Tagged: masq1
The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Eleanor of Aquitaine is a 12th century icon who has fascinated readers for 800 years. But the real Eleanor remains elusive.
This stunning novel introduces an Eleanor that all other writers have missed. Based on the most up-to-date research, it is the first novel to show Eleanor beginning her married life at 13.
Overflowing with scandal, passion, triumph and tragedy, Eleanor’s legendary story begins when her beloved father dies in the summer of 1137, and she is made to marry the young prince Louis of France. A week after the marriage she becomes a queen and her life will change beyond recognition . . .
Seeing as I really don’t know much about Eleanor of Aquitaine I’m not qualified to comment on the historical accuracy but I think it’s pretty exciting that The Summer Queen is based on new research into Eleanor’s life, including the fact that she was married at the tender age of 13. Also within this book, Chadwick uses the way Eleanor herself actually spelled her name: Alienor. It gives it a more authentic feeling and gives a little more recognition to the real historical figure that’s the centre of this novel.
First off, I was very impressed with the character of Alienor. She’s a very complicated person, much like the real historical figure. Her childhood was fairly carefree in Aquitaine but when her father died when she was a pre-teen, life definitely changed for the worst for her. She initially was enraptured with Louis when she married him at age 13 but throughout the story she becomes understandably frustrated with the utter lack of passion in her marriage. Louis really would have made a better monk than a husband, as she quips at one point. So in a bid to get out from underneath her overbearing mother-in-law and her bossy, stuffy husband she rebels in small ways by bringing bits of Aquitaine with her to court including its bright fashions and beautiful music. I liked how she desperately tried to find happiness despite an objectively terrible situation and when she actually achieved some measure of happiness after her divorce, she desperately clung to it. Having experienced years of misery, I really don’t blame her. She had to grow up pretty fast and had a pretty rough life up until she met and married Henry of Anjou. Even then, her happiness is only temporary.
The plot is not very fast-paced I must admit and I did struggle at some points. What saves The Summer Queen is Elizabeth Chadwick’s writing style, which both lends an air of authenticity to the work and makes things interesting enough to get readers through the long travel sections (particularly the section where Alienor is on the crusade with Louis). Sometimes even then the pacing drags the book down, however. But the book is interesting enough in general to get you through those really slow sections and to the very exciting events of Alienor’s life. She really was an incredible woman who was not allowed to be all that incredible until she achieved the legal independence she craved. Alienor definitely chafed under the expectations put upon her in France, especially since she was such a strong-willed and passionate woman. Even if you can’t get past the slow pacing, I thin kthe character of Alienor really carries the day.
Again, I can’t speak for the historical accuracy of this novel but I do believe Chadwick did more than enough research to lend an air of authenticity to the text. She has this way of writing that puts you right there along with Alienor from the beauty of Aquitaine to her brutal trip slogging through hostile territory to get to the Holy Land. She does admit to speculating about an affair between Alienor and one of her vassals because it cannot be proven but I feel she made a strong enough case to her readers so it didn’t feel like she was adding in intrigue for intrigue’s sake. I am a little skeptical of all that she has written because she uses “the Akashic Records…to fill in the blanks and explore what happened in the past from a psychic perspective.” That’s a little, um…unconventional…for me but she at least justifies her choices with more reliable historical records. That’s why I’m not going to say that her research is 100% reliable, both because I know so little about the period and the fact she uses a ‘psychic perspective’.
Her research methods aside, The Summer Queen is a great read even though it does drag in sections. The character of Alienor really does shine through and I think that if you love historical fiction and want to learn more about the famous queen, this is definitely a good book to pick up.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Electrify Me by Bibi Rizer
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
All Gloria Falcon wants is to have a nice New Year’s Eve with a nice man. Is that so much to ask? But after seven disastrous New Years in a row, this year she’s trying something different. Committed to spending her New Year’s Eve manning the phones at a suicide crisis phone line, Gloria is sure the karma she earns will break her New Year’s curse. But when a blackout cancels her night of philanthropy, rather than spend the night moping in the dark, she goes on a ride along with the cute electric company lineman who failed to fix the power.
Charlie Zhang is not much of a New Year believer either. He’s coasting through life after being discharged from the army and trying not to let his cynicism of pretty much everything define him. When Gloria Falcon climbs into Charlie’s life, and his repair truck, neither of them expect this to be the New Year’s Eve that changes their minds, and their fate, forever.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through Masquerade Tours’ Reader Round-Up program in exchange for an honest review.]
I picked Electrify Me because I was looking for some light-hearted reading. I didn’t really expect much and unfortunately the book didn’t deliver all that much.
