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 Cherry continues her difficult balancing act between the aristocracy and the lower levels of society in this second installment of the St. Croix Chronicles. After the traumatic events of the last book, she’s determined to find out more about her family and where she actually comes from. At the same time, she is becoming aware how precarious her life is, and worse, how unsteady her behavior makes the lives of those around her. Soon Cherry is forced to make a choice, between keeping the life she’s used to and keeping those she loves safe, if that’s even a possibility …
I liked the first book in this series, Tarnished, but Gilded was magnitudes more involving. As happens quite often in a series like this, the part of the first book that’s devoted to setup can be devoted to plot in the second, and Cooper delivers on the promise of the first one in spades. I actually read them very close together, despite the fact that my reviews are scattered so far apart, and I was really rewarded by doing that. Unfortunately the result means I can’t separate them in my mind as much as I should be able to, except for the end.
This is in part because this book directly follows on from the last one. It has a little bit of a plot arc of its own, centered around a riddle that is posed to Cherry and which she can’t help but try and solve, but not as much as I was expecting. Since this plot arc follows on so well, though, I absolutely didn’t mind; I was quite happy to continue the story where it left off, because it left off in quite an uncertain place, with plenty of plot threads dangling.
As with the last book, what I really like about this world is the difference between literally the upper class in the upper part of London and the lower class down below. It’s impossible to walk from one to the other, you need transportation; it’s an actual separation between the classes. Cherry is dauntingly flitting between these two worlds, which effectively demonstrates to us that (of course) people are people and there are wonderful and terrible ones in both places, but breaking the barrier is the real challenge.
The love stories also progress, and I found my jaw on the floor at the ending – it was the kind of ending I’d expect to find later in a series, not in the second book. I immediately wanted to find out what happens next, and now I’m only sorry that there isn’t a publication date yet for it.
If you like the sound of a steampunk, alternate London urban fantasy, these two books are definitely worth picking up. Highly recommended.
All external book links are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review.
 Good morning, Saloners! I appear to have decided this week that structure is the answer to all of my woes, and that if only I can organize things in my life a little bit better, I’ll be more able to achieve some of the goals that have been lingering in my life.
I started with blogging and reading, and you’ve actually already seen evidence of this. I am rigidly scheduling how I’m working on this blog to prevent myself getting overwhelmed by feeling like I’m not posting enough. Reviews on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a Sunday Salon post on Sunday (heh, surprise) are what I’ve decided is enough to keep my blog active but not so much that I’m overwhelmed or don’t have time to write the posts. That also gives me plenty of time to post anything else I would like, should I have a desire to do so, like pictures or quotes or anything at all. It also seems to have translated into some extra time spent commenting, which I’ve been trying to get myself to do for aaaages.
In reading terms, I set out my goals earlier this month, and I’m sticking to them so far, at least in that I’ve read two older books already and I’m on the first non-fiction one now. I made a Google Calendar with the days that I have promised reviews so that I don’t forget, and I’m even reading the first review book I’ve scheduled in that way now.
With some of the other goals I’d like to achieve in my life, I’m still trying to be organized. I’m setting aside an hour each weekend to work on my Russian, I’m writing 500 words of fiction a day (and I’m actually doing well with this, incredibly, but it isn’t many words), and I’ve signed up for a bunch of free online classes staggered out over the year via Coursera because I miss learning, I miss history in particular, and I can’t yet afford or know if I’m going to devote the right amount of time to a paid class. I’m also in the process of learning to drive, as I think I mentioned before, with 2 hours a week of that. I’m hoping to pass by the end of March.
It’s all a little eerie and I’m wondering how long it’s going to last until I burn out, but I don’t feel too restricted, yet. The part I’m most encouraged about is the writing. I often feel I’m producing absolutely terrible stuff, but I’m trying to remind myself that even if I am, at least I’m writing something and practice is what I need more than anything else. I think I’ll manage as long as I still feel I have enough free time to do whatever else I feel like on a regular basis – gaming or reading a different book or spending some of the weekend going walking.
