Review of A Lady and a Spy by Ranee' S. Clark

Still on Blog Vacation

 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
Blanche Audley's old-fashioned grandfather cut off her mother after she married Thomas Audley and his millions of "new money," and for the last ten years since her parents' deaths, Blanche has lived under the gloom of his disappointment. So when she recklessly loses a thousand dollars to Etta Channing in a game of baccarat, she will do anything to keep her foolish actions from him. Except he oversees every penny she spends of the wealth her father left her, leaving her no way of paying the debt without his knowledge.

Until Etta offers her a deal. Alexander Whealdon, one of the most eligible bachelors in town, needs a companion to shepherd his younger sister through her first season. Etta wants Blanche to take the position and use it to infiltrate the household and pass along information that will help Etta get her hooks into the reserved Mr. Whealdon. It seems like an easy way to pay off the debt and save face at the same time. But the more Blanche sees of Mr. Whealdon's playful side, not to mention his surprising generosity, the less she wants to help Etta win him over.

Backing out means humiliating herself and disappointing both her grandfather and Mr. Whealdon, not to mention losing Miss Whealdon's trust and friendship, but if she goes through with her promise to Etta, she will lose what might be her last chance for love.

MY TAKE:
Ranee' and I have known each other online for a while, and we finally got to meet at Storymaker last month. Before we met, I'd had the opportunity to critique a couple of her regencies and really enjoyed them. Don't you love that cover?

I'm a fan of clean regency romances. I've read enough of Georgette Heyer's wonderful regencies to know that gambling in this day and age was as much as issue for the women of the ton as it was the men, so it was easy to sympathize with poor Blanche for getting sucked into such a high risk game. 

Blanche has been living under her grandfather's residual disapproval left over about her mother's marriage, yet Blanche desires the old man's praise. I could also understand her desire not to confirm the man's poor opinion of her and her willingness to hire herself out as a companion to Whealdon's youngers sister, Elsie. Ah, Elsie Whealdon. Loved her character. Clark's secondary characters were quirky and fun, making for a great ensemble cast.

I also enjoyed the ethical questions that came for Blanche as she agrees to spy on Mr. Whealdon. A fun summer read!

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Ranee` and her personal superhero, her husband, live in Wyoming where they are raising three future super-villains. When she's not breaking up impromptu UFC fights in her living room or losing to one of her sons at Uno, she loves to read and write. She has a bachelor’s degree in history that is probably useless, but she had a lot of fun earning it. She blogs about writing, reading, and editing at http://raneesclark.blogspot.com.

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Book Review of "Searching for Arthur" by Donna Hosie

Searching for Arthur by Donna Hosie

Book Description:
Legend tells of King Arthur, mortally wounded at the hand of the traitorous Mordred in the final battle of Camlann. Before he was taken to the magical Vale of Avalon, Arthur declared that one day he would return, when the kingdom of Logres was once more in need of his leadership.

That day has now come.

It is hard to make friends when you’re constantly on the move. Seventeen-year-old Natasha Roth’s father is a diplomat, and so her mother – who is paranoid about terrorists – has moved Natasha and her brother, Arthur, to their eighteenth house in seventeen years: Avalon Cottage, deep in the heart of a Welsh forest.

Yet the terrorists are closer than they realize.

While out running, Natasha falls into a hidden tomb and awakens the legendary knights of Camelot: young warriors who have been in an enchanted sleep for a thousand years. All have been waiting patiently for the return of Arthur from the mysterious land of Avalon.

And now the knights are awake, they intend to reclaim their king.

When Arthur goes missing, Natasha joins forces with his girlfriend, “Slurpy” Samantha, in order to look for him. Natasha believes Samantha has fewer brain cells than an amoeba; Samantha believes Natasha is a freak. Retracing Natasha’s original steps to the hidden tomb, they bicker their way into a Welsh mountain and beyond, to the realm of Logres where the Knights of the Round Table are rallying once more.

Natasha falls in love with Sir Bedivere, the most loyal of knights to Arthur. He may be in dire need of a 21st Century razor, but he still possesses a set of lime-green eyes that can melt the soul. Yet just as Natasha starts to find confidence in this mystical land, Samantha deserts her. People who play by the rules are of no use to “Slurpy”. Samantha will take her own path to Arthur, aided and abetted by the dark arts which she willingly absorbs from a hot young stranger called Mordred.

