Just like a prospective duchess, it was charming and witty and able to stand alone.
The Dowager Duchess of Halford is desperate for her son Griffin, the current duke, to get married. He absolutely refuses. She drags him to Spinster Spindle Cove to check out prospective candidates and says that he can pick anyone and she will turn that girl into his duchess.
Pauline Simms is having a really shitty day. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, but she is trying to make the most of her life as a serving girl in a tavern. Her day is about to get better or worse, depending on your point of view, when the duke picks her to be his duchess.
Griffin and Pauline make a deal: if she fails in a week he will give her the money she needs to open her dream bookshop in the village. The catch is that Pauline is actually really good at her duchess lessons. And serving girl or no, she would make an awesome duchess. Will love prevail? Of course, it will.
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Whether you’re a tourist, an Indiana Jones wannabe (or you just love Harrison Ford) or an armchair traveller, this is the perfect book to take you away to faraway lands.
In line with Travel Tuesday (#traveltuesday) on Twitter, Wandergurl is attempting to review a travel book once a month. It does not always happen, obvs.
Once upon a time, there was a writer called Mark Adams. He wrote for an adventure magazine but never really had any adventures. One day, he decided to follow the footsteps of Hiram Bingham, the man who made Machu Picchu known to the world. This is Adams’s thoroughly engaging, adventure-filled story.
About five years ago, I did a version of the Inca Trail called the Lares Trek (I booked late and couldn’t get a permit to do the actual one). After about four exhausting days, I made it to Machu Picchu and it was one of the best experiences of my life, never mind that I had never hiked before and had problems with altitude. Like Adams, prior to this adventure I had never slept in a tent (unless you count that one time in high school when they made us go camping overnight), or owned hiking boots. It was the trip that inspired many more adventures, so when I saw this book, I had to have it.
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I love Loretta Chase and this story did not disappoint. I only wished it had been longer.
The Earl of Rawnsley has quite possibly gone mad, and is dying besides, and now lives in the moors of Dartmoor. Gwendolyn Adams has just been asked to marry him to secure an heir before he dies. (This actually made a lot of sense to me in a romance novel context.) Is he really mad? What’s in it for her? And is he really going to die?
Dorian, the Earl, is your classic tormented hero—tormented by the actions of his past, a hard-handed, unforgiving family, and the ‘spirits’ that he supposedly sees. He just wants to be left alone to die in peace. Given his past history, he is incredibly worried about what will happen to him when he finally succumbs to this madness (warning: the descriptions of mental institutions in that time are pretty heartbreaking, and while author Loretta Chase doesn’t go into a lot of detail, things happen to a certain character and it is well described). When he unexpectedly inherits the earldom, he has no intention of continuing the title, but suddenly this lady shows up on his doorstep and somehow also saves his life.
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Compelling characters in an unusual but richly rendered setting—I felt the chill on their skin and harshness of the landscape.
Agnes, a servant woman in early 19th century rural Iceland, is condemned to death for the murder of her master. While awaiting execution, she is sent to live in care of the local district officer’s family. Horrified at the prospect of living with a murderess, they try to avoid her but, with the advent of the harvest and the need for extra hands, are forced to interact. Agnes is sent a priest to preside over her repentance, and she has chosen Toti, for seemingly random reasons. Through her discussions with him and interactions with the household, we find out the other side to the story. Did Agnes really murder her master? What really happened the night the farm burned down?
More than just a murder, this historical novel, based on an actual case, also provides a picture of relationships, and how it is to be human. From the first page, I was drawn into Agnes’s story, to her character and spirit of fierce determination. Everyone in the story seems to be fighting for a chance to survive, and this is clear in their way of life, their traditions, and deep spirituality. Every character and their motivations are shown and juxtaposed with the harsh landscape, seemingly a pattern for how unforgiving both the land and its people can be.
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The series that made me—and the rest of the world—fall in love with Julia Quinn. If you haven’t read this series, start now! If you have, then this is the cherry on the cake.
