CBR2 Book 50: "The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker" by Leanna Renee Hieber

Publisher: Leisure Books
Page count: 324 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: May 13th, 2010
Date finished: May 14th, 2010

18-year-old Miss Percy (a nickname, her real name is a lot more feminine) Parker arrives at Athens Academy in London, having left the convent where she was left when her mother died in childbirth. She has nothing to remember her parents by, except a phoenix pendant she wears every day. Percy is an albino, with milky-white skin and hair, and pale, nearly luminescent eyes very sensitive to sunlight. All her life she has lived shrouded in veils and gloves, with tinted glasses to shade her eyes, and to keep people around her from being upset by her eerie appearance. She has a remarkable affinity for languages, being able to learn them almost as soon as she's heard them. She has been haunted by strange visions all her life, and can see, and speak to, the ghosts she so resembles.

At Athens Academy, not all the faculty are what they appear. Miss Rebecca Thompson, the headmistress, and Professor Alexi Rychman, a brooding and mysterious scientist, are both part of a small group known as the Guard, whose task it is to protect London against supernatural threat and something known as the Darkness. All six of the Guard were called to duty when they were only teens, and for nearly 20 years they have waited for their prophesied seventh member, whose coming will increase their powers and abilities, but also set in motion a possible war against the Darkness.

When Miss Parker arrives at the school, and shortly after, the stunningly beautiful and mysterious Miss Lucille Linden approaches their group seeking refuge from her cruel master, it seems as if the Prophecy will be fulfilled at last. But which of the remarkable women is the true seventh member, and which is the evil minion sent to lure them into further danger? Professor Rychman clearly wishes it to be Miss Parker, as the two are inexorably drawn to each other, despite the impropriety of a teacher-pupil relationship. But could the long years of waiting have dulled his instincts?

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is the first part in a series, a fact I only discovered after I started reading it. I would classify it as a historical fantasy with romantic elements, but while some might disagree, I did not think that the couple getting together was the main narrative driving the plot - the finding of the prophesied seventh member to help the fight against evil was more important. I saw one review that mentioned steampunk, I don't know why, as as far as I could tell, there are no unusual technical innovations, the setting appeared to be Victorian London, albeit a London haunted by ghosts and the occasional hellhound.

The supernatural threat that the Guard are battling, does not seem to involve vampires and werewolves and other such paranormal fantasy fare. Simply ghosts and the occasional demonic possession. As the arrival of the seventh member grows near, a demonic multi-headed beast haunts the street of London and brutally murders prostitutes (yes, in this book, Jack the Ripper is a hellhound). All the members of the Guard can see ghosts, but only the timid Miss Parker appears to be able to talk to them.

Miss Percy Parker is an unusual heroine. Named after a goddess of Greek myth, she is used to people being frightened and unnerved by her otherworldly looks. She is very self-conscious of her ghostlike appearance, and having grown up in a convent, is afraid that if people find out about her abilities to communicate with ghosts, her visions and portentous dreams, they will think her insane and have her committed. She is rather shy, studious and timid, and makes her first true friend at the Academy. She also falls head over heels for the tall, dark and brooding Prof. Rychman, and despairs that mathematics, his chosen subject, is the one that appears a complete impossibility for her to learn.

Alexi Rychman is a classic Gothic, romantic hero. He is gloomy and tortured, and his friends constantly make Hamlet jokes around him. Having convinced himself that he is fated to love the seventh member of their group, he has held himself distant from anything even vaguely resembling a romantic relationship for years, and he takes his duties as the leader of the Guard very seriously - thus leading to much anguish when he becomes unsure whether his feelings for Percy are caused by too many years of loneliness, or if she is really the answer to the prophecy.

The story is filled with allusions to Greek myth, which I liked. The book has some flaws as well, though. It is revealed to the reader quite early on who the evil minion is, and instead of this causing added tension, it just makes the members of the Guard seem rather gullible and stupid, despite all of them having good educations and preparing for this event for decades. Speaking of the other members of the Guard, with the exception of Miss Thompson (who frankly isn't given that much of a fully-formed character), most of the members are poorly sketched out, and the reader is given very little insight into who they are and what drives them beyond some rough character traits. However, since this is the first book in what appears to be a series, I'm hoping they will be more developed as the series goes on.

