Meet Miriam Price. Forty-something doctor, unhappy wife, slightly unpleasant woman. Dead. The police have ruled her death accidental but Miriam knows it was not because she was there. Also, she’s still there, stuck in Limbo and not allowed to move on to the afterlife until she either reaches her death date, or solves the mystery of her murder. Because there’s no way Miriam is going to hang around in orange dungarees for the next fifty years, she sets about to solving her murder. But it’s not easy figuring things out when you’re a lowest-level ghostly figure, so she needs outside help. The only person who can see and hear her, is her elderly neighbour Winnie. The problem with that is that the two can’t stand each other and that asking for help from the person she sent an envelope filled with glitter as recently as the day before her death, is not easy. The good news though, is that Winnie is an amateur sleuth and up for the adventure, if only to get rid of her annoying neighbour for good. Throughout the story you learn more about the antics the women have been up to and it’s hilarious. Winnie and Miriam are nothing alike but driven by the same moral standards, which makes them the perfect odd couple detective team.
Like in a lot of ghost stories, Miriam gets to stalk her friends and family and glance behind the curtain of the people in her life, and of course, she learns that not all is what it seemed: her lover, her best friend, her brother, they all have a reason for their behaviour in relation to her, and despite her self-awareness this still catches her by surprise. That felt a bit too much of a cliché to me. Everything else though, is really well done. Miriam is grouchy and sarcastic and her commentary is sharp as spikes. Her brother (“more woke than a shop full of alarm clocks”), Millennial medical students (“snowflakes” she refers to as No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3) and Diagnosis Murder especially, bring out the worst (and best) in her.
This book had me snorting and laughing out loud and Miriam and Winnie’s exchanges were the biggest contributors to this. The book is a breezy read, doesn’t get scary, and although I could predict the ending by the time I reached the second chapter, I enjoyed this book a lot. This very fun read was exactly what I needed after the slightly more angsty books I’ve been reading of late; it was the perfect palate cleanser.
I absolutely loved the out-thereness of deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, French Exit, and Undermajordomo Minor. With bonus points for cover art. Although the cover art is easily as wonderful, The Librarianist has a very different feel to it, as this story is less out-there and more barely-there.
The story is about Bob, the retired librarian(ist) from the title. Bob lived his life according to a strict schedule which existed of work, mainly, and not much of a personal life otherwise. Bob is the ultimate loner, spending his entire life in the same house. Routine is everything to him. Then, on his daily one-mile walk, he finds an elderly woman lost, staring into the freezer of a corner shop. She is wearing a badge, so he returns her to the assisted-living home where she is registered, and this leads to Bob becoming a volunteer there. The people at the home are quite the characters, which Bob isn’t, and they aren’t interested in him nor what he has to offer (book readings, starting with the great Russians). Slowly but surely Bob’s past is revealed and it turns out that his loner-ship is a natural state of being. Bob was an only child, he didn’t know his father, and never had any friends. That is, until he starts working at the local public library where he meets Ethan. Ethan is everything Bob is not: charismatic, dashing and outgoing. The library is also where he meets his wife Connie. She is pretty and sociable; the yin to Bob’s yang. Bob grounds both Ethan and Connie, but their personalities need to fly and it’s not a spoiler to say that it doesn’t take long before Bob is a loner once again. The things that happen to Bob, truly happen to him and he is never really active in anything. He’s the ultimate stoic: whatever happens, he just shrugs and trudges on. The two exceptions to this are his decision to become a volunteer at the assisted-living home, and the time when as a kid he ran away from home. He got onto a bus and a train, heading for the Oregon coast. Halfway through the train trip, two traveling performers join him on the journey and accept him as a stowaway, but from then on out, he loses his momentum and decision-making skills: the ladies invite him to come along with them and he does. He doesn’t really make any choices any more, he just goes along with everything. If ever there was a follower, it was Bob. That his only real decisions took place at the beginning and near-end of his life are like bookends to the story of Bob, and totally fitting.
The beginning and end were the stronger parts for me, as I found the middle part a bit slow. I think if I re-read this, I might feel different about it, as it was mostly because I kept waiting for the part where things took a turn and went wild. And they just never did. That’s not to say this isn’t a good story. It really is. It’s also funny, in a very dry way. It’s just very normal compared to the other work I’d read by this author, and I guess I wasn’t prepared for that. So let this be a warning for others: do not expect this book to be outrageous. This book is as calm and solid as its protagonist.