The characters are okay. Gloria herself is much more realistic than Charlie. She’s a down on her luck 24 year old woman who was born on New Years and seems to be cursed to have bad things happen to her. In the beginning of the novella you can really feel her exasperation with her situation but also her sense of humour about the whole thing. She has a “How could it possibly get worse?” attitude that sees her through some pretty awful mishaps on that cursed day. What I really didn’t like about her character was that she was volunteering to man a suicide crisis phone in order to help her karma. That’s rather a glib attitude to take toward suicidal people and their problems; it really didn’t feel like her heart was in it. However, it was a part of her character and didn’t really affect my enjoyment of her character.
Charlie, however, was rather dull. You could exchange him for pretty much any other romantic interest in any other erotica or romance novel and you wouldn’t notice a difference. (But to be fair this is a little more multicultural than usual because he is Asian.) He’s boring and polite and although he’s physically attractive he has the sort of personality that induces drowsiness because he’s so boring and perfect. He’s hot because he’s training to be a fireman, he volunteers for shifts on New Years for extra pay and credit at work and he always helps out whenever he can. Those are awesome traits and would be kind of refreshing because I hate the whole ‘bad boy’ trope but at the same time, he doesn’t have much in the way of anything interesting. His conversations with Gloria are pretty predictable and he really just comes off as bland. Nothing really stands out about his character.
The writing was generally okay but some of the sex scenes caused me to laugh out loud because sometimes Bibi Rizer gets a little creative with her descriptions and strays into purple prose territory. Most notably: “Kissing Charlie feels healthy. Nutritious even. As though I’m getting vitamins and minerals and will wake up with thicker, shinier hair and skin that’s twenty-five percent more luminous.” It kind of killed the mood for me. But the rest of the sex scenes were generally okay, if a little boring.
As for the plot, well, it was a little predictable. Usually awesome writing would make up for that but since the writing was ‘meh’ the plot came across as ‘meh’ as well. From the time Gloria and Charlie meet you pretty much know what’s going to happen but the other plot events are just as predictable. I know you don’t generally read romance or erotica for the plot but it just left me bored.
Basically, this book was ‘meh’. It wasn’t terrible but it doesn’t stand out from the crowd.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
The Figaro Murders by Laura Lebow
(Cover picture courtesy of NetGalley.)
In 1786 Vienna, Lorenzo Da Ponte is the court librettist for the Italian Theatre during the height of the enlightened reign of Emperor Joseph II. This exalted position doesn’t mean he’s particularly well paid, or even out of reach of the endless intrigues of the opera world. In fact, far from it.
One morning, Da Ponte stops off at his barber, only to find the man being taken away to debtor’s prison. Da Ponte impetuously agrees to carry a message to his barber’s fiancée and try to help her set him free, even though he’s facing pressures of his own. He’s got one week to finish the libretto for The Marriage of Figaro for Mozart before the opera is premiered for the Emperor himself.
Da Ponte visits the house where the barber’s fiancée works—the home of a nobleman, high in the Vienna’s diplomatic circles—and then returns to his own apartments, only to be dragged from his rooms in the middle of the night. It seems the young protégé of the diplomat was killed right about the time Da Ponte was visiting, and he happens to be their main suspect. Now he’s given a choice—go undercover into the household and uncover the murderer, or be hanged for the crime himself.
Brilliantly recreating the cultural world of late 18th century Vienna, the epicenter of the Enlightenment, Lebow brings to life some of the most famous figures of music, theatre, and politics.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
First off, if you’ve watched the actual opera The Marriage of Figaro you will appreciate this book much, much more. It’s not necessary for understanding it or even appreciating it but you will appreciate it on a much deeper level if you have seen the opera.
Why? That’s because we have a murder mystery set in Vienna with what are essentially the characters of the opera. We have ourselves a lecherous count, a desperate love-seeking countess, her grumpy former guardian, a girl-obsessed young nobleman working as a page, a maid and a barber. That, my friends, reads very much like the list of characters in the actual opera. But if you have seen the opera, don’t worry. The murderer is definitely not who you think it is and not for the reasons you think. Knowing something about the characters and general plot doesn’t reveal the culprit too early, believe me. Really, Laura Lebow basing her characters off of actual characters in the opera was brilliant in that respect because if you’ve seen the opera you think you’ll know who did it but it’s really a sort of red herring. It just adds a whole other layer to the book and I did enjoy it.
Lorenzo Da Ponte himself is nothing like I pictured but I never actually knew much about the historical figure so that’s not really saying much. He’s a largely toothless lady-killer, a relatively impoverished man working as the court poet and sort of official librettist at the court of one of the more enlightened European monarchs, Joseph II. He was good friends with Mozart and is of course a bitter rival of Salieri and his librettist. Essentially, in the beginning he’s not all that remarkable but things change quickly when he’s accused of murdering young Florian. Then the secret service equivalent of the day swoops in and forces him to go undercover in the household as a poetry teacher to discover who really murdered the young prince. Why would they send a poet in to do a spy’s work? Well, things aren’t all that simple in Vienna of the day and some main players keep their cards very close to the chest. Despite his indignation at the whole situation, Lorenzo does rise to the occasion quite well and discovers that not everything is as it seems in that household.
