Thomas, Sherry - His at Night
Mon, May. 31st, 2010 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterEveryone thinks Lord Vere is a bit dim, extremely garrulous, and generally harmless, but little do they know he is a secret agent for the government! Everyone thinks Elissande Edgerton leads a happy life with her uncle and aunt, but little do they know she is desperately trying to escape her uncle's clutches! Together, they fight crime! (Literally. Although him rather more than her, given the secret agent thing.)
Thankfully, this book hangs together much better than Not Quite a Husband, and it was particularly nice to find that the plot makes sense. Given Thomas' comments in her blog about the difficulty of writing this book and Delicious, she seems to be an author that does much better with heavy editing. Things fit! The emotional climax was not hit two hundred pages too soon!
The most interesting thing about this book is that it is really all about Elissande. Vere's deception is fun to watch and very Scarlet Pimpernel, but although there are hints of his Secret Angst, the majority of the book is dedicated to Elissande's struggle to free herself and her aunt from her abusive uncle's clutches. I especially liked how insidious the emotional abuse was, how neatly her uncle cut off almost all her options. Thomas also does a great job paralleling Elissande's deceptions with Vere's; Vere's are for the sake of his being a secret agent, but Elissasnde's are necessary for her own survival. Thomas wrote about how she was inspired by a gender switch of Meredith Duran's Written on Your Skin, but I actually find Elissande and Mina more alike than Mina and Vere. Both engage in deception as a means of protection and as a way to keep their inner selves intact, whereas Vere and Phin were able to initially make the decision to become secret agents. The women must show another face to the world because of how femininity is constructed and because they are under the power of male relatives, while the men choose to do so for politics.
I think because of this, Elissande's journey is the more compelling of the two. When Vere's Secret Angst is finally revealed, I rolled my eyes because it seemed so silly compared to what Elissande had gone through, and because so much of it was based on Vere being able to choose his path and choosing a rather foolish one. Thankfully, the book itself has much more about Elissande than Vere, and Vere's revelation felt more like a postscript. The main emotional climax of the book happens with Elissande and Elissande alone (spoiler: when she finds out she's Edmund Douglas' daughter, not his niece, which is both what I like best about the book and its greatest weakness as a romance. Because that moment isn't when the emotional climax of the romance is (i.e. when Vere realizes he's in love with her), the pacing of the final hundred pages or so feels off. Also, it doesn't help that we don't actually see the two reconciling on the page; when Vere decides he loves her and finds her, there's no tension between the two because she somehow realizes it.
Critique of pacing aside, I can't emphasize enough just how much I enjoy having a romance that is all about the heroine's Secret Angst instead of the hero's, particularly in a spy book.
Spoilers and notes on ablism
I was bothered by how frequently "idiot" is used in the book as a way to describe Lord Vere, but much, much moreso when I realized that it wasn't just because he was foolish and foppish, but because those around him actually thought it was a result of his head injury from falling off a horse years ago. The reader doesn't find this out until halfway through, and although it makes Vere's personality change much more plausible for those who were close to him before, it both detracted from the story and made me grrrr at ablism. There's just this patronizing tone about the way everyone talks to Vere that doesn't bother me if it's because they just think he's harmless but not too bright and really rubs me the wrong way if it's because they think he is disabled.
Finally, the secondary romance is sweet but rather insubstantial, although it was nice to see Freddie from Private Arrangements get his own happy ending. Still, I was impressed even that managed to tie back to the plot a bit! The sex is also much tamer than Thomas' other books (her first virgin heroine, heh), and there's a scene that's very dub con for me and squicked me out a bit.
In conclusion: doesn't hit quite as many buttons as Not Quite a Husband did for me, but so much better in terms of structure and pacing and characterization and lack of colonialism! Also, focus on the heroine's struggle FTW!
Thankfully, this book hangs together much better than Not Quite a Husband, and it was particularly nice to find that the plot makes sense. Given Thomas' comments in her blog about the difficulty of writing this book and Delicious, she seems to be an author that does much better with heavy editing. Things fit! The emotional climax was not hit two hundred pages too soon!
The most interesting thing about this book is that it is really all about Elissande. Vere's deception is fun to watch and very Scarlet Pimpernel, but although there are hints of his Secret Angst, the majority of the book is dedicated to Elissande's struggle to free herself and her aunt from her abusive uncle's clutches. I especially liked how insidious the emotional abuse was, how neatly her uncle cut off almost all her options. Thomas also does a great job paralleling Elissande's deceptions with Vere's; Vere's are for the sake of his being a secret agent, but Elissasnde's are necessary for her own survival. Thomas wrote about how she was inspired by a gender switch of Meredith Duran's Written on Your Skin, but I actually find Elissande and Mina more alike than Mina and Vere. Both engage in deception as a means of protection and as a way to keep their inner selves intact, whereas Vere and Phin were able to initially make the decision to become secret agents. The women must show another face to the world because of how femininity is constructed and because they are under the power of male relatives, while the men choose to do so for politics.
I think because of this, Elissande's journey is the more compelling of the two. When Vere's Secret Angst is finally revealed, I rolled my eyes because it seemed so silly compared to what Elissande had gone through, and because so much of it was based on Vere being able to choose his path and choosing a rather foolish one. Thankfully, the book itself has much more about Elissande than Vere, and Vere's revelation felt more like a postscript. The main emotional climax of the book happens with Elissande and Elissande alone (spoiler: when she finds out she's Edmund Douglas' daughter, not his niece, which is both what I like best about the book and its greatest weakness as a romance. Because that moment isn't when the emotional climax of the romance is (i.e. when Vere realizes he's in love with her), the pacing of the final hundred pages or so feels off. Also, it doesn't help that we don't actually see the two reconciling on the page; when Vere decides he loves her and finds her, there's no tension between the two because she somehow realizes it.
Critique of pacing aside, I can't emphasize enough just how much I enjoy having a romance that is all about the heroine's Secret Angst instead of the hero's, particularly in a spy book.
Spoilers and notes on ablism
I was bothered by how frequently "idiot" is used in the book as a way to describe Lord Vere, but much, much moreso when I realized that it wasn't just because he was foolish and foppish, but because those around him actually thought it was a result of his head injury from falling off a horse years ago. The reader doesn't find this out until halfway through, and although it makes Vere's personality change much more plausible for those who were close to him before, it both detracted from the story and made me grrrr at ablism. There's just this patronizing tone about the way everyone talks to Vere that doesn't bother me if it's because they just think he's harmless but not too bright and really rubs me the wrong way if it's because they think he is disabled.
Finally, the secondary romance is sweet but rather insubstantial, although it was nice to see Freddie from Private Arrangements get his own happy ending. Still, I was impressed even that managed to tie back to the plot a bit! The sex is also much tamer than Thomas' other books (her first virgin heroine, heh), and there's a scene that's very dub con for me and squicked me out a bit.
In conclusion: doesn't hit quite as many buttons as Not Quite a Husband did for me, but so much better in terms of structure and pacing and characterization and lack of colonialism! Also, focus on the heroine's struggle FTW!
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(no subject)
Wed, Jun. 2nd, 2010 10:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Jun. 2nd, 2010 10:08 pm (UTC)I'm reading a Carrie Lofty right now, where the heroine is addicted to opium and the hero is about to enter the priesthood.
(no subject)
Fri, Jul. 23rd, 2010 07:38 pm (UTC)Is it any good?
(no subject)
Fri, Jul. 23rd, 2010 08:38 pm (UTC)