#CBR11 Book 79: "The School for Good and Evil" by Soman Chainani

Page count: 496 pages
Rating: 3 stars

Official book description:
The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good and Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…? 

There was a lot of potential here, and some very clever playing with traditional fairy tale tropes. Unfortunately, there was also quite a lot of things that didn't work for me - the chief one being Sophie, one of our two protagonists. I'm all for female characters getting to be as complex and potentially anti-heroic as male ones, but I don't think the author manages what he sets out to do with Sophie. She just comes across as a controlling, manipulative, prejudiced and narrow-minded b*tch for most of the book. She doesn't seem to care about anyone but herself and her own ambitions, completely unfazed by whom she hurts or takes advantage of to achieve her goals. She seemed like a very natural fit for the School of Evil.

On the flip side, Agatha, who is supposed to be the more palatable protagonist, is a little bit too timid and her lack of confidence grated on me after a while. Maya Angelou said "If someone shows you who they are, believe them" - well, Sophie time and time again shows herself to be an utterly awful "friend", a self-centred egomaniac with no real affection for Agatha. Our little emo Goth should have told Sophie to sod off, instead of spending most of the book risking herself to help her.

There's also a very contrived love triangle in this book, with Prince Whatshisface (I can't bother to look up his name - he's the son of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere - now that's a fun legacy) initially falling for Sophie based entirely on her looks, but unwillingly finding himself drawn towards Agatha again and again (he's a shallow jock, you can do way better, girl!).

Nevertheless, I liked the idea that famous fairy tale characters need to be trained for their jobs, be they the heroes and heroines or the villains and villainesses. That the ones that don't excel in their classes become henchpeople, helpers or even transformed into enchanted animals who help move the tales along. I liked a lot of the supporting characters, especially in the School of Evil (being able to summon chocolate at will is a cool magical power!), and the various classes and quests that the children had to participate in.

I wasn't really sure if these books were meant to be aimed at a YA or middle grade audience. Having now looked it up, these books appear to be marketed as middle grade, which I think is a bit strange considering some of the rather dark subject matter (Sophie straight up kills someone and apart from stabs of a guilty conscience, she never actually gets caught from this), Sophie's obsession with getting the attention of her prince and the way her outfits are described (let's just say that if these are meant to be characters under the age of 16-17, the suggestive nature of a lot of what Sophie fashions for herself is squicky AF). I really don't believe in controlling what teens read (please just read something, kids!), but I think some of the themes of this book are too mature for a middle grade audience.

There are also sections where the story rather drags and I kept putting the book down and forgetting about it. I know that there's a ton of books in this series, but at the moment, I'm not sure I'll keep reading. There are so many other shiny books out there competing for my attention.

Judging a book by its cover: The very cartoonish manga inspired covers for this series made me think they were meant for a much younger audience. As I mentioned above, it really wasn't made very clear what age the characters are supposed to be, and a lot of the themes read as if these were older teens, getting towards adulthood. I also thought that the dark-haired character on the cover was a boy, when it's supposed to be Agatha, one of our two protagonists.

Crossposted in Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 137: "Winning the Wallflower" by Eloisa James

Page count: 100 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Miss Lucy Towerton is very tall and until she inherited a fortune from a distant aunt, she was a wallflower without many promising prospects. So when Cyrus Ravensthorpe - handsome, rich, yet with some unfortunate family connections (his mother, the daughter of a duke, ran away to marry his father, the family solicitor) proposed marriage to her, she could hardly believe her luck. Now her mother wants her to break off their betrothal so she can catch herself a more suitable husband, possibly even Mr. Raventhorpe's cousin, the Duke of Pole. Lucy doesn't actually want to marry anyone else, and contrives a plan to be caught in a compromising position with her intended.

