C.A. Gray's Blog, page 69
August 3, 2018
Tell Me Three Things, Julie Buxbaum
Today’s review comes from this online review, Tell Me Three Things.
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Review of My Dear Hamilton
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After listening to and practically memorizing “Hamilton: The Musical,” and then reading Hamilton’s biography, I couldn’t resist this version of the story from Eliza’s POV. It absolutely did not disappoint, and it also filled in lots of additional details that I didn’t get from Hamilton’s perspective.
While most historical retellings tend to stick to dry recitation of facts, this was different because it was a novel, and much the better for it. I loved the fact that it was told in first person from Betsy’s–later Eliza’s–perspective, and the reader only gets to know what she knew at the time, even though (being well acquainted with the story) I had a broader perspective. The authors admitted in an overview at the end that they took license here and there for the purpose of the narrative, but they never actually rewrote anything (unlike the musical); instead, they inferred what might have happened where the historical records left gaps. Whereas the musical version of Eliza seemed a bit like a sap, and not nearly as compelling a character as her sister Angelica, I absolutely loved her in this. I have great admiration for her fortitude and goodness, and great sympathy for all she endured. I had the impression from the musical and from Hamilton’s own biography that any love he had for her grew out of a sense of duty, while she blindly adored him until learning of his infidelity–after which history does not record how she responds, except to say that after his death she spends the next 50 years of her life fighting to make sure the history books remembered her husband’s accomplishments (implying that she forgave him). Seeing the story through her eyes, though, they are a very well-matched pair, and seemed to have a great marriage–so much so that even I was stunned when he revealed that he’d had an affair. I thought, surely the affair must be coming much later. He couldn’t have cheated on her while things had been going so well… could he?
And I believed his remorse, too. I even began to wonder whether the other reports I’d heard about his flirtatious relationship with Angelica had been historically inaccurate, because there was so little evidence of it from Eliza’s perspective… until after Angelica and Hamilton are both dead. I FELT this with Eliza… her emotions are so raw and understandable and real as she wrestles with how to make peace with her memories of the two people she loved most in the world, who may or may not have betrayed her.
The scope of the story is of course immense, as it covers the entire founding of America, and is populated with an “all-star” cast of historical figures, all of whom were Eliza’s contemporaries, friends, and sometimes enemies. The story is all the more compelling because it is also true. What a fantastic way to study history!
My review: *****
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July 27, 2018
See Me by Wendy Higgins
Today’s podcast comes from this blog review.
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Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Today’s podcast comes from this Review of Redeeming Love
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Regency Romance and Philippa Jane Keyworth
Philippa Jane Keyworth, also known as P. J. Keyworth, and known to her friends as Pip, has been writing since she was twelve in every notebook she could find. Originally trained as a horse-riding instructor, Philippa went on to become a copywriter before beginning a degree in History and graduating with First Class Honours. She now works in Digital Marketing and part-time as an author.
Philippa has three historical romance novels out, each a standalone with indomitable heroines and lovable heroes. Her third novel, Fool Me Twice (Madison Street Publishing, 2016), follows the exploits of a notorious female gamester whose carefully orchestrated life is turned upside down by the arrival of a most ineligible gentleman?
The Edict marks her first fantasy novel and is the first in a trilogy. Following the stories of strong yet markedly different heroines, the world of The She Trilogy will see the ultimate struggle between good and evil played out in a fantasy world, bringing it to the brink of destruction.
1) Do you have an ‘elevator pitch’ for The Widow’s Redeemer, to summarize it for our audience members who maybe haven’t read it before? It focuses on Letty Burton ? she’s the opposite of what would be eligible. She’s a widow, penniless, and doesn’t have any connections in the Regency world (1815) and she comes across the most eligible and scandalous bachelor.
2) I just discovered the whole “Regency” genre. This qualifies, right? Can you define that term for us? There’s a few definitions: the period of 1811-1820, which was when the Prince of Wales, the son of the King George III, became a Regent because George III was the mad king, and he was ineligible to rule. Literarily: authors take different amounts of time for this. She’s heard it as broad as 1790 to 1830. She’s a bit more old school and stricter about it though: she keeps it to the actual Regency. In that time period, so much happens: the French Revolution, Revolutionary Wars, Napoleon? There’s a lot of change. It was on the brink of the Industrial Revolution. Pride and Prejudice came out in the late 18th century, so it wasn’t technically Regency, but the film adaptations display the people with Regency clothes. NOTE: Philippa contacted me afterwards and corrected herself that P&P was actually published in 1813! 
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Today’s review comes from this blog post, Review of Ella Enchanted
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July 26, 2018
Review of The Sheik
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Apparently this is one of the first modern romances, written in something like 1919, and it was considered quite scandalous at the time. And I can see why.
The story follows Diana Mayo, beautiful but haughty and frigid, immune to all romantic attention. She was raised by her much older brother who treated her like a boy, and she behaves like one… until she catches the eye of a traveling Sheik, Ahmed Ben Hassan, who decides he wants her for his “plaything.” As she goes on an ill-advised trek through the desert, he kidnaps her and makes her essentially his sex slave (though it doesn’t go into a lot of detail on this.) He’s terribly handsome, but cruel to everyone and everything around him. Diana hates him and tries to escape, but when her escape attempts fail, she suddenly realizes she loves him after all. The rest of the story is her pining for him to love her back (and going on and on to herself about how desperately she loves him, despite her own admission that there is nothing lovable *about* him). When a rival Sheik kidnaps her, Ahmed realizes that he loves her too, and rides off to save her. And they live happily ever after.
