Flaming June

Because why not?

This post is brought to you by my tendency not to think things through before I write about them.

So, the thing about Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey is that she was lousy at endings. Like, she’s so good at putting prickly characters in twisty emotional situations and still having everything be super charming, but then the end is always a cop-out, or rushed, or suddenly makes you hate all the characters you loved for most of the book. Anyway, I read a review of one of her books at Fleur in her World the other day, and Fleur had the same issue with the last 10% of the book, but her praise for the first 90% made me want to read something by Mrs. G. de H.V., because when she’s good, she’s very, very good.

About Peggy Saville and More About Peggy

So, this is what happens when I ask for recommendations: I download everything that looks appealing, read maybe half of it, and leave the rest sitting on my kindle indefinitely. Except that I also sometime come back to things. I’ve had Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey’s Peggy Saville books on my kindle since James recommended them more than a year ago. I finally got around to reading them last weekend, and I really enjoyed them. I mean, I thought there were some structural issues, and also when I look back at the two books it seems like nothing ever actually happened, but it was entertaining nothing.

The Heart of Una Sackville

I’m not quite sure how I feel about The Heart of Una Sackville. When I was about halfway through, I’d all but decided that it was my new favorite book, but I hated the ending.

This is one of those “Dear Diary, I have just been given this diary…” books, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad, because the narrator will always fall in love with someone and remain oblivious for far longer than you would think possible. And when it’s done well, that’s one of my favorite tropes (see Dear Enemy), but when it’s too obvious, it can be completely infuriating. Here, it starts out infuriating, briefly becomes pretty much the best thing ever, and then does that thing that often happens in romance novels where the unresolved sexual tension all drains away at once without leaving anything in its place.