Angela Korra'ti

Much has been made of Malinda Lo’s being a “lesbian Cinderella”, and while that’s certainly true, it’s only true up to a point. If you’re familiar with the fairy tale in question, you’ll certainly see most of its familiar elements in play here: the young girl whose mother’s death leads to her father’s disastrous second marriage, the cruel stepmother and stepsisters, the ball attended in secret, the Prince. There’s even a fairy protector.

But even with these familiar elements in place, Lo nonetheless builds a lovely tale that is at once similar to and quite a bit different from that of Cinderella. The fact that this version of Cinderella is much more interested in the King’s Huntress–and that the Prince isn’t really ever in the picture–is only part of this. The rest of it is simply charming worldbuilding, where Lo takes the pieces of the tale we all know and assembles them into a setting uniquely her own. Ash’s fairy protector in this version of the story is in fact a fairy godfather of sorts, with much more of a backstory and much more characterization than you’ve probably seen in most traditional Cinderella retellings. The interaction Sidhean has with Ash is the heart of the magic of this story, and as a fan of stories involving fairies and the Sidhe, I can say that it pleased me greatly. It was unearthly and compelling.

On the other hand, there is definitely a queer element to this tale, and the best thing about it is how refreshingly underplayed it is. The fact that Ash loves another female is not the conflict of the story in the slightest; it’s just there, without angst, without either Ash or Kaisa being considered out of the ordinary for where their romantic interests lie. And if Ash’s interaction with Sidhean is the unearthly driving force of the story, her affection for Kaisa is its sweet, earthly counterpoint, pulling it ultimately towards a very human resolution.

If there’s any complaint I have about this book, it’s that it’s honestly too short. The length’s probably fine for YA, but I came out of it wondering “that’s it?!” and quite anxious for more. Since it was so unexpectedly short, what conflict there is in the story felt a little too easily resolved–but that’s really something I didn’t mind at all, given the overall win of the rest of it. Four stars.

Kate Noble’s The Summer of You is an immediate sequel to Revealed, quite literally picking up pretty much right where the previous book left off. And, as is often the way with consecutive romance novels from the same author, they involve a connected cast of characters. In this case, the heroine is Lady Jane, the rival of Philippa Benning from Revealed; her love interest is Byrne, the brother of Marcus Worth.

Jane’s been called to the country to contribute to the care of her ailing father, who’s started showing alarming signs of what modern readers will of course recognize as Alzheimer’s. Her brother Jason is no help, as he’d just as soon lose himself in his youthful pursuits of drinking and carousing with his friends. This leaves only one retreat for Jane: the company of the irascible Byrne, who unbeknowst to her has already settled in the area to convalesce from a bullet wound to his leg and the laudanum addiction he’d developed as a result. And Byrne, too, has another problem: everybody in the town thinks he’s the highwaywman who’s been waylaying victims in the area for the last year.

The Summer of You isn’t as action-driven a plot as Revealed, and since we’re not in the heart of the ton in this story, we don’t get the barbed repartee that made up a lot of the fun of the previous book. What we do get here though is some nice character development, especially as Jason has to catch up in maturity to his sister, and both of them have to wrestle with the fact that the man they’d known as their father the Duke is pretty much gone. Meanwhile, Byrne’s overcoming his own issues as he and Jane fall for one another and team up to unmask the highwayman is well done too.

Overall, a nice read and a bit more substantial than many examples of the genre. I’ll cheerfully return for more of Noble’s work. Four stars.

When the fine ladies at Smart Bitches Trashy Books recently gave high marks to Kate Noble’s The Summer of You, I went out to research this lady–and leapt with great abandon upon Revealed, her second book, which you should definitely read if you wish to read The Summer of You, since the two are linked by common characters and events.

I wasn’t all that moved by her first book, Compromised. But this one? Now we’re TALKING. Our heroine du jour is Philippa Benning, who’s cutting through the ton of London with singleminded determination, and who is delightfully snarky in all the ways that any longstanding fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will remember from the character Cordelia. And, like Cordelia, Philippa at first seems to be focused upon fashion and social gatherings and men, yet eventually comes to prove that she’s got quite a bit more depth than that.

And what brings it about? Spies! In particular, Marcus Worth, who’s certain he’s uncovered a plot by a French nobleman to carry out strikes on London society functions–and who’s inadvertantly discovered by Philippa, who becomes convinced that she’s found the infamous Blue Raven. She boldly offers Marcus a deal: she’ll get him the cred he needs to attend the threatened gatherings, if he’ll let her finish off her own season by unveiling the Blue Raven and sealing her position as notorious queen of the ton.

Folks, I cheerily ate this one up. Marcus was a fantastic hero, the perfect sort of fellow for a spy: physically forgettable at first glance, lean and brown-haired and even wearing spectacles to read. Yet give him the right fashionable haircut, and SURPRISE! He’s actually handsome! Plus, we have bonus action scenes where Marcus gets shot, and OHNOEZ! Philippa has to be the one to take the bullet out! Okay, yeah, sure, it’s cheesy, but this book hit all the flavors of cheese I happen to particularly adore. 😉

There’s great mileage with Philippa snarking at her chief rival (who of course winds up being the protagonist of the next book) Jane, and some fine mileage as well with the masculine version of same going on with Marcus and his brother Byrne (who of course winds up being Jane’s love interest in the next book). One star off for resorting to the standard romance trope of Big Revelation to Make the Heroine Back Off Must Come Immediately After Smexxing–but other than that, this was a delightful read all around. Four stars.