The story is addictive at first, as the conflict between the two characters promises to be inevitable and explosive. But I grew restless as I read how the author attempts to resolve that conflict, because it seemed so unrealistic to me. She misuses the term “love”, in the case of both characters: Diana’s version seems more like Stockholm Syndrome. She thought she was invincible, but Ahmed overpowers her… and she relishes being conquered, in a twisted sort of way. But then she grows desperate to the point of being suicidal if she cannot win his love in return–as if her entire value as a person hinges on his opinion of her. Ahmed’s version, meanwhile, is more about wanting what he can’t have, and devaluing what he can. He’s intrigued by the fact that she’s spirited and fights against him, but he warns her at the beginning that as soon as she stops fighting, he’ll lose interest and send her away. He decides he finally wants her mostly because he just doesn’t want the other guy to have her. “And then magic occurs”… Hull needs to wrap up the story, so suddenly Ahmed transforms into a hero, ready to make Diana happy for all her days. Yeah, right: there’s absolutely no stimulus for that change. (Then again, the idea of love has been so misguided throughout the story that I don’t really think there was any possibility for a satisfying ending!)
My rating: ***
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July 18, 2018
Review of Sometimes I Lie
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I’d call this a mystery/thriller–it reminds me a lot of “Gone Girl” in its pacing, style, and themes. It’s definitely dark, and paints a bleak picture of humanity in general. At the end of the story, there’s really only one person I still liked–and he turned out to be the very person I’d suspected the most at the beginning of the story.
The premise: Amber is in a coma, but she can hear everything around her. She can’t remember how she got there, so we piece together her story in a combination of flashbacks from different time periods, what she hears in the present, her dreams in the present, and old journal entries. At each stage of the story, I guessed along with Amber what must have happened to lead her to the hospital bed, but most of my guesses turned out to be incorrect. Some of the flashback stories seemed totally unrelated, but they all tied together in the end. It was definitely creative, and held my attention throughout, although I think some of the surprises were artificial in the sense that Amber would have known what the reader did not. She simply didn’t tell us, and that seems like cheating, since we’re in her head. I thought Amber would turn out to be an unreliable narrator, given the title of the book, but that isn’t quite true: an unreliable narrator is one who tells us what happens, and while it’s obvious to the reader what’s really going on, the narrator has a completely different interpretation. Amber just doesn’t remember all the facts at first, and withholds those she does remember. But she never seems to misconstrue evidence, per se.
The material itself is pretty disturbing, but I guess you have to know you’re in for that when you pick up a book like this. The way the story is told is masterful, though, and definitely worth a read if you like stories that keep you guessing.
My rating: ****
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July 13, 2018
Review of See Me
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I absolutely adored the Sweet Evil trilogy, so I tried this one too–curious to know how Higgins would pull off a romance between a human girl and a leprechaun! But it gets better: the human girl and the leprechaun are betrothed from childhood, even though they’ve never met before. How in the world do you create the tension necessary to carry a good romance when the wedding is a foregone conclusion?!
Actually, this turned out to be the biggest problem with the story, I thought. Robyn grew up fantasizing about McKale all her life. She’s a good girl; he’s shy and bashful. There’s not a lot of chemistry there, probably because there’s really nothing clashing or opposite about them. I just wasn’t really buying the attraction. There is a bit of tension in the fact that at first, neither knows if the other truly likes them, or if they’re simply obligated to one another–but once they get past this, the story begins to drag. It only revives with the addition of a fairy named Khalistah (nickname FFG, the Freaky Fae Girl, to Robyn and her sister Cassidy), who wants McKale for herself. The fae are enormously powerful and dangerous, so the plot becomes how to foil Khalistah without losing McKale, or Robyn, or Cassidy, to the land of Fairy. It felt a bit weak to me, like Khalistah was only there because things were otherwise going too smoothly. She felt like a plot device.
On the other hand, the description of the leprechaun and fairy cultures within Ireland was probably my favorite part. I loved her world building. When I was in Ireland a few years ago, I took copious notes, intending to come back and write a coming-of-age book that felt very much like this one. That didn’t end up happening, though–what I wrote instead was Uncanny Valley, which started out in Dublin, but that was about the extent of it. (At the time, I just couldn’t bring myself to write about fairies, because I thought it would come off way too cheesy… ironic, because now they’re all the rage!)
My review: ***
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July 11, 2018
Review of Tell Me Three Things
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This was a straight up YA novel, no fantasy or sci fi or anything else, but it hooked me right away with the concept of a secret penpal writing to the new girl in school. Jessie moved to her new LA private high school after her mother died and her father remarried. The school is cutthroat, the girls are bullies (a bit caricaturized really), and Jessie doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. But ‘Somebody Nobody’ begins emailing her to help her navigate her way through adjusting to the new school. She develops a crush on him, guessing at his identity, while also grieving for her mother, making new friends, and developing a crush on her English partner. I will say ***slight spoiler alert*** that it was obvious from the very first moment the English partner was introduced that he was Somebody/Nobody… and it was SO obvious that it was slightly annoying he was the only person Jessie never once considered.
While I loved the narrative voice, and was intrigued by the secret identity trope mixed with romance, I didn’t care for how the author normalized teen sex via conversations between Jessie and her friends. The author’s own worldview definitely comes through, and I can’t fault her for that of course–but it’s a message I personally find too pervasive and potentially damaging. I wish there were other popular YA books out there showing teens that there are different, and completely reasonable, ways to think, and they’re not total freaks for holding an alternate viewpoint. Still, if I overlooked that and some of the obligatory political correctness, it was a very enjoyable read.
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