CBR2 Book 49: "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Page count: 480 pages
Rating: 2 stars
Date begun: April 26th, 2010
Date finished: May 11th, 2010

Fanny Price, the eldest of nine siblings, is rescued from a life of relative poverty and drudgery when she is taken in by her wealthy relatives, Sir and Lady Bertram. At first she is terrified in the huge house with her well-meaning, but rather selfish and careless cousins, but her cousin Edmund (the younger of the two Bertram brothers) takes pity on her and shows her kindness and friendship. Thus starts the love Fanny feels for Edmund throughout the book.

Fanny is small and sickly, and even as she grows older, seems to tire and wear out faster than her livelier cousins. While she has the benefits of a good home and an education, she is always a bit outside the Bertram family, and her other aunt, Mrs Norris, never stops making her aware that she is lucky to be there on their sufferance. She becomes the helper and companion of the air-headed Lady Bertram, and puts up with a lot of fairly ill treatment with grace and forbearance.

While Sir Thomas Bertram and his eldest son are away in the West Indies, the young and handsome Crawford siblings arrive in the area, and shake things up considerably. The siblings are orphaned, good-looking and wealthy, and Henry Crawford, while a gentleman, is clearly a bit of a rake. Mary Crawford, his charming sister, has a fortune of nearly 20, 000 pounds and feels drawn to Edmund, even though he is the younger son, and planning to become a clergyman. She makes an effort to befriend Fanny, and seems amused by her brother's flirtation with both the Bertram sisters, even though Maria Bertram, the older, is engaged to another man.

Once Maria Bertram marries her rich, but ridiculous and silly suitor, and her younger sister Julia is hurt by Henry Crawford's attentions to her sister, he sets out to make Fanny Price fall in love with him instead. This backfires, and he falls in love with her instead, finally offering for her. Fanny is appalled, having quietly watched as he toyed with her cousins, and as she's in love with Edmund, refuses him, multiple times. Edmund, however, only has eyes for the lively Miss Crawford.

Mansfield Park is probably the least popular of Jane Austen's novels, and it is the only one I had never read before. I can see why it is known as "the dull one" and why many readers would have been a bit disappointed when this came out the year after Pride and Prejudice, as the novels really are extremely different. Pride and Prejudice was of course written many years before it was published, in a time when Austen was younger and more optimistic. But compared with the wit and sparkle and strong emotions of Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park fails to satisfy. Fanny Price is kind, and self-sacrificing and a genuinely good person, but she's also a bit of a drip. She seems to burst in to tears at the drop of a hat, and she would never dream of doing the wrong thing or saying something mean, even though her relatives, especially Mrs. Morris, often treat her badly. She just suffers on and loves Edmund from a distance.

Edmund Bertram is again a very good person, but not exactly a Mr. Darcy calibre hero. He spends most of the book in love with someone else, only to realize towards the end that she does not hold the high moral character he looks for in a wife, and noticing his saintly and ever-present cousin in a different light for the first time.

Mary and Henry Crawford may not be upstanding moral characters, but they were generally a lot more fun than Fanny and Edmund. In some ways, I ended the book thinking that they'd both made lucky escapes, free to marry other people (although Austen in her last chapter makes it clear that they don't). Henry Crawford may have caused a scandal, but in a more modern romance, he would totally be the hero, the rake that gets reformed, and I would probably be cheering him on.

So now I've finally read all of Jane Austen's novels. I must admit, I can't see myself rereading Mansfield Park, like I do the others. I didn't have to actually put it down because it bored me to tears, but I did read two other books in between finishing it, and it does not amuse and entertain at all as much as her other novels, for all that it's a good work full of sharp observations and pithy commentary on Regency society and the social differences of the time.

CBR2 Book 48: "Dead in the Family" by Charlaine Harris

Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: May 6th, 2010
Date finished: May 7th, 2010

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS SOOKIE STACKHOUSE NOVELS, ESPECIALLY DEAD AND GONE

Sookie Stackhouse is slowly recovering from her near-death experience in the previous book. She realizes that she has a lot of pent up anger, and she has certainly changed from the innocent, rather lonely young woman of the first books. Now she's in a relationship with a very powerful vampire, but she also worries that their connection could be weakening his resolve in the continuing power struggle with the vampires. She is also still not entirely safe, some may try to threaten or kill her to get to him.