In reading news, I’m about halfway through Guns, Germs, and Steel, which I mentioned starting last week. I’m finding some of it more of a slog than I expected; there were about 100 pages on farming and how that impacts the rise of civilization with various tables and charts and it was a little bit more than my post-work brain could handle. Fortunately, I’ve made it to germs now, so I’m hoping I can give it a little more brainpower this week and finish it by the end of the month on Thursday. I’m also reading Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell, which is proving to be good historical fiction so far, and after that I’ll start one of my last two books for Long-Awaited Reads month, probably Carter Beats the Devil.
How is January turning out for all of you?
 This review will contain spoilers for Blackout. You should always read that first before you read this book or this review!
Mike, Polly, and Eileen have finally found one another in the midst of the London Blitz in 1941, but they’ve discovered, to their dismay, that none of them can get back to their own time. Oxford in 2060 is several lifetimes away and they may need to resign themselves to living in the Blitz forever. They keep trying, however, sending messages to the future and coding things to let their time travelling cohorts find them more easily, and slowly the pieces of how they got lost in the past start to fall together.
These two books – Blackout and All Clear - have received a lot of criticism for being too long and under-edited. I’ve seen plenty of cynical remarks to the effect that two books sell more copies than one. I am going to say that I never really felt that way. They were long books, yes, but perhaps I read through them so quickly that neither dragged for me. After I finished Blackout, I immediately picked up All Clear so I could get right back into the disrupted lives of these three time-travelling characters.
I was glad that, not too long into this book, the plot threads start to go together and everything begins to make more sense. While the first book was about each character’s realization that they are trapped in an incredibly dangerous historical period, the second book is about how they will get themselves out of that and what actually happened to a few of the other characters mentioned in the previous book. They are still very much required to deal with the situation, but everything actually wraps up. There were a couple of characters introduced in the first book without any real background story and their roles were clarified and we did figure out who they all were.
Everything I loved about the first book is still true; the atmosphere remains fantastic throughout and I appreciated that we continued to get a feel of the different parts of the war, too. The main focus is really on London and precisely what happened, and there are some very tense and dramatic scenes as the characters fight to keep themselves and others alive. Willis really can make you feel as though you’re in the midst of each and every struggle with the characters.
There isn’t much else I have to say about this book that I didn’t say about the first, but rest assured that if you are looking for a dramatic read set during World War II and don’t mind or would love a little time travel in your books, this is a duology well worth reading. Highly recommended.
All external book links are affiliate links. I purchased this book.
 Piscine Patel is the young son of an Indian zookeeper. A deeply religious boy, he loves every sign of God, even in the animals that his father keeps. When Pi’s family is forced to leave their native India and move to Canada, many of the zoo’s animals in tow on a massive industrial boat, Pi is alternately excited and devastated. When the ship sinks, though, and Pi must battle for his life, devastation, survival, and even religion take on new meaning.
Life of Pi is a book that I had kicking around for more than four years, knowing that other people had loved it but somehow never making the time to read it for myself. The release of the film, and the possibility that I might see a film before I’d read the book that inspired it (gasp), led me to finally pick it up and see for myself what all the fuss was about. What I found was perhaps the first book featuring magical realism that I’ve enjoyed and a striking tale about survival and stories and, in the end, true meaning and whether or not it matters.
I admit that I was a bit perplexed when I first started reading. Nearly a third of the book takes place before Pi has even left India and a surprising chunk of that part of the book is consumed by his religious nature. He decides that he believes in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, praying and taking mentors for each religion. He just wants to worship God, and all ways of worshipping God are sacred to him, an idea which I found fascinating but which didn’t seem related to the part of the book that I knew about, which was the part where he is on a lifeboat with a tiger.
It all makes perfect sense in the end, fortunately, and I think what Martel is trying to comment on is really the nature of story. If you read to the end of the book, he offers two explanations for what happened to Pi on the lifeboat, but it doesn’t really matter what truly happened. Either explanation can be true; one just requires more of a leap of faith than the other. In such a way, religions require that leap of faith, that belief, but at the core of them, the stories are human. I’m an atheist myself but I found the whole story and the end fascinating. It wasn’t what I’d expected at all, and I immediately felt that this is a book I’d like to talk about in a lot more depth, which might take on new significance the more it’s considered.