Laura Lebow’s writing was excellent. She brings to life 18th century Vienna so well that you really do feel like you’re there along with Lorenzo. Her characters are well fleshed-out anyway but it’s her brilliant writing that really makes them come alive. While you may or may not be able to predict who killed Florian near the end, I personally was quite surprised (not that that’s really saying much as I don’t read many mystery novels.) Even if you are able to predict the outcome, I think you’ll enjoy the book because Lebow writes suspense quite well. Throughout the book there’s this aura of tension that gets slowly ratcheted up as the novel progresses. Sometimes it’s almost unbearable and you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. Really, you can’t ask for more in a historical murder mystery: actual history brought to life and plenty of mystery and suspense.
The book ended quite realistically and I was actually surprised to learn that The Marriage of Figaro was not what Da Ponte was most known for in his day because it’s a staple of opera houses everywhere. No, he was known for some obscure little opera that is practically never performed today. But after he solved the mystery and the opera premiered fairly successfully, he and Mozart are going on a little road trip to write one of the darker, more terrifying operas I’ve ever seen: Don Giovanni. It was definitely a satisfying ending with that little promise of an awesome sequel coming up because I do love Don Giovanni as well. The Figaro Murders doesn’t come out until March 31, but I already can’t wait for the next book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
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As a side note, if you are interested in actually watching Le nozze di Figaro, the best version I’ve found is from James Levine’s 40th anniversary at the Met. Unfortunately, it’s no longer available although you can watch clips on YouTube here (the first three videos were deleted for whatever reason but you can get the gist of the first scene from the rest of it). It’s hard to ruin either of the Figaro operas, so as long as you stay away from the Mozart Festival one with Anna Netrebko you’ll be fine. The cast was great in that one (particularly Netrebko herself), but the production was total and utter crap and the choreographer and/or director were clearly on something.
Scent of the Soul by Julie Doherty
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In twelfth century Scotland, it took a half-Gael with a Viking name to restore the clans to their rightful lands. Once an exile, Somerled the Mighty now dominates the west. He’s making alliances, expanding his territory, and proposing marriage to the Manx princess.
It’s a bad time to fall for Breagha, a torc-wearing slave with a supernatural sense of smell.
Somerled resists the intense attraction to a woman who offers no political gain, and he won’t have a mistress making demands on him while he’s negotiating a marriage his people need. Besides, Breagha belongs to a rival king, one whose fresh alliance Somerled can’t afford to lose.
It’s when Breagha vanishes that Somerled realizes just how much he needs her. He abandons his marriage plans to search for her, unprepared for the evil lurking in the shadowy recesses of Ireland—a lustful demon who will stop at nothing to keep Breagha for himself.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
Scent of the Soul is a little jarring at first because 12th century Scotland is not a setting that I and probably many other people are familiar with. Still, Julie Doherty does a good job of orienting readers and quickly captures the essence of the time. You may find yourself with your head spinning as you try to keep all of the names straight but they’re repeated often so that you get a bit of a history of each person or place. By the end of the book you’ll be a pro, trust me on this. Doherty’s world-building just sucks you into her story so quickly that you can’t help but orient yourself quickly. You’ll need to, in order to truly appreciate all that Somerled and Breagha go through.
Somerled is a warlord of sorts who went from penniless exile to mighty king, with many other kings/petty princes/warlords bowing down to him and paying him tribute. We meet him as he’s older and looking for a political marriage to cement all that he has gained, but the sort of inferiority complex he developed as a penniless exile dogs him. In particular around women. So when one of his nominal allies captures a ship with only one sailor who survived and a woman with four dogs, he’s more than ready to give Fergus his wish and grant him ownership of the woman and the dogs. Until he sees her and she sees him, that is. Breagha is not just an incredible woman because of her supernatural sense of smell (among other talents). She goes through so much in the course of this book that it’s really a testament to the strength of her character that while she doesn’t exactly forgive, she doesn’t hold grudges like many people would given the circumstances.
Thankfully, the beginning of Scent of the Soul isn’t too much excitement at once. Of course we get glimpses of the massacre with the strange shadow men and of Semjaza, the book’s villain, but it’s just glimpses as we try to orient ourselves with Somerled’s situation. After that, the pacing most definitely increases for reasons that I can’t quite fully get into without spoiling some of the cool plot points. Julie Doherty doesn’t really let up with the tension after she introduces it and you’ll most definitely find yourself flipping through page after page to learn what happens next. It’s pretty relentless, particularly toward the end.