This book is about Sophie, the self-proclaimed weirdo of the title. I didn’t think Sophie is actually that weird, mainly she is just stuck and doesn’t quite know how to get herself moving on. Sophie is thirty-two and stuck in a job that is not the worst job ever (she escaped that one already), but far away from her dream job. She doesn’t know what that dream job is, she just wants to be famous, and has a habit of narrating the things that happen to her as if she were the guest of a talk show. She’s not just stuck in her career, but also in a relationship. She’s living with Ian because he is the easy option, while Chris is the one that got away. Literally: she even chased him to Australia at one point, but by the time she found him there, he was already in a relationship with someone else. Then there’s James, the man she left at the time to chase after Chris: she only informed him that she was traveling when she touched down in Sydney. By then she’d also created a stink of her finances and spent all the money she’d borrowed. She’s been paying back her debts slowly and not so-surely, and now Chris is back in town and his arrival has her all confused and interested again. James in the meantime, started a relationship with Sophie’s sister, so now she’s still faced with him whenever there’s a family gathering.
All in all, Sophie was more a mess than she was weird to me. She’s floating through life, and accepts the crappy jobs and the crappy men as if she has no other choice, but if she put in a little bit of effort and believe in herself, she could take control and do much better on both fronts. It takes 320 pages for Sophie to come to that conclusion and that was a bit on the long side. Sophie did feel very real though, her problems and feelings are genuine, and her observations are at times sharp, dark, and funny. They reveal the person she could be if only she gave things a decent try. The story is interrupted by letters and notifications through which you learn more about her life. It’s a concept that’s nothing new but does manage to lift the story up at times because it can feel dragged down a bit. The letters from and concerning Sophie’s sister are the most outrageous ones and confirmed what I already knew: Sophie might be lacking a bit of spirit and self-belief but she’s not the weirdest person out there.
Overall this book is solid but middle-of-the-pack, and scores an “okay” for me. If you like your main character to be plucky with a can-do attitude, leave this book be. If you like your main character to be a bit different / an odd-ball, this will be a good read.
No. 5: A book I started but never finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue / V.E. Schwab
I remember I bought this book during one of the lockdowns because I thought I deserved a treat and I was so happy when it arrived (remember when a trip to the mailbox was the highlight of the day?), that I started it right away. I really don’t know why I never got very far in it, other than it being a big book coming in at over 500 pages, and during pandemic times I had the attention span of a confused gold fish. I found the Bookdepository (RIP) bookmarker still stuck between pages 55-56 and I vaguely remembered what I’d read, but the details eluded me, so I started over from the beginning.
This is a book that has everything going for it: gorgeous cover, great lay-out, and nice print. Yes, it’s big, but once I committed properly, I blew through it and this time around finished it within a weekend. The writing is easy, and Addie is a great character. The story starts in 1714 when Adeline LaRue lives in a small village in France. Her parents are relieved that at twenty-three she finally is getting married, but Adeline, who doesn’t even like the man, fears that marriage will leave her virtually chained to the village, and she is desperate to find a last-minute escape. In her desperation she makes a deal with the devil and in return for her soul, he gives her freedom and with that a chance to live the life she’s always wanted for as long as she wants. But you don’t “just” make a deal with the devil and Adeline soon discovers that she should have been more careful with her words because the downside to her deal is, that nobody remembers her. The devil gave her the “ultimate freedom” of not being remembered. She forever has to introduce herself and cannot even use her own name. She also cannot create anything herself; it gets erased right away. It takes Addie some time to get used to this new way of living, but she manages. She leaves the village and goes to Paris where she learns it’s easier to be invisible amongst big crowds. She is visited there by “Luc” on the anniversary of their deal and he offers her an out: say the word and he’ll collect her soul and relieves her of the hard knock life she’s found herself in. But Addie is not done living and refuses the offer. Every year on the anniversary Luc makes an appearance, and it’s something that Addie starts to look forward to, as he might be the devil, but he’s also the only one to remember her and call her by her real name. The two of them bicker and fight, and at times Luc punishes her by not showing up for a year or two. This goes on for three hundred years, and lands us in the present of 2014. By then, Addie has been living in New York for quite some time, a city she enjoys as there is so much to discover. One of the things she discovers, is Henry. Henry works in a bookshop and when she goes back to return a book (after having it stolen a few days before), he recognizes her and chases her out of the shop (again). The shock of someone remembering and recognizing her, has Addie startled more than being caught scamming. Thinking it’s a fluke, she doesn’t dare believe it actually is possible until she goes back to offer him an apology and he still remembers her. After spending three hundred years of reintroducing herself to people over and over again, slinking in and out of people’s lives, and nobody but the devil remembering her name, it is a welcome relief. Although Henry clearly has a secret to hide himself, Addie is too relieved to be bothered by that. Their connection is immediate and intense and although she has to constantly introduce herself whenever they meet up with his friends, they both are fully committed to the relationship. She quickly decides she needs to trust Henry with her secret and he’s strangely easily okay with it all. She starts telling Henry everything, and he writes down her story, thinking this way she can leave her mark after all. But through her story, he discovers she’s already done that, having been a muse to painters, sculptures and musicians throughout the ages. Songs and pieces have been written and created because of her, and she shows up in paintings as “unknown woman”. But the devil is due a visit because it’s been almost fifteen years since his last, and Addie knows they won’t have long. When Luc does show up, he shows up with the oomph you would expect from the devil. Just in time for the big finale.
