CBR4 Book 85: "Alien Bodies" by Lawrence Miles

Page count: 313 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: June 28th, 2012
Date finished: September 21st, 2012

This book is an eight Doctor novel, and requires very little knowledge of the TV show. If you don't know anything about Doctor Who, the TV series, the audio plays and the many novels written, read the first four paragraphs of this review, and at least some of it will be explained. Fans of the current show should consider checking this book out, you'll see where current show runner Steven Moffat got a whole bunch of his most well used ideas from (without ever crediting the original author).

The eight Doctor is playing chess with a UNISYC (formerly UNIT) general, when the general suddenly pulls a gun on him. The Doctor is surprised, but the general claims that the only reason no one has ever threatened him this way before, is because the various Earth governments didn't believe he could be killed, but now they have proof. Intrigued by this, the Doctor handily escapes by diving out a window and into the hovering TARDIS outside.

The Doctor and Sam, his current companion, travel to the rain forests of what used to be Borneo, and crash an exclusive auction, where a mysterious relic is for sale to the highest bidder. Among the bidders are two UNISYC soldiers, a reanimated dead man called Trask, the Time Lord Homunculette and his companion Marie, a conceptual entity known as the Shift (who communicates with the others by rearranging writing in newspapers and the like) and two members of the Faction Paradox (a sort of twisted, evolved Time Lord culture). The auctioneer, Mr. Qixotl, is less than thrilled when the Doctor and Sam turn up (even less so when he realises who the Doctor really is), but to avoid upsetting and alarming the others, he allows them to stay.

Why is the UNISYC general so certain that the Doctor can finally be killed? What is the Relic that all these groups are willing to pay priceless sums to obtain? Who is the mysterious final bidder that Mr. Qixotl is waiting for? Why is he so worried and upset by the Doctor's arrival at the auction?

The eighth Doctor, of course, only appears on screen in the dreadful TV movie from 1996, but has appeared in many of the novels, and about 70 of the Big Finish audio plays. Based purely on the various audio plays, he's one of my favourite incarnations of the Doctor. This is one of my husband's favourite Doctor Who novels, and he read it aloud to me. Like so many other good Doctor Who adventures, whether on TV or in books, it's a classic "base under siege" novel. A group of people arrive at a location, there is an outside threat, they all have to try to make it out alive, and the Doctor is there to hopefully help them do that (but frequently ends up making whoever threatens the base more aggressive, as he has so many enemies).

I wouldn't recommend this novel to someone who's never watched or heard of the series at all, but if you're a fan of the current series, especially the episodes written by Steven Moffat, then this should almost be required reading. It's a fun, action packed story, with sections that are genuinely horrifying (at least to me, my husband didn't seem particularly bothered).

CBR4 Book 84: "Gaudy Night" by Dorothy L. Sayers

Page count: 564 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: September 15th, 2012
Date finished: September 18th, 2012

Dorothy L Sayer's mystery novels tend to focus on her debonair aristocrat detective Lord Peter Wimsey, but in Gaudy Night, he takes on a more supporting role, and the object of his affection, Miss Harriet Vane, is the protagonist and takes centre stage, working to solve a series of very destructive pranks at her old Oxford college.

Harriet, like Sayers herself (it's widely believed that at least some aspects of Harriet are auto-biographical) is a successful mystery writer. She first appeared in Strong Poison, on trial for poisoning her lover, and Lord Peter unmasked the real killer and literally saved her life. He also fell in love with her and proposed, but Harriet refused for a number of reasons. Over the years, Peter keeps wooing and intermittently proposing to Harriet, they even work together to solve another murder mystery, but Harriet is ambivalent about her feelings about marriage in general and Peter in particular - so at the start of the novel, when they've known each other for five years, with Peter still proposing at least four times a year, Harriet is still uncomfortable about the state of affairs.

As well as being Peter's social inferior (she's a writer and the daughter of a country doctor, he's the second son of the Duke of Denver), she feels that they can never be equals in the relationship because of the impossible weight of obligation she feels towards him for saving her from execution. When factoring in the fact that even though she was acquitted of the murder, her name is still very much associated with scandal, and her previous bad luck with romantic relationships, and it's understandable why she feels they may not have a future together.