Regardless of how you take the story within this book’s pages, it’s a moving portrayal of Pi’s spirit and will to survive in the face of elements clearly much larger than he is. Definitely a book worth reading – and now I’m looking forward to seeing the film!
All external book links are affiliate links. I purchased this book.
Part of the fun that comes with having a birthday shortly after Christmas means that, for this part of the year at least, I am overwhelmed with new books that I wish I could read immediately. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit them all in. I thought I’d highlight a few of the books that I just can’t wait to read in lieu of actually having several mini read-a-thons and rushing through them.
First of all, some of the new books.
I went to the United States to visit my parents over Christmas and while there, managed to buy quite a few paperbacks that I’d been looking forward to or been recommended. Mass market paperback is generally my favorite format for reading real books; as long as the book isn’t too long, it is the most comfortable kind of book to hold. They are also cheaper, so I can go to a real bookstore and buy a bunch of $8 books without worries. In this little section of my TBR bookshelf, I’ve got six books I can’t wait to read: The Family Trade, Steel’s Edge, Chasing Magic, A Confederation of Valor, The Better Part of Darkness, and Charmed Life. I actually bought two of those in London, but the rest are American and have been calling to me for a couple of weeks now.
This is the good old “immediate” TBR pile. Because I have so many books that I haven’t read, I generally try to organize what I should be reading next or soonish in this little stack. I’ve been doing so for about three years because it’s just easier to pick a book I’ve already chosen from the top of the pile than to sort through the entire bookshelf whenever I finish a book. It also keeps me a little more on my toes with what I should read as opposed to just immediately want to read. I alternate review books with my own TBR books. I’m not crazy interested in all of these books; some of them have been there for quite some time because I got distracted by newer or more urgent reads, especially this month. In a normal month I’d read from the top down and replace at the bottom, so pretty soon I’ll start Heat Stroke and probably stick one of the books from the top photo underneath The Second Empress.
Which of these books do I wish I could read next? Fever, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (the most of all of them), State of Wonder, Strong Poison, and The Second Empress. I’ll probably have read all of these by the end of February if I’m well disciplined and don’t start reading ebooks instead.
Finally, what remains of my Long-Awaited Reads pile. I’ve finished Blackout and Life of Pi from my initial stack. Both were definitely books that I should have read sooner, and I’m hoping the same for these three. To make sure I get some non-fiction in this month, I think I’m going to read Guns, Germs, and Steel next, which will leave me with only two. Whether or not I squeeze them in before the end of January, alongside the five Hitchhiker’s Guide books I’m also reading (I’ve finished two), I’d like to make sure I read them soon, so they’ll be sitting here on my computer desk staring me in the face until I do.
Which books do you wish you could read next?
 In 2060, humans have discovered time travel, and it’s now a fantastic method for historians to get a real view of what happened in the past. For three young historians, England during World War II is the destination of choice. Eileen, or Merope in 2060, is assigned to be a maid in a country house, looking after evacuees. Mike Davis finds himself posted to just before Dunkirk to watch the boats depart. Polly Sebastian, meanwhile, heads straight into the heart of the London Blitz. Each goes armed with knowledge to survive his or her particular assignment and full knowledge of where their “drop” points are and when they’re meant to check in. But, around the same time for each of them, things start to go wrong, and these historians find that rather than simply observing history, they have to live it.
I put Blackout on my pile for Long-Awaited Reads Month and am I glad – this is a book I shouldn’t have put off for a year. There were many aspects about it that I really, really liked, and by the time I reached the end, I was thrilled that I had All Clear on the shelf waiting for me to pick this story back up again. The book doesn’t really end, it just cuts off, and there are many loose plotlines left dangling for the second book to pick up again. I’ve since had a poke around the internet and I’m fortunate to have picked it up after All Clear was published; one big complaint for early readers is that they were left hanging for an entire year. I’m happy that won’t happen to me.