And this is why I believe in second chances: I really liked this book the second time around! The set-up is well done, and Addie and Luc are great characters. At times I wanted more depth from the historical settings and the people Addie meets, because they remain blurry. Although eventually that works, because it keeps the focus on Addie and Luc. I have to admit I saw the twists at the end coming so the build-up to that felt a bit too slow and stretched out, and whatever story-telling was still happening, could have been left out for me. But this is a storybook-like telling, a great (love-hate) story, and totally enchanting. If any of that is your thing, don’t hesitate picking up this book!
No. 22: A trilogy Hell’s Library series / A.J. Hackwith
I don’t read a lot of trilogies. In all honesty I have a hard time thinking of another set of three books I read. So, yay for the reading challenge expending my reading experience! The trilogy I ended up with was by total accident: I got the first book purely based on the title and cover art and only found out it was the first of three books when I looked up more information online. So, I happily made sure to get my hands on parts two and three as well, and here we are.
The Library of the Unwritten / A.J. Hackwith
Book 1: The Library of the Unwritten (2019) Fantasy is not a genre I would pick under normal circumstances, because the world-building can be, dare I say it, tedious with too much detail. It’s a fine line between too much and not enough, and I guess the closer to the “known” the world setting is, the easier it is for the reader to be left to figure stuff out. For me that was the case with this book, as it is worldly unworldly. The Library of the Unwritten, is part of Hell’s library, and is exactly what it sounds like: a library full of books that were started, but never finished. There are muses with pieces of text tattooed on their bodies, who live with damsels that fell out of their books and for whatever reason, couldn’t get back in. The library users are demons and the like, allowed to use the materials inside the library but not take any of it out. There is a librarian in charge, doomed to keep the characters where they should be. Then one day Hero falls out of a book. Hero is classically handsome, and has one goal: to rescue his heroine, his author. He manages to escape the library and travel to earth, and when librarian Claire discovers this, she has to chase him through time and place to get him back into his book. That’s easier said than done, because she knows that when she leaves the library unguarded, well, all hell is about to break loose. And leaving the library is complicated enough, but getting back even more so, because the devil sends guards after them, and that’s not to get them back, but to eliminate them. Nobody is allowed to leave the library. Claire doesn’t have to chase Hero on her own, because Brevity travels with her. Brevity is a muse, and library assistant. She has green hair and purple skin with text tattooed on it. On their way they face challenges, engage in literature duels (awesome: participants hit each other with quotes), and need to track down a potion. They get stuck in a maze and have their souls weighted. And because the people they meet along the way all seem to have a hidden agenda, figuring out who’s friend or foe is difficult. All along they know that the situation in the Library is getting bad, and the urgency of finding their way back grows with every moment spent outside it. I loved the settings (the gargoyle guarding the library, inter world loan system), and the characters were interesting enough to want to read more.
If you want to read this series, you might not want to continue this entry because what follows contains spoilers that might ruin your appetite and I’d hate to be responsible.