Cyrus Ravensthorpe is a man with a plan, a very carefully detailed plan that will ensure that his family regain the position in society they lost when his mother created a scandal by running off to Gretna Green after falling in love with his father. He has worked extremely hard to make himself a fortune, and proposed to Miss Lucy Towerton because 1) She was the daughter of a baronet, 2) Had a spotless reputation and 3) As a wallflower of several seasons, it wasn't like her family were going to turn down the offer. Now he arrives at a ball to discover that his fiancee is likely to throw him over, as she's come into a fortune of her own. She no longer needs the money he can offer her. Being so scrupulously careful to avoid anything that smacks of unseemly passion or inappropriate desires, Cyrus made sure he arranged the betrothal with Lucy's father and paid her the expected calls, but hasn't actually really paid any attention to the lady, until he may be losing her.

Lucy, emboldened by her new prospects, has been thinking about her fiancee's strange and restrained behaviour and confronts him (pretending to all others that she intends to break it off with him, so they'll be left alone). Discovering that she's only one of many steps in his plan to secure respectability and position, and doesn't know the faintest thing about her, she jilts him, not to please her ambitious mama, but because she's come to the realisation that she can do better. Finally seeing Lucy properly for the first time since they met, Cyrus realises that she's completely right to break the betrothal, but becomes determined to her back, with a proper courtship this time.

This novella is part of Eloisa James' Fairy Tales series, where the author takes famous fairy tales and writes historical romance versions of them. I don't actually think this novella fits with a specific tale and mostly serves as a fun interlude. It introduces Olivia Lytton, the heroine of The Duke is Mine, which Goodreads assures me I read back in August of 2012, but which I never reviewed and can barely remember. Olivia is Lucy's best friend, and the one who convinces her that she needs to fight to keep Cyrus if she actually likes him.

Eloisa James' writing can be a bit hit and miss, but she's got a clever way with words, and this little story is a fun take on the woman who learns to stand up for herself and demand what she deserves, plus the stuffy, proper hero with hidden passionate depths who is completely taken aback when he's suddenly overwhelmed by unexpected feelings. While Cyrus' motivations were very understandable, he was clearly a screaming bore before Lucy snogged the cravat off him and he realised he was going to do some pretty impressive grovelling to get back into her good graces.

Romance is usually written by women, for women about women and it's stories like this, about women taking control of their lives and destinies, speaking up about what they want, no matter what the conventions and consequences that are part of what makes the genre so enjoyable. Because it's novella length, it's a quick and fun read. There are some developments mentioned in the epilogue which I'm unsure of are historically accurate, but I really didn't care enough to bother checking whether Ms. James was taking anachronistic liberties or not. Despite that, this novella is absolutely recommended.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR4 Book 80: "The Ugly Duchess" by Eloisa James

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: August 30th, 2012
Date finished: August 31st, 2012

James Ryburn, Earl of Islay and heir to the Duke of Ashbrook is disgusted when he discovers that not only has his father squandered most of the family fortune, but he's also embezzled much of the money he was holding in trust for his ward, Miss Theodora Saxby (who happens to be James' best and dearest friend). The duke's solution to the problem is that James must marry Theo, or Daisy as James thinks of her as, before some other fortune hunter proposes to her, or Theo or her mother discovers the money is missing.

Theo is tall and skinny and not what anyone would call conventionally pretty. Yet Theo loves that the two people in the world who don't seem to see her as plain or even ugly are James and her formidable mother. Having grown up with James, she's only barely started considering him in a different light than the purely fraternal, when he first compromises her, and then very publicly proposes, in front of the Prince of Wales himself. The tabloids have a field day when the gorgeous and eligible earl marries "The Ugly Duchess". Despite the very romantic proposal and the glamorous wedding, they're convinced the wedding will last six months tops. As it is, James is granted only a few days of genuinely wedded bliss before Theodora discovers the truth behind her finances and his deception, and kicks him out in disgust, before he has a chance to tell her that he does actually truly love her and explain himself.

Nearly eight years later, James shocks London society to its core by walking into the House of Lords just as they are about to declare him legally dead after his long absence. The young, gentlemanly nobleman who left is now a sunburned, tattooed and fierce-looking privateer. Theo is no longer the ugly duckling, but an elegant swan, sought after for her fashion advice. Can James convince her that he always loved her, and win her back?