While my edition of this book is over 600 pages long, I found that it fled by as I got wrapped up in the individual problems of Eileen, Mike, and Polly. My previous experience with Willis’s time travel books is Doomsday Book which I also loved, so I was prepared to get deep inside each character’s mind as everything starts to go wrong. I actually found the whole process that each of them went through really fascinating – they’re all so confident in their ability to escape at will that they don’t really think much about where they’re going. Polly, for instance, gets an implant with each and every bombing incident during the part of the Blitz that she is meant to experience, so she’s not meant to be in any real danger. Instead, she’s assigned to just watch how those who are actually in danger experience it, and that’s all she expects. Of course, when the drop doesn’t open and she realizes that she’s actually stuck in the middle of the London Blitz, and sometimes has no real way of actually knowing where and when is safe, her perspective completely changes.
At that point, when the three of them start to wonder about what’s happened to their retrieval teams and their drop points, they each start to actually live in the midst of World War II. There is some element of repetitiveness, as a lot of what they experience is quite similar; there are meant to be retrieval teams that investigate if they haven’t returned at a certain point, and they each spend a lot of time pondering their arrival. In addition, they start to worry that they’ve affected history, despite the apparent truth that historians can’t alter history, particularly Mike, who finds himself seemingly changes events at a critical period in World War II. Not only do they panic about what happens next to themselves, they start to feel as though they genuinely *don’t* know what’s going on in the war.
I particularly loved how Willis depicted ordinary heroism in the face of extraordinary danger. At times, particularly during the bombing raids, her descriptions reminded me how devastating a war this was for London and that it didn’t happen all that long ago. Even for people who weren’t that close to the bombs, living with the reality and unpredictability that each night might be their last took an incredible amount of courage. The atmosphere that she evokes is incredibly well done. One of my very favorite parts of the book had a Shakespearean actor getting up in the middle of an air raid shelter and going through monologues to distract the others in the shelter. That scene is going to stay with me for some time.
Blackout is a book that I had an amazing time with, but don’t read it unless you have All Clear ready to go immediately after – otherwise, you’ll be frustrated that it ends in the middle with no resolution whatsoever. So far it looks like I’ll be recommending these!
All external book links are affiliate links. I purchased this book and its sequel.
 Lady Philippa Marbury has always felt out of place in society; with her keen and intelligent mind, she’s far from the ideal debutante. Regardless, she’s managed to snag a fiance, Lord Castleton and she can’t help but be curious about the marriage bed, since no one has ever really told her what might happen. In search of a man with experience who won’t make her feel uncomfortable, she propositions Cross, part owner of the gambling den with her brother-in-law. She doesn’t want to do anything in particular, she just wants to learn what might happen, so that she’s prepared for her wedding night. Cross is immediately attracted to Pippa, but of course refuses; he can’t tell her what she really wants to know, it would be completely wrong, and besides that, his tortured past means he hesitates to let her in at all.
Sarah MacLean is one of the romance authors that I always give to newbies of the genre. Her books are accessible and brilliant at pulling in those who aren’t quite familiar with the tropes as the rest of us are. She’s a fantastic writer, and she has the ability to really make you feel for her characters and hope for the outcome that, despite knowing it’s assured, seems impossible in the meantime. This book is really no different, with a great, smart heroine and a tortured hero. Like many readers will, I desperately wanted Cross and Pippa to get together. I loved that Cross adored Pippa because she was a little bit strange, because she is intense and smart and doesn’t just flirt and tease as normal society girls do.
One aspect of this book that I particularly liked was the simple fact that Pippa’s fiance is not a terrible person. In fact, they might have even gotten on together well, it’s simply that there is no real spark of passion in their relationship. Comparing Castleton to Cross is difficult because that spark is there with him, but I liked that he was a kind, logical man and, more importantly, that there were no stupid excuses required for Pippa to get her own happy ending. He’s certainly not Cross, who for me was the star character of the book, but he’s a perfectly acceptable man.
I suppose I’d say the only thing I didn’t like, really, was the fact that for a woman who often comes across as very intelligent, Pippa also comes across as very stupid. Propositioning the owner of a gambling den, even though he knows her brother-in-law, is an extraordinarily stupid move no matter how understandable the motive, and some of the actions that Pippa takes indicate that she’s so comfortable in her own little world that she’s lost sight of how dangerous the real world can be. It’s a very classic case of intelligence versus common sense, and Pippa seems to have very, very little common sense at times. It’s not that she’s unrealistic, as I think we’ve all met people who are very clever and very dim at the same time, it’s more that in these circumstances I wanted her to act with some sense and caution.
