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Hoyt, Elizabeth - To Beguile a Beast and To Desire a Devil
Fri, Feb. 5th, 2010 09:06 pmThese are books 3 and 4 of Hoyt's Legend of the Four Soldiers quartet, which is about four survivors of a British regiment ambushed by Indians in the not-yet-United-States. (I will get to this rant in a moment.)
To Beguile a Beast - Mrs. Helen Fitzwilliam has finally decided to leave her keeper, the Duke of Lister, but she knows he'll go after her just to get her and his two bastard children back. She ends up trying to persuade naturalist Sir Alistair Munroe to let her stay as his housekeeper, since he desperately needs one. Alistair is the titular beast, as he was scarred and had two fingers cut off during aforementioned ambush. Thankfully, this book has relatively little about the ambush, which meant I could pretend to ignore it so as to not throw the book against a wall. Most of the plot revolves around Helen escaping the Duke of Lister, and amazingly, her two children are not nauseatingly cute. In fact, I actually really liked the very solemn and not at all cute Abigail. I like that the hero is actually scarred, as opposed to the usual "Oh WOES I am UGLY wait no it's only a mild scratch" thing, but I was rather unconvinced by how long the "I am not worthy of your love" thing was dragged out on Alistair's part. Overall, not bad, though I like her Princes trilogy better.
To Desire a Devil - ( Spoilers and rantiness )
To Beguile a Beast - Mrs. Helen Fitzwilliam has finally decided to leave her keeper, the Duke of Lister, but she knows he'll go after her just to get her and his two bastard children back. She ends up trying to persuade naturalist Sir Alistair Munroe to let her stay as his housekeeper, since he desperately needs one. Alistair is the titular beast, as he was scarred and had two fingers cut off during aforementioned ambush. Thankfully, this book has relatively little about the ambush, which meant I could pretend to ignore it so as to not throw the book against a wall. Most of the plot revolves around Helen escaping the Duke of Lister, and amazingly, her two children are not nauseatingly cute. In fact, I actually really liked the very solemn and not at all cute Abigail. I like that the hero is actually scarred, as opposed to the usual "Oh WOES I am UGLY wait no it's only a mild scratch" thing, but I was rather unconvinced by how long the "I am not worthy of your love" thing was dragged out on Alistair's part. Overall, not bad, though I like her Princes trilogy better.
To Desire a Devil - ( Spoilers and rantiness )
(no subject)
Wed, Jan. 5th, 2005 07:34 pmWatching the Tivoed Grand Prix final, and argh, I want to strangle the stupid commentators! First, Beijing has not been the seat of government and culture in China for thousands of years. Hundreds, yes, but definitely not thousands (I guess that would be Chang'an? Luoyang?). And then there's the comment on how Westerners can't understand the poverty and the desperate desire to succeed. Why not? I don't get it. Also, they ask the stupidest interview questions ever: "So winning team, how good does it feel to skate this well at this event in your home country?" I maen, what is one supposed to say after that? "Er, yes, yes, indeed, it does feel good." "But tell me how amazingly good it is and how stupendous it must be!" "Er."
And then the interviewer made some really dumb comment about how everyone was yelling "Add oil!" for the skaters. I was quite confused until the skaters repeated it in Chinese -- cheering in Chinese is literally "add oil." I suppose it makes sense, but the way the guy said it made it sound something like, "Haha, you say 'add oil' to cheer on people, you people are so strange!" and completely ignoring the fact that people generally don't think about the etymology of what they say. I mean, when I say something is quintessential, I don't usually mean that it is of the five elements. But then, given that completely stupid question, I shouldn't expect so much.
Rant has now ended.
And then the interviewer made some really dumb comment about how everyone was yelling "Add oil!" for the skaters. I was quite confused until the skaters repeated it in Chinese -- cheering in Chinese is literally "add oil." I suppose it makes sense, but the way the guy said it made it sound something like, "Haha, you say 'add oil' to cheer on people, you people are so strange!" and completely ignoring the fact that people generally don't think about the etymology of what they say. I mean, when I say something is quintessential, I don't usually mean that it is of the five elements. But then, given that completely stupid question, I shouldn't expect so much.
Rant has now ended.
Shinn, Sharon - Angel-Seeker
Wed, May. 19th, 2004 03:42 pmEr. So. Basically I only finished this book so I could snark about it online. Like I said before, I like some of her other books, but the Samaria ones just annoy me, and the annoyance has been getting worse and worse.
You know it's bad when you feel like rooting for the misogynistic society of evil that stones women just because you are really, incredibly sick of having the liberal goodness of everyone else pushed down your throat every. single. book.
( Snark and minor spoilers for Samaria in general )
( Snark about this book, with spoilers )
You know it's bad when you feel like rooting for the misogynistic society of evil that stones women just because you are really, incredibly sick of having the liberal goodness of everyone else pushed down your throat every. single. book.
( Snark and minor spoilers for Samaria in general )
( Snark about this book, with spoilers )