reading wednesday
Feb. 6th, 2019 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sea_changedAny Old Diamonds, by K.J. Charles. Delightful, as always, with some gripping plot twists and delicious angst. I do, however, wish there had been more of the angst, or that it had been given longer to mature. While the plot resolution was satisfying the emotional resolution felt too easy: indeed, the plot and emotional resolution became divorced at some point and never managed to cleave back together in any meaningful way, which was unfortunate. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I don't read romance novels for the plot: I want the plot to be solid and logical, but what it needs to be is essentially scaffolding for the emotional arc, not its own thing.
(I feel like this whole complaint explains perfectly why a) I was so excited to experiment with reading romance novels and b) why I've more or less put paid to the experiment. An entire novel genre focused on emotions should be entirely my thing, and yet it turns out that the emotions I want tend to be a lot more complicated and believably angst-ridden than what I've found romance novels will give me.)
Overall, however, it was very fun, and I loved the glancing Society of Gentlemen references and not-so-glancing Sins of the City references: that all Charles's non-paranormals take place in the same universe pleases me extremely. Despite my complaints above, Charles is obviously on my instant-read list, and is likely to remain there.
Blood of Tyrants, by Naomi Novik. All right, I was spoiled for this one, but I liked the tropey ridiculousness: it felt well-done and to a purpose, which is all I demand of my tropes. I do think she could've done more with it, in the end, especially emotionally on Laurence and Temeraire's parts, but in the end this is a series that very much avoids wallowing in its emotions--indeed, perhaps the opposite--so it didn't feel horridly out-of-character. The second section did, however, drag a bit: it seemed like Novik herself wasn't having much fun with it, and so the reader (or at least this reader) didn't much, either. I did like the glimpses of the North American dragons, and I liked that Tharkay was back, for as little as he seemed to show up in the text itself. I'm excited to move on, however, despite my instinct to save the last book for as long as possible.
(I feel like this whole complaint explains perfectly why a) I was so excited to experiment with reading romance novels and b) why I've more or less put paid to the experiment. An entire novel genre focused on emotions should be entirely my thing, and yet it turns out that the emotions I want tend to be a lot more complicated and believably angst-ridden than what I've found romance novels will give me.)
Overall, however, it was very fun, and I loved the glancing Society of Gentlemen references and not-so-glancing Sins of the City references: that all Charles's non-paranormals take place in the same universe pleases me extremely. Despite my complaints above, Charles is obviously on my instant-read list, and is likely to remain there.
Blood of Tyrants, by Naomi Novik. All right, I was spoiled for this one, but I liked the tropey ridiculousness: it felt well-done and to a purpose, which is all I demand of my tropes. I do think she could've done more with it, in the end, especially emotionally on Laurence and Temeraire's parts, but in the end this is a series that very much avoids wallowing in its emotions--indeed, perhaps the opposite--so it didn't feel horridly out-of-character. The second section did, however, drag a bit: it seemed like Novik herself wasn't having much fun with it, and so the reader (or at least this reader) didn't much, either. I did like the glimpses of the North American dragons, and I liked that Tharkay was back, for as little as he seemed to show up in the text itself. I'm excited to move on, however, despite my instinct to save the last book for as long as possible.