Saying all that, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and I fully intend to keep up with Sarah MacLean’s future releases in this series. Highly recommended for other romance readers.
All external book links are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review.
2012 was not my greatest reading year in purely numerical terms; in fact, it was my slowest reading year since I started blogging. I completed a total of 138 books, the lowest number since 2006. There are a few reasons for this. The primary one is really that a friend gave me a computer, which I’ve since upgraded almost entirely, and I’ve been spending a lot more time since April playing various games on my own and with others, rather than reading and reviewing as I thought I would. I also started to spend some regular time with friends and my husband and I had stretches of time where we watched a lot of episodes of TV shows at once (namely How I Met Your Mother and Babylon 5). I’m not disappointed by this, but it’s strange not to approach 200 books for the first time in so long!
This is also the first year that speculative fiction – science fiction and fantasy – have outweighed historical fiction and romance since I started keeping track of genres, with 56 of the former and 50 of the latter. I’ve known and said for a long while now that I’ve been moving away from historical fiction, and the numbers are finally showing those feelings to be correct. I read a lot of urban fantasy this year and I’m getting more and more interested in science fiction at last.
Like last year, I haven’t borrowed any books from the library; the two books that I did read which were borrowed were from my mother and someone at work (I refused to purchase Fifty Shades of Grey). I’ve been working full-time all year and am now very comfortable buying whatever I feel like reading at any given time, within reason obviously, and I’d rather buy a book than pay a library fine. I also read nearly 62% of my own books, which is a higher number than since I started getting review copies. I stuck with my high percentage of female authors, around 68% this year.
If I’m disappointed by anything, it’s the low number of non-fiction books I read, just 18. That was one of last year’s goals and one that I spectacularly failed. Despite loving most history that I read, I seem to regularly decide that I don’t have the brain power for it and leave it to the side.
So! What would I like to accomplish with this year of reading?
- Read more non-fiction. Surprise, surprise – rather than letting these collect dust on bookshelves, as they have this year, I’d like to actually start making progress with history. I’m going to start with an aim of reading 20 books, to at least go over this year’s 18, but more would be brilliant.
- Read older books. This is another goal from last year that completely languished. I read 35 books that I got before 2012 in that year. Only 7 of those, however, were acquired before 2011, and in reality, I acquired well over half of my unread book collection before 2011, so I’m basically not touching those books at all. I don’t want that to continue. I’d like to set a goal of reading at least 1 book acquired before 2011 every month. Small, but progress.
- Be prompter at reviewing. I read less now, so I don’t have much excuse when my to-be-reviewed pile starts to stack up. I’m going to aim to review at least two books I read a week, which is close-ish to how many I read in total, and I won’t stress about which books I do and don’t review (unless they are review copies, of course). If it’s an urban fantasy series, I’ll probably continue not to review books after the first in the series, for example. I’m okay with reading even fewer books if I can get better with my blogging again.
Otherwise, I’m going to stick to what I’ve been doing, reading mostly my own books but keeping relatively up-to-date with my review copies. I’m happy with the quality and the variety of what I’ve been reading.
My non-reading goal is actually to get into the habit of writing fiction every day. I’ve set a goal of 500 words a day, and we’ll see how I do with sticking to that. I’m not trying to get anywhere with it, not yet, just trying to condition myself to actually do it.
What are your reading goals for 2013?
 Isabella of Castile is not expected to rise to greatness. Not only does she have an older half-brother, but she also has a younger full brother, and both are ahead of her in the line to the throne. But when crisis strikes her family and plunges Castile into civil war, Isabella finds herself fighting to claim the throne for herself and her own descendants. Alongside her is Fernando, heir to Aragon, and her chosen husband, even when her family wishes for her to marry someone else. Throughout Isabella’s struggles, one thing is always for certain, and that is her goal to do her best for her people.
