Tag Archives: lgbtq

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics

Book Review of The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits, #1), by Olivia Waite

I won a signed copy of The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics (by Olivia Waite) in a giveaway Rose Lerner was running on Instagram. I was super excited both to get this book and to get anything from Rose Lerner!

Description from Goodreads:

As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away.

Catherine St Day looks forward to a quiet widowhood once her late husband’s scientific legacy is fulfilled. She expected to hand off the translation and wash her hands of the project—instead, she is intrigued by the young woman who turns up at her door, begging to be allowed to do the work, and she agrees to let Lucy stay. But as Catherine finds herself longing for Lucy, everything she believes about herself and her life is tested.

While Lucy spends her days interpreting the complicated French text, she spends her nights falling in love with the alluring Catherine. But sabotage and old wounds threaten to sever the threads that bind them. Can Lucy and Catherine find the strength to stay together or are they doomed to be star-crossed lovers?

Review:

I thought this was a really sweet romance. I liked both the heroines and the feminist plot. I did think the pseudo-villain’s change of heart at the end was unlikely. I think his truer response in the circumstance would be embarrassment and anger. So, the sudden contriteness felt saccharine and artificial. But I saw why the author chose to do it.

My only real complaint with the book was that there didn’t seem to be enough meat beyond the romance to really keep me interested. At one point, I set the book down to do other things and didn’t pick it up for over a month. Now, I wasn’t reading other books, I just didn’t make time to read. (I’ve been working on my ebook cull, if you remember.) But the fact that this book sat there unfinished for so long attests to how little it held my attention if I wasn’t actively reading it. I enjoyed it when I was and forgot about it when I wasn’t.

All in all, not a bad read. But a perfect example of why I tend to lean toward X-romance (sci-fi romance, paranormal romance, romantic thrillers, etc. Normally historical romance works, but apparently it wasn’t enough here.) I just seem to need a little something more.

Review of Witchmark and Stormsong, by C.L. Polk

I purchased a copy of Witchmark (by C.L. Polk) some time ago but hadn’t gotten around to reading it. Then Netgalley offered a copy of the sequel, Stormsong. I accepted a copy so I could read the whole Kingston Cycle together. How could I not want to with those covers? So gorgeous.


Description of Witchmark:

In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family’s interest or to be committed to a witches’ asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans’ hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.

When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen. Description of Witchmark:In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.

Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family’s interest or to be committed to a witches’ asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans’ hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.

When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

Review:

I don’t know why I held onto this so long, reluctant to read it for some reason. But it was a mistake. I really enjoyed it. Admittedly, I was confused in the beginning. It took a while for the magic and political system to untangle itself enough to make sense. Once it did, however, I was hooked. Then I was outraged. Then I felt vindicated.

The world is an interesting one, with some electronic gadgets (run on aether), early cars, carriages, and complex bicycle etiquette. Men and women seemed to hold equal positions of power (and victimization). And, while not deeply explored, there appear to be several species of ‘human.’ For a small book, it packed a lot in.

I loved Miles and Turner as characters and appreciated the difficult position Grace was in. Though, I only appreciated that in the end. At the middle mark, I was wondering why Miles wouldn’t just let her die. (That would be my extended moment of outrage on his behalf.)

All in all, I’m really looking forward to reading book two.


Description of Stormsong:

Dame Grace Hensley helped her brother Miles undo the atrocity that stained her nation, but now she has to deal with the consequences. With the power out in the dead of winter and an uncontrollable sequence of winter storms on the horizon, Aeland faces disaster. Grace has the vision to guide her parents to safety, but a hostile queen and a ring of rogue mages stand in the way of her plans. There’s revolution in the air, and any spark could light the powder. What’s worse, upstart photojournalist Avia Jessup draws ever closer to secrets that could topple the nation, and closer to Grace’s heart.

Can Aeland be saved without bloodshed? Or will Kingston die in flames, and Grace along with it?

Review:

I must admit that I didn’t love this as much as Witchmark. It was still enjoyable, mind you, but not as good IMO. The reasons being that it ended quite abruptly—with a lot still in the air (pending you don’t simply assume everything will work out as planned, nothing else has)—and I didn’t feel the romance AT ALL.

The problem with the romance was that though you know in advance who the romantic interest is (it’s in the blurb), for half the book any affections she showed Grace felt like manipulation to get a story. I didn’t believe for a moment a woman as astute as Grace would see all the touching and soft words as anything else, given their limited acquaintance and the circumstances. What’s more, when later Grace makes decisions, stating they are to be with Jess, it feels like a leap. She wants to be like Jess, her brother, and Tristan. She likes who she is with them. But that’s not the same as being in love with someone, especially since it’s not limited to one person. So, I didn’t make the connection to love, be it romantic or otherwise. All of which left me pretty cold on the romance front. I liked them both, but I didn’t feel a romance bloomed between them.

All in all, however, I’d be happy to read more in there series (if there is any) and certainly more of Polk’s writing.

the hanged man

Book Review of The Hanged Man (The Tarot Sequence, #2) by K.D. Edwards

I borrowed a copy of K.D. Edward‘s The Hanged Man from my local library. This is book two in The Tarot Sequence series. I reviewed book one (The Last Sun) about this time last year and also listed it as one of my top six reads of 2019.

Description from Goodreads:

The last member of a murdered House tries to protect his ward from forced marriage to a monster while uncovering clues to his own past.

The Tarot Sequence imagines a modern-day Atlantis off the coast of Massachusetts, governed by powerful Courts based on the traditional Tarot deck.

Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Throne, is backed into a fight of high court magic and political appetites in a desperate bid to protect his ward, Max, from a forced marital alliance with the Hanged Man.

Rune’s resistance will take him to the island’s dankest corners, including a red light district made of moored ghost ships; a surreal skyscraper farm; and the floor of the ruling Convocation, where a gathering of Arcana will change Rune’s life forever.

Review:

Book one of this series was one of my favorite reads of 2019 and, unless something changes, I imagine The Hanged Man will make the list for 2020. It’s certainly the best book I’ve read so far this year. I love the many different types of love legitimized in it—romantic, paternal, fraternal, maternal, adoptive, platonic. Care is shown in so many different ways, without ever being sappy or didactic. Everyone deserves a Brand, Addam or Corinne in their life. Or we should all strive to live such that we deserve them.

I especially love Brand and Rune’s relationship (and Addam’s acceptance of it). It’s full of insults and sarcasm. But, where too many authors overdo this, letting it fall into overuse and become a redundant schtick, I don’t feel like Edwards ever does.

I think the book could have done with another round of copy edits. But all in all, I cannot wait for the next book. (I really hope there will be a next book.)

On a funny side note, I cannot tell you how many times I picked the book up upside down and then had to rotate it. That cover apparently did a number on my brain. LOL