The Archive of the Forgotten / A.J. Hackwith
Book 2: The Archive of the Forgotten (2020) This book opens where the first ended: the heroes have returned to the Library of the Unwritten and the dust of the big end fight is still settling. Claire is no longer the librarian, but has moved on to be the Arcanist, the keeper of the keeps of the Archive of the Forgotten. Fallen angel Rami has become her assistant. Muse Brevity is now the librarian of the Library of the Unwritten, with Hero as her assistant librarian. When a mysterious inkwell appears on the library floor, they all go to check it out, and after reaching in, Claire’s hand turns completely ink black. The gang needs to figure out how to help her, what effects the ink have on a human, and how to avoid the ink to spread. This sets off a chase across the realms once more for Hero and Rami. Claire stays at the Archives to establish what kind of ink it is. For this, she needs help from the damsels that live in the library but the relationship between Claire and Brevity is strained, making things move along slowly. It doesn’t help that Claire is distrusting of Brevity’s muse friend Probity. Although everybody takes a different path, they all end up at the same place: the Dust Wing. This graveyard of books is where the finale takes place and we learn that it’s not about books, stories or writers, but souls. And that muses want to be their own person, and not just be connected to an artist. We also learn that heroes should ask for permission to kiss someone because otherwise they’re no better than villains after all. (Applause for that line.)
The story was easy to pick up because I knew the characters and was familiar with the setting. After the initial action of Claire getting stained by the ink, things slowed down a bit too much for my liking. There was a lot of interpersonal drama, which makes sense because the characters were left unsettled and have to get used to their new positions and roles, but that part wasn’t my favorite. Things picked up once Rami and Hero started to travel to other realms again, but by then the book was half-way through. Also, they returned fairly soon and it meant the story slowed down again. For me, this was the weakest book in the series. I don’t read nearly enough trilogies to know if hat is a common thing to happen with the middle book.
The God of Lost Words / A.J. Hackwith
Book 3: The God of Lost Words (2021) And again, the book starts right where the previous one left off. Hero feels lost without his book, Claire is still upset about her stain, and Brevity is recovering from the betrayal of her sister muse. Then, a new well appears in the library and everybody is on high alert this time. The well doesn’t contain ink though, but clear water, and through it travels Echo, the librarian of the Elysium Library. Rami and Hero had visited there in the previous book and with their presence they had awakened the books in the Elysium Library. Talking stories in an echo place is not a safe space, so the librarian is now seeking a place to hide. They’ve come to the Library of the Unwritten and without so much as a pretty please, bring in their materials. Another person to visit, is Malphas. This dangerous figure is one of Hell’s generals and sets fire to the Arcane Wing, leaving Claire and Rami to seek refuge in the Library as well. The place is quickly becoming overcrowded, and not necessarily the safe space they all need. Realizing they are sitting ducks and that the best defense is an offence, the crew decides on a plan of attack. With an all-for-one-one-for-all ‘tude they get to working on creating a realm of their own. Which means that they need a space, a god, and a guard. To establish this, they need help from the libraries in the other realms and they set about to get the librarians on board. It’s a reunion with some of the characters from the first book and some new ones. Like in the first book, there is a sense of urgency with this story that keeps the momentum going. During their inter-world librarian meeting Malphas makes her attack and floods the Library of the Unwritten. Everybody is stuck but a plan starts to form and our band of characters jump into action: Rami and Claire lead the negotiations with hell’s general, Brevity uses her muse skills to keep what is left of the library safe, and Hero dives back into the Dust Wing. The ending was nicely done with the Library telling the finale. It read like a movie.
I didn’t know I needed a trilogy set in hell’s library, but sometimes the books just find you and it’s a great find and all in all I’m really happy having read this trilogy. The library setting is super cool and made me smile plenty. The main characters are pretty kick-ass, and the bittersweet ending was unexpected and gave it all just a little bit extra.
If I could use only one word to describe this book, I would use: adorable. Thankfully, there is no word count limitation in the world of this bookworm, so here’s everything else I have to say about it.
Rintaro Natsuki is a teenager when his grandfather dies. Suddenly, it’s just him and the Natsuki Books bookshop. This second-hand bookshop sounds amazing; completely unassuming but with a unique collection of collector’s items and a proprietor who knows a lot about books. Without parents and now without his grandfather as well, Rintaro rightfully feels lost and scared. He quits going to school, and stays back to run the shop until his aunt has made the necessary arrangements to sell the business and take him in. Two of his classmates visit him: the popular and smart Akiba, and class representative and music geek Sayo. They both try to convince him to come back to school, and assure him he’s being missed by his classmates. Rintaro isn’t so sure about that and prefers to stay at the bookshop. So, they make it a mission to regularly check in on him. Someone else to enter the shop, is Tiger the tabby. This cat isn’t just any tabby, it can talk. And it’s telling Rintaro that he needs to go on a mission. A mission to save books from people who mistreat them. Rintaro doesn’t know what else to do, and simply follows the cat through a doorway that hadn’t existed before, only to find himself emerge on the other side inside the big home of a book collector. The man claims to care so much for books that he locks them in cabinets, behind bars. Rintaro has to discover why this is wrong, what the threat is, and how to resolve it. Sayo happens to be in the shop when Tiger the tabby appears for the second mission. She won’t hear “no” and joins Rintaro and Tiger on the mission.
