Cat’s Comments (group member since Jan 28, 2015)

Cat’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

exciting news MelanieJoy- hope it all goes well :)

I'll be in for DQs

I'll volunteer! (Britpop)

plus an extra entry

463 pages

Current total: 1,397,940

Glad it went well, and enjoy an easy recovery with great books! :D

tee hee!

same. couple of short books being rapidly read, as well as Station Eternity - to be finished today :)

awesome!

I have nothing for those right now, nor particularly upcoming either :(

174 pages

Current total: 1,396,952

links for participation:

Day 1: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 2: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 3: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

DQ'S DAY 3

10. As we move towards the end of the novel what do you think will happen? What are the untold secrets of Hartwood Hall?

I hadn't expected everything that came out, but had expected a reveal about both Richard's death and Mrs E's marital sitch. Richard's death was more or less what I expected (natural death, massive guilt because she'd not been sufficiently caring).

11. Even though Paul has a reasonable excuse why he has keys to the Hall Margaret sometimes has the feeling he knows more than he is letting on. Is Paul too good to be true or is he hiding something.. and if he is will that impact their relationship?

Certainly too good to be true - and the "you don't need to work", "obvs you'll be happy if I'm happy" view chimed in there. Though I also think Margaret had been unfair - she'd been so happy for good sex and some kindness that she'd not been open about her feelings, and just (pretty obnoxiously) relied on class assumptions to prevent marriage or even just future plan convos

12. We finally find the truth of what happened the night Richard died. Margaret explains what her life was like, a life and emotions that many women of that era may have felt, shackled to the expectation of what women should be like, namely a possession of her husband with no life of her own. Even knowing all this does this excuse Margaret's behaviour on the night Richard died?

I do believe it was genuine forgetful oversight re the medicine, but generally her reactions, as an abused, controlled, woman, are not surprising.

13. Finally all the secrets are revealed and definitely not your standard Happily Ever After. It was really apparent to me that this was a novel penned recently, I'm sure a novel written even ten years ago wouldn't have ended the same way. Did the ending work for you, why/why not? What will you be rating The Secrets of Hartwood Hall?

I liked the ending fine - it was an entertaining enough piece of fluff - standard 3*

352 pages

Current total: 1,395,962

DQ set 2: Vols Two & Three

6. Margaret and Paul, eh?! How do you feel about this pairing?

I think Margaret's diving rather rapidly into lust. Paul, however sweet he seems, is definitely a bit dodgy - his constant refusal to see Hartwood Hall as anything other than paradise is just wonky in my book.

7. Margaret's loss of hearing is intended to make everything even more atmospheric, with the added uncertainty of whether she is hearing accurately. Do you think this is done well? Is it necessary, with all the hidden relationships too?

It certainly adds to the uncertainty, but I do also feel like it's too much.

8. We are suddenly plunged into a medical drama, with a minor measles outbreak! And a new sinister addition to the household: Miss Davis! Thoughts about her and her link to this whole melodrama?

I mean she's deeply sus, but we have zero info on her to help at all! I did enjoy the measles thing, with the presumably authentic anti-measles tactics of stuffing tobacco up their noses!!! And the barricade! that made me laugh! Additional bonus of the flashback to reveal the vial (is Margaret a poisoner? is she not?) and of course, bumping off of Susan!

9. Susan's dead, RIP... and Margaret has rescued her stuff from her little blackmail box, with a few snippets of other compromising material too. Did you glean anything from those snippets? Did you want her to take the whole box?

This whole household is astonishing lax about destroying dangerous letters! What's Stevens' game, eh? I suspect the husband/father of absconding with Isabella, and that's who they are hunting down. Why she didn't take the box, I do not know, though the other victims would surely also be on the lookout too (Stevens could've used his downstairs position of authority to search legitimately, I'd've thought? peculiar all round).

DQ set 2: Vols Two & Three

6. Margaret and Paul, eh?! How do you feel about this pairing?

7. Margaret's loss of hearing is intended to make everything even more atmospheric, with the added uncertainty of whether she is hearing accurately. Do you think this is done well? Is it necessary, with all the hidden relationships too?

8. We are suddenly plunged into a medical drama, with a minor measles outbreak! And a new sinister addition to the household: Miss Davis! Thoughts about her and her link to this whole melodrama?

9. Susan's dead, RIP... and Margaret has rescued her stuff from her little blackmail box, with a few snippets of other compromising material too. Did you glean anything from those snippets? Did you want her to take the whole box?

Other rat: Flowers for Algernon.

@Mel, his recent sci-fi one, Sea of Stars or something, wasn't bad, but I could never put myself through his Eragon books. I read the first when it came out and thought it was appallingly derivative and dull, and that was years ago, so I can't imagine being filled with love and joy over them now!

Will continue to ponder CP etc authors

@Karen re Althea & spoiler: don't forget that this book is a classic at this point, right? the majority of pre-millennium books really hadn't thought about much more than giving us strong(er) female characters. so very much of it's time in that respect plus of course the world Hobb had already created was your classic fantasy world at that point, so she was somewhat strait-jacketed by that.

and hopefully one or the other will work as a twofer for the MC has brother!

I would say that works for torso :)

there's blood on the cover, isn't there? If so, I can take that task, when I've finished one of my other books on the sheet.

I'll pop it in, with a note that I can be bumped :)

Sammy wrote: "also, there have got to be a gazillion books with squirrels on the cover. I just can't think of a single one 😂"

I think I instantly cast squirrel (and pigeon) based covers out of my mind on the basis that they are foul fiends! (yes, a red squirrel is not a foul fiend, but I'm no Lexi, able to identify animals from slim pickings on a cover, so I err on the side of caution!)

Sammy wrote: "Oh, springs to mind!"

That's a great call too!
(yes, totally ignoring the creature feature horror suggestion!)

oh! oh! have you read any of T Kingfisher's Saint of Steel books? I think they have rats, and are just wonderful


horrific to say, but the concatenation of love + rat nudged me!

First two are cishet romances, the last is MM. all are mid-years, damaged people and there's very little fake miscommunication to drive the stories.