We have hit the point in this series where I genuinely have no idea how to discuss anything at all about this book without it being chockful of spoilers, so everything is under the cut!
Showing posts with label week 16. Show all posts
Showing posts with label week 16. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Book 57: Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner
More regency romance! This time we're focusing on Phoebe, a full-figured widow who doesn't want to get married again until she needs money in order to help her younger sister. The local political organizations are willing to make it worth her while to either marry a Whig or a Tory for the votes, but she ends up feeling very strongly for Nick Dymond, the brother of the Whig candidate who has withdrawn from society since he returned from the war. However, he's not an option for her, so she reluctantly allows two other gentlemen to court her and tries to imagine giving up her love of writing for a loveless marriage.
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. I thought the writing itself was fairly solid, but the characters never quite landed for me. I've already started reading the next book in the series and I think the central relationship/conflict is going to be more to my taste, so it may just be that this book isn't for me. I will say that the final part of the book during which everything is revealed and there are secrets and betrayals and lots of other exciting things was really fun to read, and the physical chemistry between Phoebe and Nick was very well written; it just didn't hit me emotionally. Hoping the next one is more to my liking!
Grade: C
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. I thought the writing itself was fairly solid, but the characters never quite landed for me. I've already started reading the next book in the series and I think the central relationship/conflict is going to be more to my taste, so it may just be that this book isn't for me. I will say that the final part of the book during which everything is revealed and there are secrets and betrayals and lots of other exciting things was really fun to read, and the physical chemistry between Phoebe and Nick was very well written; it just didn't hit me emotionally. Hoping the next one is more to my liking!
Grade: C
Book 56: Timepiece by Heather Albano
This is a very enjoyable Regency-era time travel book! It opens at the Battle of Waterloo, where Wellington's troops are faltering as they wait for the Prussian reinforcements. Wellington orders that their secret troops be brought out, who are Frankenstein men that have been created to defeat Napoleon. This will lead to tragic consequences in the future for the United Kingdom and beyond, if a group of time travelers can't put things right (that once went wrong).
Our main heroes are Elizabeth and William, two neighbors who travel into the late 19th century courtesy of a mysterious watch Elizabeth receives in the post. William is a former soldier whose right arm was seriously injured in battle, and Elizabeth is a young lady who is desperate to escape the staid life awaiting her. I enjoy both of them very much, and the burgeoning relationship between them develops in a very satisfying way.
The book occasionally focuses too long on characters who never quite hit home with me the way Elizabeth and William do, and I often felt I was just a step ahead of the narrative in terms of understanding what was happening, which sometimes meant the pacing dragged a bit. However, the biggest issue I had with the book was the very late discovery that it was, in fact, the first book of a trilogy. It ends on a fairly big cliffhanger, and because I thought it was a standalone, that cliffhanger just made me annoyed rather than eager to read the next one. The third book is coming out next year, though so if I am still interested in what happens next at that point, I'll pick up both the second and third books and finish it.
Grade: B
Our main heroes are Elizabeth and William, two neighbors who travel into the late 19th century courtesy of a mysterious watch Elizabeth receives in the post. William is a former soldier whose right arm was seriously injured in battle, and Elizabeth is a young lady who is desperate to escape the staid life awaiting her. I enjoy both of them very much, and the burgeoning relationship between them develops in a very satisfying way.
The book occasionally focuses too long on characters who never quite hit home with me the way Elizabeth and William do, and I often felt I was just a step ahead of the narrative in terms of understanding what was happening, which sometimes meant the pacing dragged a bit. However, the biggest issue I had with the book was the very late discovery that it was, in fact, the first book of a trilogy. It ends on a fairly big cliffhanger, and because I thought it was a standalone, that cliffhanger just made me annoyed rather than eager to read the next one. The third book is coming out next year, though so if I am still interested in what happens next at that point, I'll pick up both the second and third books and finish it.
Grade: B
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