When Harriet is invited back to Shrewsbury College for a Gaudy (a formal dinner for former graduates), she's at first deeply hesitant, but is persuaded by old friends to come, and discovers how much she loves and misses the academic atmosphere. While in Oxford, Harriet finds an obscene drawing on the lawn outside the college, and a threatening note in the sleeve of her formal academic gown. As it's not an uncommon occurrence for Harriet to receive hate mail or threats, she thinks little of it, until she is contacted by the Dean and some of the senior staff of Shrewsbury some months later, begging her for assistance. The notes Harriet found are only two in a long series of offensive correspondence sent to a number of the students and staff. There's also been several acts of graffiti, vandalism and unexplained events at the College, and they're worried that the press or public at large will discover this, embroiling the little women's college in scandal.

Harriet feels her presence might do more harm than good, and tries to get them to hire professionals to look into the matter. As that proves impossible, she tries to ask Peter for help, but he's in Rome on a complicated diplomatic mission for the Foreign Office, and she reluctantly accepts that she's the only one who can help them. Taking up residence at Shrewsbury under the cover of researching a non-fiction book on Sheridan Le Fanu, Harriet tries to identify and unmask the "ghost". The mystery is not easily solved, however, as the college contains several buildings with winding hallways, there is a huge pool of suspects to begin with, and she has little to no help. After several months, the "ghost" is still unknown and at large, the pool of suspects has only been partially reduced, and an impressionable young student nearly drowns herself because of the series of harassing notes she's received. The case is becoming more desperate, and Harriet can't manage on her own.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, it's been said, and the time spent away from Peter in the comforting surroundings of her old college has given Harriet a lot of time to consider her ambivalence and feelings towards Peter. She sends a letter, imploring him for help, and he shows up in Oxford to assist her. Peter realises that Harriet has gathered all the information required to unmask the "ghost", but the fact that most of the evidence seems to point towards a woman she considers a friend, has made Harriet reluctant to take the final steps necessary to close the investigation. The arrival of the famous Lord Peter Wimsey adds further tension to the case, as the sinister "ghost" starts escalating the attacks. Will they be able to catch the culprit before someone dies?

Harriet is clearly a highly intelligent and admirable young woman, but in the very class-based system of 1930s England, it's impossible for her to forget that she is a figure of notoriety, and even though she was cleared of murder, she still receives hate mail and threats on a regular basis. Her previous romantic relationship ended dreadfully, and while she comes to realise that she's grown fond of Peter over the years, and might actually return his feelings, she's still deeply wary of committing herself. This is a time when women were subjugated by men in pretty much every arena, and as Peter is so much her superior in rank and status, it's natural for Harriet to be a bit cautious. Of course, there were several times when I wanted to reach into the book and shake her until her teeth rattled, as it was quite obvious to me as a reader (as I'm entirely sure Sayers meant it to be) that Harriet is being an idiot.

While understandably uncomfortable in the immediately following her murder trial, five years later, if a rich, charming, intelligent and extremely eligible man insists on courting you and proposing to you, if you actually like him back - trust his judgement and stop dawdling! Stop toying with the man's affection and accept his proposal, or make a clean break of it.

Sayers has been criticised for writing meandering stories, not always all that focused on the main mystery, and that's certainly true. She does by taking her time with setting the scene and having a number of story beats not directly concerning the solving of the crime, make the atmosphere of the books much more real and engaging, and she shows you the true personality of her characters brilliantly by showing them in a number of situations, rather than just as sleuths.

My only previous experience with her books is The Nine Tailors (which, in case you can't be bothered to check the link, I found rather dull). I'm so glad I was convinced to go back and try reading another one, because I enjoyed this a great deal. It helps that there is a romance element to the story, however anyone wanting passionate declarations and steamy sexy times will be deeply disappointed. Harriet and Peter's understated romance is nonetheless so incredibly satisfying because of the restraint and stiff-upper-lippedness of their manner with each other, and like in the books of Georgette Heyer, for instance, a lingering glance or small act can mean so much more than an overwrought love scene in another story. I suspect Sayers wrote this book partially to show her readers what a worthy match Harriet is to Peter, and now, having read it, I'm much more eager to read more of the author's work.

This is my second book read and reviewed for R.I.P VII.

CBR4 Book 83: "Ashes of Honor" by Seanan McGuire

Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Date begun: September 11th, 2012
Date finished: September 12th, 2012

This is the fifth book in the October Daye series, and this review may contain spoilers for events in previous books. It's also not the best place to start the series, go read the first book instead: Rosemary and Rue. My reviews of the other books in this series can be found by clicking the character name tag.