Special note for fans: Julia Quinn will be a keynote speaker at the 2013 Romance Writers of Australia conference at Fremantle in August. Click here for more details.
Actual text message from the year 2000:
BFF: Wandergurl! Anthony Bridgerton is getting married. We have to get The Viscount Who Loved Me.
Me (Thinking, Who the fuck is… ohhhhhhhhhhh.): Yes! Of course! We have to get someone to bring it from America.
Back in the early 00s when I was growing up in the Philippines, you didn’t get books on time and the bigger independent bookstores didn’t really exist yet. It’s easier to get things now, but back then, your best chance for immediate access during a release date was to have someone vacationing in America to bring it back to you. After reading The Duke and I in a rental book club called ‘The Armchair Reader’ (and buying the book when the book club closed down) I was determined to get the rest of the series.
Aside from the actual stories of the books, obtaining them involved their own stories. I had one of our clients, a big, burly bearded Texan bring one back for me from Austin. My managing director brought back my Amazon order with a Bridgerton and The Lord of the Rings, extended edition. My giant elfish geek of a friend went to a bookstore and never let me hear the end of it after he had to ask for Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. (He also very nicely climbed a ladder and alphabetised my romance novels at my request. Thank you, dear.) Another was brought back by a Goth friend from San Francisco, who also happened to read romances and thought Sir Phillip with Love wasn’t bad—except the title sucked.
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Original, witty and fun—this is my new favourite series.
Probationary Constable Peter Grant works for the Metropolitan Police Force and is the kind of mediocre that we all are sometimes, but don’t really want to admit. He’s smart, he can handle himself, but he needs an extra little push to get somewhere sometimes. He also wants to do something significant with his life but can’t seem to figure out what, and his boss seems to think he’s destined for a life of paperwork.
That is, until one night when, after being called to the scene, he interviews a witness who happens to be dead. Suddenly, he’s a detective constable working for a special branch of the police that previously had only one member. He’s also the first trainee apprentice wizard in Britain in fifty years. Oh, and he has to find out who killed that guy.
Creative, funny and very real, Peter Grant could be your friend, the blokey jokester that you hang out and have a beer with. He’s the kind of person who sometimes fumbles and could use a good woman to keep his head on straight (there is one, kind of). He’s a good guy; it just so happens that weird things keep happening to him.
This book, the first of a thoroughly entertaining series, shows us how Peter stumbles into the use of magic and finally finds his feet, solving a mystery (and developing his skills at coming up with witticisms) in the process. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed this series, with its comedic interludes, rich characterisation and inventive world building.
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Although there are familiar elements, there is something quite distinct about this series. I really enjoyed this difference.
Kalder Mar grew up in the Mire, a swamp in just about the dodgiest part of the Edge, a land between the Broken (that would be our world) and the Weird (that would be a magic world, part-Faerie, part Renaissance-y steampunk fantasy). He’s a liar, thief and sometime spy who is really, really good with a sword and has an uncanny (magical) ability to make things happen if you bet him they can’t.
Audrey Callahan is the daughter of a con artist. Bitter and battered by the life her family taught her to live, she’s tried to keep on the straight and narrow, getting a real job in the Broken and taking care of herself. Her father persuades her to do one last con, and if she does, he’ll stay out of her life forever.
Tasked with retrieving the item that Audrey’s family stole, Kalder and Audrey cross paths and find themselves working together to make things right, with all the adventures that come with it.
Despite my rave review for book one in the series, book two languished on my TBR for two and a half years before I picked it up. I then promptly called Galaxy Books and made them ship me the rest of the series while I lay in bed languishing from illness. This is book three.
Fate’s Edge reminded me why I love Ilona Andrews. It’s filled with rich world building and engaging characters, and I devoured this book in one night despite drinking codeine-laced cough medication.
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An exciting, fast-paced and very, very sexy steampunk romance series.
I am now hooked on a new series, the Clockwork Agents by Kate Cross, and I’m cheating a bit and doing a two-in-one review, largely because what I liked in both books was the same. (I blame Mirna of Rendezvous books for another excellent recommendation.)