She is no longer so alone, though, and realizes, partially through examining the losses of all those who have died around her, that she has many close ties, to both the human and supernatural community. Her recently widowed brother seems to have found happiness again, and has become a lot less self-centred as a result of his losses. Two of her friends are pregnant, and while not everyone is delighted at the recent coming-out of the werewolves and other two-natured creatures, Sookie is loyal and fiercely defends her boss and other friends.

Her previous roommate moves out and goes back to New Orleans, but she acquires another, in the form of her super hot strip club owning faerie cousin, who claims he feels lonely after the death of his sisters. Claude is not the only faerie left around after the recent war, and Sookie is worried when she is told there are clear signs of unknown faeries in the forest around her house. Then a fresh body is discovered, and someone has clearly buried it there to get her in trouble.

Added to all this, her boyfriend's maker and his new protegee shows up in town and creates all manner of trouble, both for Sookie and her undead lover. Her boyfriend's "brother" was turned when he was 13, and has a very troubled past - which seems to have turned him insane.

I preferred this book to Dead and Gone, possibly because I like my Sookie Stackhouse books to be a lighthearted entertainment, and the main character of a book being kidnapped, tortured and nearly killed does not spell out lighthearted to me. In this one, Sookie has both physical and mental scars, but has emerged safe and strong, if a lot less innocent and kindhearted. Dead in the Family was one of the better of the ten books, but Charlaine Harris does seem to like end her books very abruptly. I almost wondered if there was a page or two missing when I got to the end, before I remembered that she often ends her books that way.

CBR2 Book 47: "Wicked Becomes You" by Meredith Duran

Publisher: Pocket
Page count: 402 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Date begun: May 5th, 2010
Date finished: May 6th, 2010

Gwen Maudsley is known as the nicest girl in London. She will knit for orphans until her wrists ache, charm condescending old dowagers and never say an unkind word to anyone. Once she is jilted by her second fiancee, this time at the altar, she decides that maybe marrying into nobility and being pleasant to everyone may not be the way to go. If three million pounds and a pleasing manner isn't enough to secure her a husband, what is it actually going to take? To make matters worse, her weaselly fiancee has fled to Paris, and taken the ring of her beloved dead brother with him. She is determined to go to Paris to retrieve the ring. It's time for Gwen to stop being nice, and try being wicked.

Alex Ramsey may just be the man to help her on her road to adventure. He was her brother Richard's best friend and business partner, and promised Richard on his deathbed that he would take care of Gwen. He has always tried to honour the promise from a safe distance, as he always found her a little bit too fascinating up close. While in Paris trying to track down the man who bought some of the family property in order to buy it back, he is alerted to Gwen's undesirable presence by his twin sisters. It quickly becomes clear that Gwen is not interested in going back to London to try for yet another engagement, and that she doesn't just want to track down the cowardly Viscount who has her brother's ring. She wants to experience the more unusual haunts of Paris, and if Alex won't help her, she will find someone else who will.

Meredith Duran has only written four romance novels so far, but each one is better than the next, and Wicked Becomes You may be my favourite one yet. Gwen's transformation from the society darling who lives to please everyone, but who has also worked so terribly hard never to really get properly attached to anyone after her brother's death, to an outspoken, self-assured woman is wonderfully done. She also, very gratifyingly, does not go from innocent society miss to liberated adventuress overnight, there are definitely moments where she is shocked and a bit scared by the new situations she finds herself in.

Alex is also a great character, who suffered from crippling asthma as a child, has spent most of his life escaping the expectations of his family and their continuing fears for his health. He blames himself for Richard's death, and has continued to run the successful business they founded, despite his family's disapproval (although they benefit greatly from the money he makes). He has been fighting his attraction to Gwen for years, but this becomes a lot more difficult for him when they have to travel to the south of France to pursue the man he believes defrauded his brother out of some of the family land. He has always known she has been repressing her true self to fit into polite society, and the person she emerges to become even more fascinating than the girl she was.

The romance obviously does not run entirely smoothly, but all the obstacles thrown into the couple's path seem believable, and the way their relationship develops throughout the book is heart-warming and occasionally took my breath away. The book has all the things I look for in a good romance, and I'm so glad it lived up to my already quite high expectations. Meredith Duran is now on my Must Buy list, and I will be pre-ordering her books from now on.