In When Beauty Tamed the Beast, the heroine was almost unbelievably stunning and had men falling at her feet because of her looks. Theodora is the exact opposite, young and lanky, with no curves to speak of and harsh, nearly masculine features (I suspect she'd be able to make a killing in today's society as a runway model). Yet James never sees her as anything but lovely, and when he realises just how upsetting it would be if the sarcastic and conceited young man that Theo is infatuated with actually were to propose and take his Daisy away from him, he has no choice but to carry out his father's plan. While he does deceive Theo, he also detests his father's wastrel ways, and is determined to rebuild the family fortunes and any money the Duke embezzled from Theo's inheritance. He even makes sure that Theo is granted equal rights in running the estate (which is ironically why she can turf him without a penny once she discovers what she believes to be the truth behind his proposal).

Theo is a driven young lady, with several brilliant business ideas that turn the Ashbrook estates into something very profitable. Betrayed by the man she trusted the most, she turns away from emotional entanglements and pours herself into the rebuilding of the family fortunes. As she becomes older, she also grows into her features more, and after a season in Paris, she returns triumphantly to London and becomes a trendsetter. As the years go by with no word of James, his cousin and heir, whose become Theo's closest confidant, wants her to declare him dead so she can remarry, rather than so he can become Duke. James has stayed far away from his loved ones exactly because he thought they (especially his beloved Daisy) were better off without him, yet after a near death experience, he realises that he has to win Theo back, no matter what the cost.

I liked the realistic, and rather awkward relationship between the young Theo and James (they're 17 and 19 at the start of the book). I wish Theo hadn't become quite so cold and reserved after the heartbreak she experienced, but can absolutely understand why she needed to build a protective shell around herself - considering the depth of the betrayal she felt, combined with the appalling treatment by the gossip sheets and society after her marriage. James' inability to see her as ugly, as well as his fondness for her even before he developed romantic feelings towards her was also very endearing. Plus, I'm a sucker for a good pirate story. I liked that James didn't hide the fact that pirates (or privateer, the "acceptable" form of pirates) aren't all that nice and kill people (although in this case, only other pirates who refuse to surrender). Of all James' fairy tale retellings in romance form, this has been my favourite.

CBR4 Book 78: "When Beauty Tamed the Beast" by Eloisa James

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: August 24th, 2012
Date finished: August 24th, 2012

Miss Linnet Thrynne has to get married fast, after her obvious flirtation with a prince and an unfortunate fashion disaster has made the entirety of polite society convinced that she is pregnant. But what man would be willing to take a woman embroiled in scandal, possibly carrying an heir of royal blood?

Piers Yelverton, the Earl of Marchant, lives in a fairly remote spot in Wales, and has absolutely no wish to get married. He'd much rather practise medicine and let his formerly alcoholic father's bloodline die out without issue. Piers is a brilliant physician and also in constant pain due to a leg injury from his childhood (see bad relationship with his Dad). Yet when his father comes to visit, bringing the stunning Linnet with him, Piers can't help but be impressed, both with Linnet's physical charms, but by her sarcastic wit and refusal to be threatened or cowed by him. Used to bossing his junior doctors around and having everyone obey his every whim, he rather likes having Linnet around to talk back at him.

As the gorgeous Linnet and the crotchety Piers spend more time together, their attraction grows. But when an outbreak of scarlet fever erupts in a nearby village, their budding romance might come to a dramatic end.

Eloisa James freely admits that her hero, the Earl of Marchant is based on Dr. Gregory House, and that, as well as some of the wonderfully witty dialogue between the many different characters, is what really made the book for me. Linnet isn't a bad heroine, but no matter how witty, it's hard to fully sympathise with a character who's looks are constantly described as gorgeous, stunning and bewitching. Piers, with all this flaws, was a lot more appealing, and I admired his dedication as a physician, as well as understood his fraught relationship with his father - alcoholism really can and has destroyed many a happy family.

By no means one of my all-time favourite romances, the Regency version of Dr. House more than made up for some of the flaws the book had, and the book really is a lot better than the awful cover makes it seem.