Recent Reads: The School for Manners

[mizkit]

My reading lately has not been going so well. I’m bouncing off a lot of well-reviewed books hard, and I’m retreating to fun and easy reads.

I’ve said before that I enjoy reading MC Beaton’s books because they take me about 70 minutes and therefore allow me to feel like I’m reading a lot, even if in wordcount I’m not really. I’d been reading Agatha

Comments

[deborahblakehps]

I'm on a contemporary romance kick because my brain is too fried by winter and writing to manage anything else :-)

I used to like MC Beaton, but eventually they got a little too mean-spirited for me.

[deborahblakehps]

Oh, HEY! I got a great idea for something for you to read. It's fast and easy and fun. Baba something...

[haikujaguar]

Oh, the heroine shaking thing. I was re-reading Pern a few months ago and was aghast at the whole shaking thing. The first man who shook me would be the last man who shook me, because I would rage-punch him so hard he'd tear a hole in the space-time continuum.

Ugh.

Modern fantasies of manners... I just finished Mary Robinette Kowal's Shades of Milk and Honey (which has a paranormal twist), and that was really nicely done. In straight romance, The Taming of Lady Kate was diverting (Vandagriff's that author). I am blanking on others, but there was one about a magic chocolate pot... oh, here we go. Sorcery & Cecelia: The Enchanted Chocolate Pot.

[mizkit]

I'm actually thinking not-fantastical, but straight Regency romance comedy of manners stuff, but thank you for those suggestions anyway!

Oh wow. Yes. I remember the last time I read the Pern books, which was a while ago now, going "holy O.O" at all the shaking and stuff. Yes. Indeed. Holy crap. o.o

[haikujaguar]

*squints* Okay so only the Taming of Lady Kate fits in that. I have been reading some period gay romances, but I don't think they count as fantasy of manners (though I did like the one where the man who ended up in the loveless marriage got maneuvered by her into a relationship with her brother, because she was fond of both of them).

[pers1stence]

Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander: A Novel by Ann Herendeen was an interesting twist on the regency romance genre but with unconventional relationships (gay and bisexual and straight) all featured in the main storyline. Greatest regency story ever told? no. a nice change of pace and competently told? yes.

[pers1stence]

I first read Marion Chesney (aka, MC Beaton) in early high school, with the 7 Sisters books and I think that's where I got hooked on the genre. Re-read them a few years ago and still liked 6 of the 7 quite a lot. I enjoyed the School of Manners, but they didn't stay with me mentally nearly as much.

[mizkit]

I've only read one of the 7 Sisters books so far (gotta get the rest) and thought it too was cute.

[pers1stence]

My bad - it's six sisters. As I recall, the one with Frederica (or possibly it was Diana -- it's been a while) was the one that had the overly "masterful" hero, in a way that I found a little creepy even at 15. But there was only the one "hero" that was like that, as I recall.

[chrysoula]

I have not read these. Well, possibly one, not sure.

Having just come off writing romantic (or semi-romantic) encounters between 4 different couples, I'm giving my tropes the side-eye. Let's see. We have one, "I'll show you!" (but it's not a kiss, or anything physical), one frank sex-positive conversation about duty vs desire, and let's see, yes, one Kiss That Backfires By Making Him Realize He Means It. >.> <.< (to be fair, she was pretty much thinking oh god please kiss me when he did. does that matter?)