This steampunk series is set in Victorian England and is filled with interesting inventions, gadgets and robotics—Cross does a good job of integrating corsets, guns and gadgets. I especially liked the world building and the combination of steampunk and spy vs spy plot. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely historically accurate—they say fuck and shite!—but as this is a steampunk novel, I expected the authors to take some liberties.
Heart of Brass features Lady Arden Grey, whose husband Luke disappears on a mission for the Wardens of the Realm, a covert organisation created to protect the British Empire. Seven years later, an assassin is sent to kill her in retribution for her killing of a Company agent (their rival spy organisation) and she recognizes him as her husband, who has no memory of who she is or any of his past. Arden is a strong, very resourceful heroine, who never lost faith in her husband, Luke, who starts off being a bit of a prick before he gets his memory back.
There’s also a side plot with Arden helping out Scotland Yard in investigations using her special gadgets—she’s an inventor—and solving a mystery as to who is murdering young girls. I don’t think this side plot was necessary, though, and in some ways it detracted from the main story of Arden and Luke figuring out who brainwashed him and trying to help him get back his memories. That story was meaty enough to not need a distraction. There are also a few things I found a bit convenient—like how they have a master surgeon who has a magic elixir that can fix everything, but we don’t know what it is. I hope that’s explained when she gets her own novel.
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Because who wouldn’t want to wake up next to a hot-hunka-chunka-burning-love Highlander with a kilt (but not in one)?
Georgette Thorold, otherwise a lady and a widow besides, wakes up one morning to find herself:
a) in Scotland
b) with a ring on her finger
c) naked next to a really hot guy
So she does what any girl in her position would do—she runs away!
Throughout the course of the day she discovers that she may have imbibed a wee bit much the night before, can’t remember a thing, and may have encountered all manner of whatevers and done all manner of things in this tiny Scottish town. Also, is she really married?
I will admit to asking for this ARC largely based on the pretty cover. It did not disappoint. Jennifer Mc Quiston’s debut novel is fresh and funny and kept me largely guessing. The first half of the book is devoted to Georgette and her Scotsman trying to figure out WTF happened the night before, like a romance version of The Hangover sans tigers. (Watch the movie!)
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You don’t have to be a fashionista to appreciate this book. Grace Coddington is a woman who loves life and what’s she’s made of it, and that comes through very clearly on the pages.
I first started reading Vogue when I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed ten-year-old in love with River Phoenix. (I have now dated myself.) My mother worked for a marketing distributor, and aside from being sent to Paris for work on occasion, she had to read Vogue, Elle and other fashion magazines on a regular basis to keep up with the trends and check out the ads. Naturally, I read them too, and while I am the most tomboy-dressing person I know and will spend my days in thongs (flip flops) if I can, I have a slight fashionista side, more related to knowing about stuff than actually wearing anything. I know my designers, the classics, and have a list of handbags I will someday own before I die, but I am not concerned enough to give up wearing my flip-flops everyday. (Kat can also tell you that my penchant for celebrity gossip possibly will indirectly contribute to my random fashion know-how.)
Grace Coddington first became (in)famous outside the fashion world in the movie The September Issue, a documentary on Vogue and its editor, Anna Wintour. Wintour, (in)famously known for the movie the The Devil Wears Prada, was portrayed as Coddington’s adversary throughout much of the movie. As the creative director of Vogue, Coddington is responsible for the fashion shoots and styling for many of the pages in the magazine. In the movie, she and Wintour butt heads as to what should go in to ‘The September Issue’, Vogue’s biggest and most important issue every year. In real life, they are dear friends, but in the movie, it really looked like they would kill each other. At least part of the reason this memoir came to be may be because of her popularity after The September Issue.
Coddington has been in the fashion industry for 50 years. Her memoir is full of insights into the industry, and into relationships and life as a whole. The book comes to life with her words, imagination, and the charming little drawings that she has made herself, peppered throughout the book.
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