A race across magical yet deadly lands is on. Natasha battles dwarf-riders, dragons, and eventually “Slurpy” to reach Camelot, where Arthur is held captive by the barbarian Saxon, Balvidore.

Natasha’s woes become numerous. What will happen to her and Arthur when the knights realise the eighteen-year-old boy they thought was their king, is in fact a math student with appalling taste in girls? Can two people with a one thousand year age gap really have a relationship? And for the love of all things holy, how is a girl supposed to ride bareback in a pair of skinny jeans?

My thoughts:
What can I say? I'm not a huge follower of Arthurian legends or tales, but I've read one or two. I'm probably as familiar with some of the names as most people. My greatest resource of knowledge comes from the Richard Harris film "Camelot".

I loved this book. It was easy to relate with Natasha, a normal girl who'd gone through (and carried the scars from) some tough things. Hosie does a good job giving us just enough of the back story relating to this family trauma. My heart ached for Natasha, alienated from most members of her dysfunctional family. We're not told how stable the family was before the problems began, but that kind of thing can either strengthen a family or tear it apart.

Poor Natasha has one champion--her brother, Arthur. And he brings his own baggage with a witch of a girlfriend who's favorite thing to call Natasha is "freak". Lovely.

And that's even before the fantastical things start happening.

There's plenty of action, romance, betrayal, magic, and mystery. Hosie totally wrenched my emotions, especially as we got to the end. There is a scene where a character does "the wild thing" for the first time. I appreciated that Hosie didn't show the scene in detail and was honest about the pain a girl experiences, that it's rarely the Hollywood fireworks fantasy. That made it real.

Can't wait for the sequel. As a fan of strong and proactive female characters, I want to see how something that happens in this book (no spoilers) plays out in the future.

 Other Books I've Been Reading
I've been cranking out several books over the last few months--thank heavens for audiobooks! Here're a few:

As you can see, I like a variety of genres.

Do you have any recommendations?

Book Review - 'Courting Miss Lancaster' by Sarah M. Eden

I enjoy books that are set in the Regency period of England in the early 1900th century. I love the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester and the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell.

I'm also a sucker for a good love story.

On an aside, isn't it curious that if a book has a love story but the writer is a woman, it's a romance? Yet if a book has a love story but is written by a man, it's drama or adventure? The Bourne series by Robert Ludlum is absolutely a love story (much more, I know, but at the core it's a love story).

Regency romances (see this article) are actually a romance subgenre and include styles reminiscent of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. I have Austen's complete works and am slowly accumulating Heyer's (either in paper or audio format). There's something fun about reading one of these books, and there are times when they're just what I need.

I was reading a post at the beginning of the year here where Shanda posed the question of which book she should read next. Courting Miss Lancaster was on the list of options, and several people commented on how much they enjoyed the story. Of course I checked to see if my library had it. It was on hold, but I only had to wait a few days before it was available.

The story is set in 1806 and involves the Little Season (coming out) of a Miss Athena Lancaster, who has this fortunate opportunity because her sister Persephone married a very rich and titled gentleman, Duke Adam Kielder. The Lancasters are well bred but not wealthy, so Adam takes the younger siblings under his wing and even bestows a substantial dowry on each of his sisters-in-law (though it will be some years before the two youngest girls are old enough to go through the marriage mart).

Now Adam is a serious grump (and one of my favorite characters in the book) and hates to go to all the ridiculous dances and parties involved. He has a good friend Harry Windover who is also well bred but poor. Harry loves to socialize and attend parties, so Adam decides to enlist his help by being responsible for escorting Athena to these events so she can meet eligible, prospective husbands.

Harry only agrees because he is in love with Athena and, while his own poverty rules him out as a suitor, he can at least make sure Athena finds a man worthy of her.

There's a lot of humor in this story, and the love story is very sweet. I enjoyed how Eden slowly helps us to know and understand the various characters. In the George Heyer and Jane Austen books, we see how hard it was to be a poor woman, but in Courting Miss Lancaster we're shown that it was hard on the men, too, who were of a certain station yet with very limited options.

The reading is less stilted than Heyer or Austen, so it goes very quickly. I ordered my own copy of it, and I'm reading it aloud to my husband.

I recommend this book and look forward to getting my hands on Seeking Persephone, since it's been accepted for publication.