Sir October "Toby" Daye, changeling knight and private investigator, retriever and rescuer of lost children, has been grieving for year, due to the losses she incurred towards the end of One Salt Sea. While seemingly getting by, on the surface, fulfilling her responsibilities, training her squire, paying the bills, Toby is acting more and more recklessly, and her friends and loved ones are getting worried. When another of Duke Sylvester's knights show up on her doorstep, begging for her help to find his changeling daughter, Toby wants to refuse, but understands that she's the only one who can help him.

The very proper and correct Sir Etienne hadn't even realised he had a teenage daughter until his ex-girlfriend called him up, furious because she believed he'd kidnapped her. Etienne can teleport, and his daughter has the same power. Normally changelings are closely monitored by Faerie. Chelsea has incredible powers and none of the control that other changelings are taught. She's not only opening portals across huge distances in the mortal world, but opening realms that were believed sealed off and forgotten ages ago. If Chelsea keeps on opening the portals, it'll cause rifts in the walls between the worlds, and can endanger not only Faerie, but the mortal world as well.

Tybalt, King of Cats, has been keeping his distance, but Chelsea's out of control teleporting is endangering his realm and family as well, and he needs Toby's help to sort things out. However, there's dissention in the ranks at the Court of Cats, and while Tybalt may have nine lives, he's going to have to be very careful not to lose all the remaining ones to rebels set on stealing his crown.

While it took me a while to warm up to Toby as a character, and to the October Daye series in general (I didn't really get into it properly until book 3: An Artificial Night). She's tenacious, stubborn and very determined, brave to the point of idiocy and far too liable to throw herself into life threatening situations at the drop of a hat. She's less charming than some of the other paranormal fantasy heroines that I'm fond of, and therefore (at least to me) took longer to grow fond of. Now I absolutely love her, with all her flaws (even though I frequently want to reach into the book and slap her resoundingly). She's come a long way in six books, has the lonely half human, half-very powerful fae. She's learning, through trial and error, love and loss, and countless near death experiences, that she may not have to fight ever battle by herself. She has friends, and allies, and people who care deeply for her. In this book, she actually thinks before she acts, and willingly consults her little group of compatriots, and the book is all the greater for it.

The supporting cast are also great. Seeing the always supercilious Sir Etienne forced to humble himself  to Toby, who he clearly doesn't always like that much and becoming a more well-rounded character as a result, was good. Quentin, Toby's squire continues to be a delightful side-kick, and it's obvious that while McGuire finished off several major plot strands and a big arc with the last book, she's setting up a whole new set of them with intriguing hints about the rapidly maturing boy's absent parents. Raj, Tybalt's nephew and heir, is also central to the plot, and McGuire writes the different youths with distinctive voices and presences.

Tybalt, my absolute favourite character, really gets to shine in this book, which of course warms my heart. Having started out as almost an antagonist for Toby in the first book, Tybalt has gradually become an important friend of Toby's, always there for her when she needs him the most, yet confusing her with his cryptic remarks and sudden disappearances. A third of the love triangle of the series for a while, Tybalt was disapproving of Toby's childhood sweetheart Connor for a number of reasons, and now, having patiently waited in the wings, is ready to take centre stage. He's clearly willing to risk everything for Toby, the question is what she really wants.

There's no question that this is my absolute favourite of the ever-improving series so far, and I'm really sorry that it'll be another year until I can read the next book. Fans of paranormal fantasy should definitely check the series out. It takes a couple of books to really hit its stride, but when it does, it grabs your attention and refuses to let go. You'll be hooked, and you won't regret it.

Being a mystery, and also a paranormal, this fits nicely into the R.I.P VII genres. This will be my first review for that challenge.

CBR4 Book 82: "Archangel's Storm" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: September 7th, 2012
Date finished: September 10th, 2012

This book is the fifth in a series, and will most likely contain spoilers for previous books the Guild Hunter series. So avoid if you dislike that sort of thing. Also, this book refers back to a lot of characters and events in the previous four books, so it's probably not the best one to start with. The first one in the series is Angel's Blood.

