Wednesday Reading Meme
I thought I'd participate this week! Yay summer! Yay books!
What I Just Finished Reading
I just read the first two books in the Miss Sarah Tolerance series by Madeline Robins, Point of Honour and Petty Treason. They're plucky-girl-detective mysteries set in (more or less) Regency London. Sarah, a Fallen Woman (yes, always capitalized like that) has decided to become a private investigator rather than a prostitute and so now she investigates things. The characters are likeable, the mysteries are serviceable (a tad too easy, but forgiveably so), and the setting is of course a favorite. For some reason -- one hesitates to say laziness -- the author has decided to signal that these books Take Liberties With History by having Queen Charlotte as regent instead of the Prince of Wales (later George IV). Other than the succession, nothing appears to be different at all (there is, for instance, no way in which having a female regent has made anyone think women are at all capable). So not fantasy, or even that AU, just... ahistorical.
I also read The Sallee Rovers, by M. Key, which is actually also a bit... AU with history. It's a boat!book, along the lines of Patrick O'Brian or C.S. Forester, the kind where people have the weather-gage and a thousand kinds of sails, etc., but the main character is a gay boy (in the British navy). The author claims (and I believe it) that he (I believe that well enough also) has sailed on recreation historic ships, and it feels *much* more authentically boat!book-like to me than other m/m Age of Sail books I have read (Alex Beecroft, Lee Rowan; W.A. Hoffman's Brethren of the Coast books are equally detailed but very different); it's *really* just POB with gay boys. Part of the reason for that may be that the plot is not actually a romance, and here begins my complaint... I really, really, really liked the first 2/3 or so. I was planning to rate it 5 stars on Goodreads (which I never do), I stayed up all night to finish it (it's long)... but. About 2/3 of the way through, the author seems to have basically changed his mind about what was going to happen in the story, and the main character began to behave in ways that were wildly out of character of him up until then. So. I *do* recommend it if you intrisically like boat!books and were just sad that everyone was (nominally) straight, but do not expect a fulfilling romance or a professionally-edited (or even well beta'ed) story. (I have not bought any of the sequels, if that tells you anything.)
The other book I've read in the last week was another plucky-girl!detective historical mystery (yes, that is one of my absolute favorite genres: if there were only ones about lesbian plucky-girl!detectives in Regency/Victorian England, I think I would've found my perfect perfect book), the fifth book in the Liberty Lane series, Keeping Bad Company. I wasn't particularly impressed; I think the series is fizzling out. Sigh.
What I'm Reading Now
Livy, Book 38 (ed. P.G. Walsh). The downfall of the Scipios (later in the book: right now I'm still besieging Ambracia and making arrangements about the Aetolians).
What I'm Reading Next
I've bought the third Sarah Tolerance, so probably that.
What I Just Finished Reading
I just read the first two books in the Miss Sarah Tolerance series by Madeline Robins, Point of Honour and Petty Treason. They're plucky-girl-detective mysteries set in (more or less) Regency London. Sarah, a Fallen Woman (yes, always capitalized like that) has decided to become a private investigator rather than a prostitute and so now she investigates things. The characters are likeable, the mysteries are serviceable (a tad too easy, but forgiveably so), and the setting is of course a favorite. For some reason -- one hesitates to say laziness -- the author has decided to signal that these books Take Liberties With History by having Queen Charlotte as regent instead of the Prince of Wales (later George IV). Other than the succession, nothing appears to be different at all (there is, for instance, no way in which having a female regent has made anyone think women are at all capable). So not fantasy, or even that AU, just... ahistorical.
I also read The Sallee Rovers, by M. Key, which is actually also a bit... AU with history. It's a boat!book, along the lines of Patrick O'Brian or C.S. Forester, the kind where people have the weather-gage and a thousand kinds of sails, etc., but the main character is a gay boy (in the British navy). The author claims (and I believe it) that he (I believe that well enough also) has sailed on recreation historic ships, and it feels *much* more authentically boat!book-like to me than other m/m Age of Sail books I have read (Alex Beecroft, Lee Rowan; W.A. Hoffman's Brethren of the Coast books are equally detailed but very different); it's *really* just POB with gay boys. Part of the reason for that may be that the plot is not actually a romance, and here begins my complaint... I really, really, really liked the first 2/3 or so. I was planning to rate it 5 stars on Goodreads (which I never do), I stayed up all night to finish it (it's long)... but. About 2/3 of the way through, the author seems to have basically changed his mind about what was going to happen in the story, and the main character began to behave in ways that were wildly out of character of him up until then. So. I *do* recommend it if you intrisically like boat!books and were just sad that everyone was (nominally) straight, but do not expect a fulfilling romance or a professionally-edited (or even well beta'ed) story. (I have not bought any of the sequels, if that tells you anything.)
The other book I've read in the last week was another plucky-girl!detective historical mystery (yes, that is one of my absolute favorite genres: if there were only ones about lesbian plucky-girl!detectives in Regency/Victorian England, I think I would've found my perfect perfect book), the fifth book in the Liberty Lane series, Keeping Bad Company. I wasn't particularly impressed; I think the series is fizzling out. Sigh.
What I'm Reading Now
Livy, Book 38 (ed. P.G. Walsh). The downfall of the Scipios (later in the book: right now I'm still besieging Ambracia and making arrangements about the Aetolians).
What I'm Reading Next
I've bought the third Sarah Tolerance, so probably that.