Chance, Megan - An Inconvenient Wife

Alas, one of my favorite romance novel authors has moved into the field of "real" fiction. This is her second non-romance novel; the first was on the Salem witch trials, and I haven't read it.

Chance's romances (past reviews here, here, here, and here) are usually far from happy and uplifting. Her happy endings feel like they won't quite last, and all her protagonists are damaged in some way or the other. I also like her because her heroines are as tortured as her heroes.

An Inconvenient Wife focuses entirely on the heroine, and while there is a bit of a romance, it's in no way a love story or anything but the story of a woman's escape from her restrictive life.

Lucy Carelton suffers from hysteria; she's gone to numerous doctors who have suggested a stay at an asylum, an ovarectium (sp) and laudunum. Nothing works. Finally, she and her desperate husband William find Dr. Victor Seth, a neurologist who believes in the power of hypnotism and electrotherapy.

I loved the setting of the book (New York 1885), and I think Chance is particularly good at conveying how limiting the life of an upperclass woman was, how so many choices were dictated by societal rules. The book wasn't particularly pleasant to read, though, because of how stifling it felt, but I don't think that's a particularly bad point. It reminds me quite a bit of Age of Innocence, actually.

The only problem is that I'm thoroughly unconvinced by the turn the plot takes about three-fourths of the way through -- what began as a look at imprisonment and limitations becomes a little more sensational, and I don't think it works with the tone of the book. I mean, I enjoy the ending from a romance-novel-cliche-bender kind of way, but I'm not convinced of it, if that makes sense.

Anyhow, it was interesting, and I'll keep a watch out for more Chance books.

Cherryh, C.J. - The Paladin

The first Cherryh book I've read since reading The Fortress in the Eye of Time back in eighth grade or something! Luckily, I liked this one much better than Fortress, which I found singularly boring back then. Maybe a reread will change that, who knows?

Anyhow, I picked this one up because riemannia had mentioned how Kinsale's The Prince of Midnight reminded her of it. Bonus points of non-European setting! The weird thing is that I can't quite specifically pinpoint why the setting feels Asian because Cherryh thankfully doesn't do that whole subservient Asian thing. The place names and people names are a mix of Chinese and Japanese, but the book feels distinctly Chinese to me. This may just be me projecting; someone more familiar with Japanese history may find it Japanese. I think it was something about the emphasis on government and regents, on the importance of a good emperor and on the havoc a bad one can do, that felt Chinese to me. This is quite likely because of how so many heroes in Chinese culture seem to be poet-philosophers who are the lone voice of reason against a bad emperor and end up being exiled because of it, although I'm not sure if that is actually true or if that is just a cultural preoccupation that influences the interpretation of the literature.

Taizu is a peasant girl whose family has been killed by the bad official Ghitu, and she decides to seek revenge be convincing the legendary warrior Saukendar to train her. Unfortunately for her, Saukendar is a little lame and not at all inclined to train her or abandon his nice hermit existence of her revenge.

I particularly enjoyed the parts of the story that dealt with how Saukendar trains Taizu because of the detail, though I found myself consistently annoyed at Saukendar for his constant belief that a girl couldn't possibly fight that well, despite Taizu's obvious skill, and for his constant desire to sleep with Taizu against her will. Ok, I get he's in lust and hasn't slept with someone for nine years or so, but good lord. Props to Cherryh for not doing the obvious romance novel thing, even though they do eventually fall in love. I hope I'm not spoiling anything here, as it seemed pretty obvious from the start.

I didn't like Saukendar that much because of the reasons above, but I really adored Taizu and her quiet strength and her iron will. She decides on what she wants and never lets go, and I wish that I had gotten to see some scenes from her POV instead of Saukendar's. Oh well.

I'm not quite sure if I liked the part of the book that concerns itself with the revenge, and I'm not sure if I completely believe the ending, but hey, I found a non-sporky Asian-tinged fantasy!

Ueda Miwa - Peach Girl, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)

I am so incredibly irked by this that I refuse to read past vol. 1, even though I got five volumes from the library.

I know that women often find that they are their own worst enemies, but for heaven's sake, could I please have a romantic comedy or a romance in which the women are not enemies? Gah.

Momo's dark skin is the bane of her existence; people see it and assume that she's a "beach bunny" who only wants to have fun and is easy with guys. I am assuming here that "beach bunny" is the way they are translating "kogyaru" or "cool gal," the Japanese girls who tan their skins incredibly dark and bleach their hair and populate Shibuya, the trendy district of Tokyo. Because the tanning is a very distinct trend among Japanese girls, I don't know how likely or unlikely it is for someone's character to be judged by the color of their skin, but it really rubs me the wrong way. Especially because the book isn't particularly refuting the fact that people who tan their skins on purpose aren't sexually loose -- the mangaka just sets up her heroine as being the exception to the rule.

Momo has a crush on Toji, but she doesn't think he'll ever like her back because she remembers him saying that he could never date a girl with skin darker than his. Alas, she lost all my respect here, because even if this was a misunderstanding (the manga abounds with them), why in the world would she still like someone who thought that? I mean, I understand that crushes are irrational and such, but she doesn't even question this statement from him or find it in any way disturbing. Argh.

However, she ends up telling her "best friend" Sae that she likes Kiley, the most popular guy in school, because Sae is the kind of friend who sabotages everything Momo does. Witness my annoyance level shoot through the roof. I hate the one special girl who is the exception to the rule that all girls are sluts or dangerous blah blah blah story, which is why no, I will never watch Alias again. Then of course Kiley falls for Momo, who is just that special, and there are awkward misunderstandings with Toji. Then of course Sae gets wind of the Toji thing and grabs him for herself and cue misunderstanding upon misunderstanding upon misunderstanding. All of which could be cleared up if, say, Toji and Momo actually sat down and talked to each other for ten minutes!

ARGH. Somehow this manga manages to touch upon every single one of my hot buttons -- stupid love triangles, stupid misunderstandings, stupid evil best friends and stupid innocent misunderstood heroines.

Will most definitely not be continuing on with this.