Jason is one of the archangel Raphael's Seven, the angels and vampires who work for him and that he trusts implicitly with his business and security. Jason is his spymaster, and can literally fade into the shadows and move unnoticed in the places he visits, should he wish to do so. Jason also has a type of psychic power where he can hear whispers on the wind. He's quiet, deadly, and extremely aloof, unable to fully engage with the world around him, due to some seriously horrific experiences as a child. A lot of Nalini Singh's characters have troubled pasts, Jason's is worse than most.

At the wedding of another member of the Seven, hears a whisper on the wind alerting him that the archangel of India, Neha (who has the power over snakes and poisons), has lost her consort Eris, and it appears to be murder. Neha hates Raphael after her murderous daughter was caught breaking the laws of angelkind and executed - but she'd love to steal Jason away to her court, so when Raphael offers to send his spymaster to India to investigate the murder, Neha accepts. She wants Jason to swear a blood oath, ensuring he can't reveal any secrets of her household without forswearing herself. Being bound to Raphael, Jason refuses at first, but a compromise is made. Jason is to swear to princess Mahiya, Neha's niece, thus making it safe for him to explore Neha's palaces and grounds to find the killer, without betraying any of her business to Raphael.

Mahiya seems like a timid and weak angel, but Jason soon discovers that she has a quiet strength that has helped her endure centuries of her aunt's displeasure. The daughter of Neha's consort Eris and her twin sister Nivriti, Mahiya is a constant reminder to Neha of the betrayal of her most loved ones, and she's put the princess through all manner of torture, both physical and emotional. Mahiya has endured, silently, plotting quietly and planning to get away. She's afraid that the blood bond with the deadly spymaster will jeopardise her plans, but discovers that she may instead have found an ally. As the two work together to discover the identity of the murderer, who is not content to stop at one victim, Mahiya and Jason are drawn towards each other. But Jason has had all capacity for tender emotion burned out of him by the horrors in his past - is there any possibility of a shared future for them? And will Neha ever let Mahiya leave her court?

While I much preferred this book to the previous one, Archangel's Blade, I wish that Singh had focused entirely on Jason and Mahiya's story, rather than interrupting the main plot every so often with subplots having to do with Raphael or Dimitri (hero of the previous novel) and his preparations for turning his wife into a vampire. It added absolutely nothing to the story, instead it kept distracting me from the flow of the main plot, and I don't entirely understand why, if this was vital to the plot of the next book, the readers couldn't be let in on it in flashback then. Singh does really good flashbacks. From the prologue of the book, continued in little glimpses throughout, revealing a little bit more every time, we are shown why Jason has become the man he is, until he finally reveals it in the last third of the book. Both he and Mahiya have experienced terrible things, which makes it even more remarkable that Mahiya has retained hope and a stubborn insistence on forgiveness and softness, refusing to give in to hate and bitterness.

I liked the couple a lot, and their romance was slow to build. The murder mystery, however, I figured out a little bit too soon for my liking. I like when mysteries actually take a bit of figuring out, because if I can solve them so easily, why would it take the characters so much longer? If Jason's as capable and brilliant as he's said to be, it shouldn't have taken him so long to come to the same conclusion I did.

While I really liked the first two books in the series, I've had complaints with the last three, and if it wasn't for the excellent world building, and the fact that I really did enjoy this one quite a lot, I would be considering stopping. At this rate, I will give Singh one more chance to win her way back into my good graces (after all, I'm still reading Charlaine Harris), and hope that the next one is back to the form of the early ones.

CBR4 Book 81: "Riveted" by Meljean Brook

Page count: 416 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Date begun: September 5th, 2012
Date finished: September 6th, 2012

Annika has grown up in a small secluded village in Iceland, populated entirely by women, who have kept it well-hidden through stories of witches and trolls in the area. She's been travelling for four years, trying to find her sister, who took the blame for Annika's nearly revealing the location of the town to the outside world, had a massive row with the elders, and left.

David Kentewess is a vulcanologist desperate to find the village Annika is from, as his mother's dying words was that he bury an heirloom necklace by the sacred mountain close to where she was born. When he meets Annika, he recognises her accent, and tries desperately to share her secrets. While drawn to David, Annika can't reveal the secrets of her home and the women there, whether threatened or cajoled. And before long, both Annika and David have much more to worry about than their growing attraction to each other and whatever promises they made to their families.

