Category: Historical Fiction

Classic Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, ReviewsLeave a comment

Happy holidays!  My reading celebration of the day involves re-reading one of my very favorite Christmas-set novels, The Mischief of the Mistletoe.  Still delightful on a third read, still one of my favorite romantic couples!

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 The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig is set in Regency England, what I can only think of as Jane Austen’s England.  Jane herself is in the book as a supporting character, as the sympathetic friend of our heroine, Arabella.  Arabella is the lead character of the book, but has clearly been a supporting character all her life.  A shy, unassuming wallflower, she’s the one at the party whose name no one can remember.  I have a soft spot for characters who think they’re unimportant.  I love watching them discover their inner depths and come into their own, and I loved watching Arabella find new strength and confidence.  Here we have the extra bonus of watching the other lead, Turnip, also discover Arabella’s value.

Reginald “Turnip” Fitzhugh…where to begin?  The name, I suppose.  I can’t tell you how much I love it that the hero has a vegetable for a nickname.  And not even a tough vegetable (I don’t know what vegetable would be tough–asparagus spears, maybe?–but I’m pretty sure turnips are not the heavyweight champions of the vegetable world).  It fits him–and he’s a wonderful character!  Endlessly well-meaning, charming and gallant, not a brilliant intellect, capable of throwing a punch when the situation calls for it, but not really all that good at derring-do and dashing exploits, frequently bumbling, very thoughtful, given to outlandish waistcoats.  Somehow, it works so well and is so much fun.  I love dashing heroes, but this time I really enjoyed a hero who stumbles more than he dashes–but rushes forward anyway, well-intentioned and grinning. Continue reading “Classic Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe” →

Book Review: Lost in Austen

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews3 Comments

I recently wrote about the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and today I have another very unusual Pride and Prejudice retelling…Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster. If you’ve heard of the movie by the same name, they’re related but not actually remotely the same. The book is a choose-your-own-adventure through Austen novels.

Written in the second person (you, your), the story begins in the familiar opening pages of Pride and Prejudice, with Mr. Bingley recently moved to the neighborhood and “your” mother eager to introduce “your” sisters to the eligible bachelor. But very soon you start having choices—which path will you take to Mr. Bingley’s house? Will you speak to Mr. Darcy at the dance or remain silent? And as the story goes on…will you accept this marriage proposal or that one? Will you confess your family’s scandal to Mr. Darcy or keep it secret? And in the end…will you achieve your mission of a successful marriage? Continue reading “Book Review: Lost in Austen” →

Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews2 Comments

Directly after reading Go Set a Watchman, I started listening to The Help by Kathryn Stockett on audio.  This was deliberate–on the surface, they’re similar books.  A young woman returns to her small Southern hometown and is appalled by the racism she observes in her friends and family.  But there’s a crucial difference–I liked The Help SO MUCH better!

The Help is the story of “colored” maids working for white families in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s.  Three women alternate points of view chapters to tell their stories:  Aibileen, a maid who deeply loves the white children she cares for; her friend Minny, whose outspokenness has made her almost unhire-able; and Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a white woman in her early twenties who has just returned from college and dreams of being a writer.  Skeeter starts seeing the racism in her friends and her town, and becomes inspired to write a book of interviews telling the story of the maids.

This book is so good because we get so far inside each of the major characters, learning their backgrounds, what inspired them, what led them to where (and who) they are now.  Skeeter is deeply influenced by Constantine, the black maid who raised her–and by her own mother, who seems to be perpetually disappointed in her.  Minny’s mother told her the rules for working for white families when she was fourteen (and Minny’s never been all that good at following them), and Aibileen’s own son died shortly before she began working for her current white family.  Those are just a few snippets, as the book gives such a rich and complex picture. Continue reading “Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett” →

Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews2 Comments

I don’t usually pick up the latest sensation in books, but I couldn’t resist Go Set a Watchman, the new manuscript from Harper Lee. Especially after The New York Times ran a good half-dozen articles about it! I love To Kill a Mockingbird (though I admit it’s been several years since I read it) and after all the hoopla and mystery around this one, I was pretty curious. And in the end…I have to highly recommend To Kill a Mockingbird.

Go Set a Watchman tells the story of Jean-Louise Finch, twenty-six and visiting her hometown of Maycomb, Alabama after living in New York. In between childhood reminiscences, she discovers a disturbing trend towards racism in her childhood friend and boyfriend Hank (also called Henry), and even more alarmingly, in her sainted father Atticus.

That’s a really bad plot description—but to be honest, it’s not much of a plot. For a good quarter of the book I had no idea where this was going (I mean, apart from what I’d read in those NY Times articles), and once it gets into the meat of things, it’s largely Jean-Louise freaking out…only to never really come to a meaningful resolution on the primary issues. Continue reading “Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee” →

Book Review: Mark of the Thief

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Juvenile, ReviewsLeave a comment

I loved Jennifer Nielson’s False Prince (and liked its two sequels reasonably well), so I really wanted to love Mark of the Thief.  And from that, you already know it didn’t go all that well, right?  There were a lot of good things in here–but somehow I could never quite get into this book.

The story is centered on Nic, a slave in a Roman mine a few centuries after Julius Caesar.  Nic is sent into a secret chamber deep in the ground to seek Caesar’s bulla, a kind of amulet.  Not unlike Aladdin, Nic manages to take possession of the bulla himself, and finds that it grants powerful but unpredictable magic.  Soon Nic has a price on his head, with powerful Romans from the Emperor down chasing him, and the fate of the Roman Empire at stake.

Ancient Rome is an era I enjoy, and I like the concept of a scrappy, defiant slave seizing power and freedom.  There’s lots of conspiracy and mystery in here, with neither Nic nor the reader always sure who can be trusted.  We also get a cool griffin, a tough girl Nic gradually builds a relationship with, and plenty of displays of magic.  Because also, magic in ancient Rome?  Very cool.

So.  Where did I run into a problem?  It never quite felt like ancient Rome.  Continue reading “Book Review: Mark of the Thief” →