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon are historical figures that are familiar to most American children (and likely plenty of others as well); they financed Columbus’s journey to “the New World” and, as much as I dislike what ensued from that journey, it’s taught to us from a very young age. As I grew older, I learned more about them. They unified a Christian Spain on something of a crusade and set off the Inquisition, an infamous institution throughout the early modern era. They’re fascinating figures, and Isabella herself is a perfect candidate for a historical fiction novel.
Fortunately, C.W. Gortner sticks to his excellent record and does Isabella justice. Gortner is one of those authors who can always remind me why I’ve spent so much of my life so far reading historical fiction. He really brings Isabella and her world to life, fully fleshing out her character and spending just the right amount of time on descriptions of the world around her and the events that shape her personality. Starting from a young age and going right up until she is the mother of several children, Gortner captures a huge chunk of Isabella’s life and explores how she might have felt over a number of both traumatic and inspiring events.
Before going into this particular book, I really wondered how Gortner was going to handle Isabella’s strict Catholicism. It’s very widely recognized that the Inquisition, and religious persecution in general, is an atrocity that practically everyone reading this review will wish was consigned to the distant past. He handles this with a delicate touch; Isabella regrets what she is doing and is forced into it by essentially riots. In order to satisfy the majority, she has to persecute the minority. I’m not sure how accurate this is in terms of real life, but it is a way of getting around this issue.
Another delicately handled situation is Fernando’s infidelity. Powerful men have received a pass on cheating for most of history, and Isabella’s husband isn’t an exception to this rule. How she deals with it is I feel surprisingly realistic, and I liked that Gortner didn’t invent fidelity when it was incredibly unlikely.
All things considered, The Queen’s Vow is a fantastic portrayal of Isabella of Castile, the story of a girl who grows into medieval Spain’s greatest queen, and an excellent book besides. Very highly recommended to those who enjoy historical fiction.
I received this book for free for review. All external book links are affiliate links.
 Cherry St. Croix lives in two worlds, London Above and London Below. Above, she’s the somewhat ostracized daughter of a mad scientist and his aristocratic, much-loved wife; after their deaths when she was a child, Cherry has had to navigate the waters of London’s social set with the guidance of her guardian, but she has never had much success or care for the intricate social politics. Below, she’s a Collector, a detective of sorts who finds and turns in people who owe something to others. As the only female collector, and one who has to keep her identity a secret, Cherry takes great pride in her success. But then, one of her bounties disappears, and the “sweets”, or prostitutes, of Below’s menagerie tell her about a horrible murder and ask for her help in finding the killer.
I really liked this book; it’s a twist on steampunk London, adding fantasy and new elements that made for an interesting world. I thought the actual, literal split between London’s rich and poor was a fascinating division, and it means that whoever shows up “Below” has a real motive and a reason for being there. It appears to be a racial divide as well, although I don’t recall any explicit mention of this. All of the characters of color are met under London, and the social elites are all white. The literal divide means that Cherry actually does live in two worlds, and her different identities in each are starkly defined.
The story itself is actually wrapped up in Cherry’s identity, though; the mystery that she attempts to solve is closely wrapped up in her own past, and as a result we do get a significant amount of her backstory in this one book. We need to, just to understand what’s going on and why it matters. I thought the story was decently intriguing, although readers should be aware that it doesn’t end here at all, and plenty of mysteries are left unsolved for future books in the series.
There is also a romance element to this particular book, although it doesn’t actually get very far. Cherry doesn’t really fall in love with anyone, but she has an intense attraction to two men who personify the split between her two worlds. The first is the leader of the Menagerie, a dark and charismatic figure that Cherry can’t avoid being attracted to; the second is the son of her worst aristocratic nemesis, a tall and golden-haired earl. It’s immediately clear that to be with either, Cherry would have to sacrifice one of her identities, but there’s no hint of a choice in this book, just the beginning of what could be a love triangle in the future.
While Tarnished was a good read, it remained a like, not love, book, for reasons I can’t really explain. Certainly good enough to continue with the series, though; I’d recommend it to those who like urban fantasy and steampunk, but it wouldn’t be the first on my list for current urban fantasy series just yet.
All external book links are affiliate links. I purchased this book.
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