CBR2 Book 46: "Friday's Child" by Georgette Heyer

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Page count: 432 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: April 21st, 2010
Date finished: April 25th, 2010

Vicount Sheringham, known affectionately to everyone in his acquaintance as Sherry, proposes to the Incomparable of the season, the lovely Miss Isabella Milborne, and is summarily rejected. As his inheritance is in a trust until he turns 25, or he marries, and he is in rather dire financial straits, he needs a wife quickly, and after running into Miss Hero Wantage, a kindly orphan girl who has adored him all his life, he decides to run off with her and make her his wife.

Sherry's friends are rather surprised by his impetuous marriage, but the lovely Hero, who is young and inexperienced, but also very generous, charms them all, and they are soon determined to protect and take care of her. Having grown up the penniless relative at a cousin's, facing a future as a governess, Sherry's offer of marriage to Hero is a dream come true. She is only 17, however, and not used to either the polite or impolite society of London. The rather hard-living Viscount and his many friends are also not the best role models a young lady could have. Hero, very swiftly nicknamed Kitten, and subsequently called this by nearly everyone for the rest of the book, keeps getting into embarrassing situations, the young couple both run up rather a lot of debt and while fond of his pretty little wife, Sheringham does not seem to actually know her very well.

I absolutely adore some of Heyer's books, she writes so very well, and I have previously mentioned the debt modern romance writers everywhere owe to her. According to Wikipedia, Friday's Child was Heyer's own favourite. I'm sorry to say I can't share her sentiment. While amusing and charming, like all her books, I had a bit of trouble actually engaging with the characters. Hero absolutely adores her husband, and can't very well speak out against him, since he rescued her from a life of servitude as a governess, but her blind worship of him gets a bit tiresome. Even more so, Sherry's absolute selfishness and failure to realize both that his young wife hangs on his every word, both for good or ill, and that once he's married he needs to mature and embrace his responsibilities. He does eventually clue in to the fact that he's an idiot, but it takes a bit too long for my tastes.

What saves the book for me is in large part Sherry's various friends and cronies, who are all amusing and colourful. Especially amusing is Lord George Wrotham, a rival of Sherry's for Miss Milborne's affections, who broods and pines and challenges other men to duels for the slightest perceived offence to him. Who the Incomparable Miss Milborne eventually chooses is a subplot in the book which also takes its time coming to a satisfying resolution. In comparison to so many other of Heyer's books that held vivid characters and engaging stories, this one just failed to deliver to the same degree.

CBR2 Book 45: "Dragonskin Slippers" by Jessica Day George

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page count: 336 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: April 16th, 2010
Date finished: April 17th, 2010

Creel and her brother are orphans and living with their aunt and uncle in the provincial farming town Carlieff. Because food is scarce, her aunt decides that Creel has to be given to the local dragon, and then the nobleman's son can rescue and marry her. Creel is pretty sure the dragon is really a myth, and is therefore rather surprised to discover that not only is the dragon real, but he's none to pleased to find a human on his doorstep. He doesn't sleep on a hoard of gold either, but collects shoes. It seems all dragons like collecting different things (one collects dogs), and this one has hundreds of pairs of shoes. For a while it looks like Creel's aunt's crazy plan will succeed, but Creel has no wish for the dragon to get killed, and she certainly doesn't want to marry the local nobleman's son. She bargains with the dragon that she'll get rid of the would-be knight and the irate villagers, if he will give her one pair of his shoes. Creel chooses a pair of lovely blue leather slippers that the dragon is clearly reluctant to part with, but it agrees to give them up if she gets rid of the humans.

Creel never wanted to marry anyone, and certainly doesn't want to go back to her aunt and uncle's. She convinces the rather dim nobleman's son that the dragon was ancient, and carrying her off clearly used up its last strength, so it is now dead, and no danger to anyone. She then starts walking towards the capital, where she wants to find work as a seamstress, using the sewing and embroidery skills her mother taught her. Along the way, she is nearly attacked by ruffians, but rescued by a large gold dragon who takes her to his cave. Shardas, as the dragon is called, collects stained glass windows, and is also surprised to see Creel's slippers, but again, refrains from actually explaining to her why they are important. She stays in the dragon's cave for over a month, finishing her sample pieces and becoming close friends with the friendly beast.

