealed by their inability to see what was coming. The greatest curse, he’d thought, was to be stuck in one’s own time—and the greatest power was to see beyond its horizons. Studying history had given him the illusion of observing safely from outside the trap. Only that’s what the world was: a trap. The circumstances you were born to, the situations you found yourself in—to dodge that fray was impossible. And what you did within it was your life.” This book has one of my favorite endings of any book because, although it doesn’t tell the full story and I would have loved for it to go on, it ends simply and with a message of hope. Ester realizes she doesn’t need to carry her load alone. There’s someone else offering her rest. And after the many tragedies she has endured, she truly deserves this. If someone like Ester could find hope in her life, surely, the rest of us can. June 11, 2022 |
Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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