Kinsale, Laura - Midsummer Moon, The Shadow and the Star, and Uncertain Magic

[oyceter]

I think I have read Midsummer Moon and Uncertain Magic before, but I don't remember them at all. And I had previously gotten halfway through The Shadow and the Star but never finished it.

I suspect none of them made an impression on me previously because I read them when I was looking for angsty angsty romance, particularly from Kinsale. It's a delight to find her funnier books, and I think I am more kindly inclined toward light romances now.

Midsummer Moon - Merlin Lambourne is an absent-minded inventor who only wants to work on her flying machine. Ransom Falconer, Duke of Damerell, is trying to get a hold of her inventions to benefit the English in the Napoleonic wars, while also attempting to keep Merlin from being abducted by the French.

Merlin is absolutely adorable and completely absent-minded, and their meet-cute is one of the cutest things ever. Also, there is a hedgehog. And I sympathize greatly with Merlin's inability to figure out the Name/Title formula and go for Duke of Falconer or "Mr. Duke," as I frequently have that problem as well. And I love the inversion of the usual male inventor/female love interest trying to keep him connected to the real world.

Unfortunately, I also greatly dislike Ransom, who is extremely controlling and loves manipulating people. I did like that it is his greatest flaw and that everyone is subject to it, not just Merlin, but since it's coupled with the "I will prevent you from doing what you most want in order to protect you!" (he's scared of heights, she wants to build a flying machine), it really irritated me. Though I loved the end bit on how Merlin gets him in a plane. Also, I think the side romances/characters could have been fleshed out much better. Still, charming as long as Ransom isn't much in there.

The Shadow and the Star - I know this is almost everyone's favorite Kinsale, but alas, not for me. I never found myself greatly sympathizing with Samuel, despite his angsty background, probably because I skipped all the flashback chapters or anything that had much to do with his ninja training in Hawaii. OMG. The Orientalism is SO BAD. I was able to ignore it in most of the sections, but not when it was continually dwelt upon in the flashbacks!

As such, I adored Leda and her "dear sir"-ing and her injunctions against swearing, but never quite got a hold of Samuel. He's not an alpha jerk, thankfully, but I also didn't really see him as in love with Leda either.

Uncertain Magic - Roderica Delamore has the unfortunate gift of being able to overhear people's thoughts when she encounters the Devil Earl, Faelan Savigar. She can't hear his thoughts! He needs money to save his darling estate, Iveragh! Clearly they must get married!

I feel like I should not have liked this, given that Faelan keeps thinking Roddy is sleeping with or pining after her first crush and acting foolishly because of it, the age difference between the two (she's 19, he's 35), and that he keeps calling her "little girl" or "child." And yet! It is so utterly charming that I do not care.

This is also one of the more Gothic-y romances, particularly because we only get Roddy's POV through most of it. I love the take on Gothics, especially with all the ominous warnings being delivered via Roddy's psychic-ness as opposed to the usual mysterious people popping in and out going "Doom!!!" without providing illuminating and helpful details.

I also like that even though Faelan falls prey to several Big Misunderstandings, they are actually cleared up fairly quickly and he doesn't do anything too horrible. Plus, as previously mentioned, watching Roddy and Faelan interact is usually so cute that I gave the book a lot of leeway.

Also also, there is a pet pig!

Comments

[heresluck]

Oh, Kinsale. I inhaled all her books a few years ago when I read something like 80 romances in a year; thoroughly enjoyed them all except for the medieval one whose name I can't remember (did love the sequel, though). I'm not sure I would have enjoyed them so much if Mely hadn't warned me about the cracktastic plots; I sort of suspended my WTF reaction before going in, which is perhaps part of how I slid by the ninjas and orientalism on a light gloss of "oh REALLY now."

I note that Kinsale has a new book coming out in February. Hmmm. I haven't really been in the mood for romances for a couple of years now, but there are a few authors -- Kinsale, Crusie, Brockway, Chase -- whose books I'm generally ready to read anyway.

[oyceter]

OMG I was looking through old LJ entries, and apparently I haven't read new Kinsale since 2005!! Good lord. It's been a while! I'm kind of glad I saved these. I still have My Sweet Folly unread, but I don't have very high expectations for that one.

Bwahaha, I just reread parts of For My Lady's Heart (the medieval one) yesterday and started a real reread (as opposed to the good parts reread) of Shadowheart too.

I am so excited! New Kinsale for the first time since 2004! And it looks like a comedy! I am sadly skipping the latest Chase b/c of the Orientalism (can we stop with the white girls in harems now?), but super excited Brockway has returned to historicals... her last one (So Enchanting) was funny and charming and featured a rather cynical hero and heroine and lots of hijinks, and I'm really looking forward to her next one, which is supposedly a very traditional Regency.

It's weird... I hadn't been reading romances between 2006-2007 or something, and then I started on the paranormals and BAM! I have been on a serious romance spree lately, thanks to school.

[daedala]

There is something about nice, fluffy romances that helps grad school go by.

I am kind of looking forward to more substantial reading, but really can't manage it now. The last time I had more than a couple of weeks off was summer 2007.

[oyceter]

Yeah.... I am totally not up for substantial reading. I mean, right now, I am still congratulating myself for making it back to books, as opposed to endless games of Spider Solitaire.

[heresluck]

Yeah, I think I'd managed to read pretty much all of them by the time Shadowheart came out, so that was the last one for me. I'm trying to remember My Sweet Folly -- honestly, with such cracktastic plots you would think there's no way they'd all blur together, and yet! -- and... you know, going into a romance with low expectations is never a bad thing, but I seem to recall quite liking that one, although at this point I have no memory of *why*.

For My Lady's Heart is the only Kinsale that I sold back when I was done with it; I could tell that there was just no way I was ever going to re-read it, not even a good parts reread. It made me too insane.

And WORD on the white girls in harems thing. There are far too many authors to whom I want to send a copy of Mernissi's Dreams of Trespass.

I didn't realize Brockway had gone back to historicals! Must check this out! I wasn't really following her contemporaries -- I read one and it was charming but didn't really ping for me.

[oyceter]

(Sorry, trying not to use words like "insane" or "crazy" on my blog right now if you don't mind.)

I am still so sad I didn't like For My Lady's Heart, because it sounded so promising, and yet, no =(.

I never managed to try Brockway's contemporaries! I have one or two on my shelf and read the first few pages and just... wasn't interested. I was so excited when I found out she went back to historicals.

[heresluck]

Apologies for the vocabulary -- my bad, and thank you for the reminder.

And yeah, the one of Brockway's contemporaries that I tried just... didn't ping for me. But that could also be me; Crusie's the only author doing contemporaries whose work I've consistently liked. Mostly I look at the premises of contemporaries and just think "meh." Apparently I can only deal with romances at a certain historical remove -- it makes them safer, or makes me less likely to get upset about the gender politics, or something.

[oyceter]

No prob, and thanks!

Yeah... I've found I don't read many contemporaries, unless you count paranormals. I think I would like them, but a lot of the romance tropes used that work in historicals or with paranormals do not work at all with me for "RL." Gender politics, race stuff, class stuff, so much!