Shardas takes her to the capital, where after wandering lost and alone, and nearly being arrested for stumbling over a foreign princess' lapdog, she is helped to find lodgings by the king's younger son. She is given a job as a dressmaker's apprentice, and within days her skills as an embroiderer are sought after. Amalia, the spoiled foreign princess betrothed to the older prince, sees her unusual slippers one day when she is in the shop, and demands that Creel give them up. Creel refuses, to the horror of one of the other apprentices, a crippled girl who works in the back rooms, and frequently scolds Creel and the other girls for complaining about the demanding customers, and the tyrannical Amalia in particular.

Luka, the younger prince, keeps coming round to the shop to see Creel. He, like many of the people in the city, are not happy about his brother's impending marriage, but the country needs the alliance. When Creel's slippers disappear one morning, and an ugly ballgown is left in their place, Luka tries to help her get them back from Amalia. The true nature of the slippers only becomes clear about a month after they were stolen from Creel, when her good friend Shardas and many other dragons start attacking the capital. The king reveals that the slippers were made out of dragon hide, and allows its wearer to control all the dragons in the kingdom. Amalia and her warmongering father now control the dragons, and intend to use them to conquer the kingdom by force, unless Luka, Creel and her friends find a way to stop them.

Dragonskin Slippers is a sweet, little book, and the relationship between Creel and the dragons in it reminded me of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. It did not surprise me in the slightest when Jessica Day George revealed that she had always been a fan of those books and other stories featuring dragons. Creel is a resourceful girl, determined to make her own way in the world. She is terrified the first time she meets a dragon, but soon realizes that all the stories about them were greatly exaggerated, and that they are intelligent, rather shy creatures, whose reputations have been tarnished by the king who made the slippers to control them and use them as weapons. Once she realizes the terrible power of the slippers the princess stole, she tries to do all in her power to help her dragon friends and get them back. I really liked the story, and its many fairytale elements. I currently only own the second one, but plan to get the third as soon as it's out in paperback.

CBR2 Book 44: "Changeless" by Gail Carriger

Publisher: Orbit
Page count: 388 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: April 12th, 2010
Date finished: April 15th, 2010

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SOULLESS, THE FIRST ALEXIA TARABOTTI NOVEL!
Alexia Tarabotti is now Lady Maccon, and a preternatural advisor to Queen Victoria herself. She finds being married rather pleasant, but is agitated when she one afternoon finds most of her husband's werewolf pack camped out on her front lawn, without him alerting her to the fact that they were even returning from abroad. There is some sort of weapon that affects all supernaturals, turning both werewolves and vampires human again, and the Queen wants her to investigate it. Then her husband goes off to Scotland to sort out business in his old pack, leaving her to deal with her silly, newly-affianced friend (who despite being engaged to another, pines for Lord Maccon's valet), her demanding half-sister Felicity (dumped unceremoniously on her front steps by her mother), and mysterious French hatmaker/inventor who scandalously wears men's clothing.
I was delighted by Soulless, the first novel in the series, and had been eagerly anticipated the sequel. I love the covers, and the mix between romance, paranormal, and Steampunk in the narrative worked very well. I am sad to say that while Changeless was not bad, it was weaker than the first, in part I think, because Alexia and Connall spent so much time apart. Carriger's writing truly sparkles when they share a scene, and they have a very enjoyable banter that was missing for a lot of this book. There is a lot more technology in this one, Alexia goes travelling by dirigible with her rather sizeable entourage, and there are still people who want her dead.
More is revealed about her husband and why he left his original pack in Scotland to become Alpha in England instead. There is the mystery of what is causing the supernaturals to turn human, like Alexia's powers but on a much larger scale. Alexia finds out more about her dead father, there is spying afoot. She makes a new friend in the hatmaker/inventor, Madame Genevieve Lafoux, who is clearly more than she first seems.

The books ends on a cliffhanger, after a surprising, thought to be impossible occurrence makes Connall cast off his wife in disgust. Alexia has to leave Scotland in a hurry and I'm assuming that Blameless, the third novel in the series (out in September) will be all about explaining how the believed to be impossible was actually possible, clearing Alexia's honour and reuniting her with her husband.