My only real criticism of this book is that sometimes the time switches can be absolutely jarring, particularly toward the end. There’s a particular scene where Somerled finds something and then it suddenly switches to Somerled happy with Breagha. I get that sometimes a time switch like that can be great but it felt like it wasn’t made clear that Somerled had found something; his part of the story just dropped off the edge of a cliff at that point. Maybe it was the fact my review copy was very poorly formatted so I have no clue whether or not there was a clear page break or other symbol. That’s more than possible but I must admit that even with the clear point of view shifts, sometimes Julie Doherty doesn’t exactly pick the best time to do it and it’s really jarring. Not exciting jarring, but just jarring and it leaves you frantically reading to try to orient yourself again.
So in short this book has awesome characters, a lot of tension and some pretty awesome world-building. Sometimes the point of view switches are jarring and confusing but the story itself is still coherent and fairly easy to follow. If the blurb has intrigued you, go on and pick up Scent of the Soul. I certainly enjoyed it.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
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Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Seraphina took the literary world by storm with 8 starred reviews and numerous “Best of” lists. At last, her eagerly awaited sequel has arrived—and with it comes an epic battle between humans and dragons.
The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself—for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways.
As Seraphina gathers this motley crew, she is pursued by humans who want to stop her. But the most terrifying is another half dragon, who can creep into people’s minds and take them over. Until now, Seraphina has kept her mind safe from intruders, but that also means she’s held back her own gift. It is time to make a choice: Cling to the safety of her old life, or embrace a powerful new destiny?
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
The first book in this duet, Seraphina, holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first ARCs I was ever approved for through NetGalley. It felt like a big accomplishment and I felt even better about the whole thing when I absolutely fell in love with Rachel Hartman’s world and the story of Seraphina, a half-dragon stuck between two worlds. To say that I was eagerly awaiting Shadow Scale would be an understatement but at the same time I did try to keep my expectations in check so I could give a decent review.
Sequels should improve upon the first book and in my mind, Rachel Hartman surpassed herself in world-building in her second book. Not only do we get to see a little more of Goredd and its culture we get to see the rest of her world as Seraphina travels throughout it looking for her fellow half-dragons. Hartman really does an amazing job of making each culture and country distinct, even down to its language. She relies heavily on historical influences like ancient Greece and medieval France but it’s not so obvious that it seems like she’s beating you over the head with a stick about it. No, she takes these influences and historical precedents and twists them to suit the world she has imagined. It’s done beautifully and seamlessly and her writing style is so beautiful that you’ll feel these different cultures come alive.
As with her first book, Rachel Hartman’s writing style is beautiful. Her descriptions whether long or short are poetic, with flowing language that doesn’t necessarily slow down the plot or the pacing in general. Shadow Scale is not the fastest paced book in the world by any stretch of the imagination but it really is the writing that makes you keep reading in addition to the fact the characters are very three dimensional. The writing is just fabulous and as I said in the last paragraph, it’s what really makes her world come alive. She could have had the best world-building ever but without her pure writing talent Shadow Scale would have been an awfully boring book.
The characters themselves were also very satisfying in this final book. Seraphina herself has grown so much and is finally starting to realize that no matter how much you may disagree with a person’s choices, it doesn’t give you the right to demand they change to fit your worldview. As she begins her search for the other half-dragons she realizes that not all of them are saintly, as in the case of Jannoula and that not all of them even want to come with her and see other half-dragons. Each half-dragon lives under their own particular set of circumstances and Seraphina quickly learns that no matter how hard she tries, she really can’t convince everyone. And once she learns this, she becomes so much stronger even if she makes numerous mistakes along the way. She grows so much throughout the novel that you can’t help but love her even more than you did in the first book.
Unfortunately, for all of my praise I came off of reading Shadow Scale with a real ‘meh’ feeling. Why? Unfortunately, it’s because of the ending. It seemed very rushed and very forced on Rachel Hartman’s part even though she had hinted at certain plot twists before. Really, it felt like she just didn’t spend the same amount of attention to detail on the ending as she did the rest of the book. It felt sloppily put together, forced and inconsistent with the personalities and feelings of the characters. One plot twist in particular in regards to Queen Glisselda felt super forced. I can’t go into much detail because I don’t want to give away spoilers but I just felt like both Kiggs and Seraphina completely sold themselves out at the end despite fighting for honesty and transparency throughout the novel.
So in the end, despite the fact that this book was awesome for about 90% of the time, I do have to say I was a little disappointed with it. If you loved the first book and read this one maybe you’ll feel differently but I can’t change my perception of the ending. It was just too important to do in a seemingly half-hearted manner.
I give this book 3/5 stars.