The Dark Unwinding and its sequel A Spark Unseen are set in Victorian England and France, respectively, and have a vaguely steampunk theme that doesn’t go full-tilt but still includes a lot of clever era-appropriate tinkering and inventing. I review them together because while they, technically, stand alone, they are incredibly similar in tone and structure and I had similar problems with both of them. The Dark Unwinding begins when Katharine Tulman is sent from London, where she resides with her aunt and young cousin, […]
One of my favorite romances this year.
When I reviewed Cecilia Grant previously, I mentioned how she seems to delight in turning tropes on their ears. A Woman Entangled is the last book in her Blackshear Family series, and Grant’s target here is perfect. With overt nods to both Pride and Prejudice and Emma, Grant uses the romance of Kate Westbrook and Nick Blackshear to make larger points about vanity, respectability, and expectations. What I find particularly interesting about her romances is that, while her books are in company with other top-quality […]
The madness of me, reading this book
2.5 stars This book tried my patience. I started off loving it — I liked that the heroine was an independent, wealthy widow who had loved her husband and had a seemingly healthy relationship with sex. I was intrigued by the hero, who has savant tendencies and is on the spectrum. I bought their initial attraction. Everything was going just fine. And then the plot happened. Like, omg, so much plot. There is a murder, that is connected to another murder, and the hero is […]
Haters gonna hate
3.5 stars I kind of feel like everyone has loved and reviewed The Hating Game already, and I’m coming in at the end like a bucket of cold water. Which isn’t completely the case, since I did like The Hating Game, but I didn’t like it as much as Act Like It, which is the other 2016 bookend for clever enemies-to-lovers romance. I don’t feel the need to do any plot recap here, so I’ll just cut the b.s. and get to bitchin’. I talked […]