Duran, Meredith - Bound by Your Touch

[oyceter]

Lydia Boyce is a spinster interested in her father's archaeological expeditions in Egypt. James, Lord Sanburne, somehow gets his hands on some Egyptian stela for purposes that I have completely forgotten. Lydia exposes Sanburne's acquisition as a fake, and sparks ensue.

I read the first three-quarters of this while not in the mood for romance, and as such, I do not remember much of what happens at all. Also, it didn't help that the spinster-meets-wastrel is one of my least favorite tropes right now in romance. And finally, I spent the entire book ranting in my head about how these people were just going off and stealing Egyptian property to study, that it was all about Egypt as this distant land way out there where these things happened, that the action was as usual all about the white people.

Yes, it was nice to know that the heroine engaged in Egyptian-government-sanctioned trade, but given the power dynamics of the time (Victorian England), how much leeway did the government have, really? Especially since this book takes place after the construction of the Suez Canal.

When I managed to not be overcome by rage, the prose was indeed lovely, and the character growth was interesting, although I am completely unconvinced of the resolution of Sanburne's storyline re: his sister.

Overall, it may be a very good book, but still. RAGE.

Links:
- oracne's review

Comments

[daedala]

I tend to really like spinster+wastrel (I imprinted on Venetia at an early age) and I thought that this one was generally not very good. The character growth was interesting yes, but it wasn't romantic. It was more like "let us help each other get over our daddy issues," which is just so not on. Especially when your daddy issues are Big Misunderstandings (at least on Sanburne's part; Lydia was actively mislead).

The sister plotline was appallingly stupid and made me angry. The...understanding of mental illness, abuse, and 19th c. psych treatments seemed shallow at best and reified a bunch of really stupid stereotypes, particularly the one of abused women needing someone to take care of them and control their every waking move. Ick.

(I was also bothered by the Egyptian stuff, but you covered it nicely.)

I didn't hate her first book as much as you did (I finished it after all!) but it really was awful in a lot of ways. This author has so much potential and it is really frustrating that she screws up so badly.

[oyceter]

GAH the sister plotline drove me up a wall! So many things wrong with it!

How is the first book? I was so frustrated by the obvious "Let's make the hero just a little Indian for exoticness factor but only one-fourth so he's not scarily BROWN" thing.

[daedala]

Avoid. Seriously. The little-bit-Indian thing is the least of the issues.

It is very angsty. It is angsty in some really stupid ways. The heroine's life is in HORRIBLE DANGER because she copied Hindi script she could not read onto her paintings (which are like the OMG ANGST MARY SUE of painting success and induction into the academy and WHATEVER), and I do not think that the author was making a comment about appropriation in that. All I could think of was the "what does my Chinese tattoo really say" blog whose name I can't remember...except worse, she had NO INTENDED MEANING AT ALL, it's just random script as decoration.

It, like Not Quite a Husband, is largely white (or mostly white) people acting against a backdrop of horror and war. And also the brown people are being manipulated by white traitors, which I suppose is better than making the brown people the villians, but still pretty awful. (Savage villain or savage puppet....)

I like a lot of angst in my stories. I like stories of resilience and overcoming odds, and hey, traveling through a war zone qualifies. So I was able to read it at the time. But... I don't remember it much now, because of the stupidity of the overall plot with the writings and art. And I think that the angst development got messed up somehow, but I don't remember that either. I do remember that by the last third or quarter or so I was skimming in order to finish it, since I'd gotten that far.

[daedala]

Having written this and my half-remembered impressions of Sandalwood Princess, I think I draw a distinction between "Colonialist fluff" and "Colonialist angst." I don't know if the latter really is more exploitative and bad than the former, though. (I'm not asking you to tell me, just noting that that is where these halfassed reviews are coming from, so you can decide how much weight to give them.)

[oyceter]

*nods* Thanks for the write-ups and the notes!

[pseudo_tsuga]

The Amelia Peabody series set in Egypt that touches on those issues in the later books. I can't recall much since it's been a while; there are revolutionary groups and discussion of British empire but it's still conventional in some ways and the main characters are white. It came to mind because the series starts out in the Victorian era too but progresses to (currently) after the first world war.

[oyceter]

*nods* I'll probably avoid, just because I'm not really up for more white people in "exotic" settings right now, and because I tend to not do so well with mysteries, but thanks for the info!