Fandom Primer Post (aka Pimp Your Fandom)
Now that nominations are done and sign-ups are just on the horizon, here's a post where you can advertise your fandoms to the rest of yuletide. Tell us about your fandom(s) and link to sources you think will help a new fan interested in checking it out or an old fan looking for canon refreshing. And if you're looking for new (or old but forgotten) fandoms
( Read more... )
Category: Books & Literature
Comments: It's a historical fantasy romance with mystery elements set in 1780s England and Ireland. What's not to love?
A Widow in Waiting is the first and thus far only installment in this quartet. The title character is Eleanor de Maine, Lady Farnton, whose husband died in an incident in the village of Glenscar in County Wexford, Ireland. One mystery throughout the book is what exactly happened; the truth of it is not for public consumption, in part to protect those directly involved, but in larger part to protect the village as a whole. Glenscar is a place where people with magical powers can live openly without fear, and those powers were involved in Lord Farnton's death: sight twisting to disguise the highwayman who stopped the Farntons' carriage; true dreaming to tell John Marlowe, the local landowners' son, that Eleanor would be in need of rescue from her husband; persuasion, first to compel Eleanor to marry Lord Farnton (a spell that broke when the highwayman took her wedding ring), then-but why spoil the story?
The book takes place over the six months beginning just after John and his sister Grace return Eleanor to her father's home in Oxfordshire. Eleanor and John are waiting for Eleanor's six months of mourning to end, as Eleanor began falling in love with John while he and his family helped her determine a course of action (rendered unnecessary by Lord Farnton's death) to make her a free woman, and John with Eleanor when he first saw her in his dreams years ago; Eleanor remarrying less than six months after her first husband died would be the scandal of the year. There are complications along the way, of course. A neighbor of Eleanor's family's, who wants to marry Eleanor himself. The Warbird clan, mixed Irish Travelers and Romani, whose leader Thunder has gotten in a magical tangle with Grace Marlowe that means the two cannot be parted by more than a few dozen miles, and the rest of whom are unwilling to leave him behind. The highwayman Kieran and his past, both what he conceals from English society in order to venture among them and what he does not know. Thunder's sister Shadow, entering society herself with her own secrets. Kieran's apprentice Nevan and Eleanor's sister-in-law Isabel, who cannot seem to stay out of trouble. Eleanor's father, who won't stand for Eleanor to be a mere Mrs. when she's become a countess and is being courted by the heir to an earldom.
Walsh has a knack for dialogue, historical detail, and navigating the complex waters of sexism, classism, and racism as found in the 1780s British Isles. Her use of music makes the story come alive; I find myself wishing I could hear Eleanor sing "Carrickfergus" in chapter five, and chapter twenty-five flows better if one reads Grace dancing while one listens to Celtic Woman's "Granuaile's Dance".
Walsh plans three more books: Playing with Fire, the same six months focusing on Grace and Thunder, the Warbirds, and parts of time in Glenscar that John didn't see, Shadow's Dancing, the same six months focusing on Shadow and Kieran in English high society, and The Highwayman's Apprentice, focusing on Isabel and Nevan in the months after the first three books end. The difficulty is that I want more now.
Links:
1. Kindle book
2. paperback book
3. other ebook formats
4. Anne B. Walsh on Facebook
5. Sing a Song of Sixpence, a prequel
Reply
Leave a comment