I will say this for Meljean Brook, after The Iron Duke and Heart of Steel, I thought I knew a little bit of what to expect. I was wrong. Well, I expected clever writing and interesting world building, and multi-faceted characters who I'd enjoy reading about, and I got all that. But story wise, this was completely different from the other two Iron Seas novels, and the start of the novel gave me absolutely no hints of where the story was going to end up. Suffice to say, Annika and David are absolutely nothing like the protagonists of the previous two novels Brook has written in her alternate history, pseudo-Victorian Steampunk world.

Annika has been raised purely by women, in a community where women either go off to get pregnant (some stay with their baby daddies if they have sons), or bring home foundling girls from other places. Same sex relationships are very common, to the point where Annika clearly feels slightly sad that she hasn't seemed to find a romantic relationship with any of the girls she grew up with. Nick-named "Rabbit" growing up, she still finds the tremendous courage to go off into the wider world to find her sister, visiting a number of new places on the airship where she serves as an engineer, and David is both amused and baffled by her lack of self-insight when he sees her many acts of self-sacrifice and bravery throughout the story.

David lost an arm and both his legs, and sustained a fair amount of facial scarring, in a horrible accident as a child, and his mother died to save him. He now has a mechanical eye-piece over part of his face, and mechanical limbs to replace the ones he lost. Most people naturally have trouble seeing past his artificial additions, and women especially seem either repulsed by him or excessively pity him. So when Annika, unused to men in general, treats him with kindness and openness, he's drawn to her even before he recognises her accent to be the same as his mother's. In no way an alpha male, David is deeply reluctant to pursue Annika, because of his previous bad luck around women.

The development of their friendship and later romance is a wonderful, slow and gradual process (frankly, both characters were almost too convinced of the other's disinterest and so reluctant to approach the other that I wanted to reach into the book and shake them both). Yet I'd rather the character have time to get to know each other properly before they declare they madly love each other than fall into instant lust and/or love.

As I've come to expect in Brook's novels, the world building is excellent, and while the first third of the story is very slow and sets up Annika and David's relationship and gives us their back stories, once the plot takes a sharp turn, it's frankly action and adventure and unexpected plot twists until the end. As in the other two Iron Seas novels, there are several breath taking action sequences that kept me at the edge of my seat, and once the story got going, I really didn't want to put the book down. While Heart of Steel is still my absolute favourite, this is a decent second, and I can't wait to see what Meljean Brook is going to give us next.

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 79: "A Lady by Midnight" by Tessa Dare

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: August 28th, 2012
Date finished: August 30th, 2012

Miss Kate Taylor has never really known who her parents are, and while she's found some sense of belonging among the many free-spirited ladies in Spindle Cove, working as a music teacher, she has always wondered where she comes from, and can't stop longing for a family to love. So when the strange and colourful Grammercy family come calling, convinced that Kate may be the daughter of a nobleman, she doesn't know what to think. Could she truly be a high born lady, not an unwanted by blow abandoned by her parents?

Corporal Samuel Thorne has kept a close eye on Kate since his militia arrived in Spindle Cove. Recognising her from her distinctive birthmark, he's vowed to keep his distance from her, yet he can't bring himself to stray to far away, driven by a fierce protectiveness that goes far back into a shared past Kate remembers nothing about. When the Grammercys come to town, determined to prove that Kate is a member of their family, he poses as her fiancee, in order to keep her safe. Until very shortly before, Kate had believed not only that Thorne was indifferent to her, but that he rather disliked her. Now she discovers that the gruff and distant man is deeply passionate and very attracted to her, he just hides it well. But Thorne is planning on leaving the militia, and moving to the United States. Will Kate have to choose between the welcoming family she always longed for, and the man who may be the answer to her dreams?

Having absolutely adored the previous two Spindle Cove books by Tessa Dare, it's safe to say that my expectations for this book were very high. I'm not sure any writer would've adequately been able to match them. Which is to say that I very much enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it to pieces, like I did A Week to Be Wicked. Kate was a great heroine, and Thorne is clearly the perfect guy for her, but their romance was a bit more restrained, and the huge cast of new supporting characters just screaming for their own follow up romances got a bit distracting. I also thought that Thorne's change of heart came rather suddenly, and the many fairly valid objections he had their long term relationship possibly going sour were quite valid, but were brushed under the carpet very fast indeed.

This is not to say that on the strengths of Dare's writing, I won't welcome the many romances I'm sure she's got planned for the Grammercys and possibly other Spindle Cove inhabitants (Minerva's older sister is still unwed, last time I checked). A solid novel, just not an amazing one.