There is a total of four labyrinths for Rintaro to finish. In between challenges he is back at the shop, faced with the painful reality of life. Although hesitant and scared during the first mission, he’s happy to dive in by the time mission number three is announced.
The only thing in this book I had a bit of trouble with, was the timeline. At one point it’s made clear that everybody is concerned about Rintaro still grieving and not feeling up to joining daily life, because it had been two whole days since his grandfather’s memorial which seemed extreme to me. I’m jotting this down to cultural differences.
This book is a very nicely written modern fairy tale. True to fairy-tale style the moral of the story is loud and unmistakable, but it’s so nicely done that I’m willing to accept that. If you like to read fairy-tales, fantasy, anything to do with books, reading, or cats, you’ll like this book.
No. 12: A book written by an author with the same initials as me The Wives / Lauren Weisberger
LW. That’s me. And Lauren Weisberger. I remember the joy that was The Devil Wears Prada (first the book, then the movie) and I have to admit that when I realized The Wives continues with the story of Runway assistant Emily, I had my doubts. But, I was also curious enough to give it a go and I’m happy to report that I have no regrets!
This book takes place years later, and Emily no longer works for Miranda Priestly but is still tough-as-nails, and uses her skills as an independent image consultant. Unfortunately, more and more of her clients get poached by a newcomer who is all about the latest social media platforms, while Emily still uses Facebook. After a mission leaves her stranded in New York, she decides to stop by her old friend Miriam. Miriam has recently moved to the suburbs of Connecticut and given up her job at a big city law firm to be a full-time mom. Emily is appalled by life in the suburbs but without any new clients lined up, and her husband on a long work trip to Asia, she decides to stay with Miriam and her family for a few weeks nonetheless. It’s during this time that Miriam is contacted by her other old friend Karolina, former super model and wife of a senator. Karolina has been arrested for drink-driving with children in the car, and her husband is throwing her in front of the bus (press). She’s fled to their second home in Connecticut and when Miriam goes to visit her, she brings Emily along. Emily actually knows Karolina back from her super model days, when she would regularly be at the Runway office. The three of them quickly renew their friendship and it is Emily who tells Karolina to grow a pair and hit back at her husband. With a lawyer and an image consultant in her corner, Karolina isn’t as helpless as her husband seems to think and they manage to hit him where it hurts the most.
In between the revenge-getting the women each have their own lives and are battling their own insecurities. But they strengthen and support each other along the way, and learn what it means to stay true to yourself, which even in suburbia isn’t easy. Miriam and Karolina would have been boring characters without Emily’s gutsy presence to shake things up, and Emily needs a bit of sanity around her which these two provide. Of course, Miranda Priestly makes a guest appearance and is still the bitchy boss we all love (to hate). (Andy also pops up, although she has a cameo at best.)
All in all this book was a relaxed read and surprisingly fun sequel.
No. 9: A book set in my country Waar ik liever niet aan denk / Jente Posthuma (translated as: What I’d rather not think about)
This book was published back in 2020 but I only learned about it when it was shortlisted for the Booker International 2024. Go figure. I wasn’t the only one because I immediately went to make a reservation in the library and received a notification saying I was number five in line. It was so worth the wait.
This book is the story of a brother and sister. They call themselves One (brother) and Two (sister), after their birth order. They are twins, and have always been close. But the brother doesn’t want to live and takes his own life, and the sister can’t figure out life without him.
Two tells the story and it’s a story of twins growing up in a village, before moving to the big city. Like no names are given, no locations are either. It’s all neutral but still easy to picture. Two has a dry and dark way to describe her upbringing, for example not recognizing their father walking out on the family, and dying shortly after, as a traumatic event because it wasn’t as serious as surviving a concentration camp would have been. (She’s slightly obsessed with concentration camps and Joseph Mengele (who in turn was obsessed with twins).) As adults, One and Two start to carve out their own paths although they end up living on opposite ends of the same park remaining physically close. It is One who starts to take more distance though, needing space: he refuses to travel to New York, even though they have planned to visit their aunt who lives there, and prefers to spend time with a chosen family of fellow gay people over his blood relative. One fails his interview for graphic design studies, can’t figure out what it means to be happy, and has difficulty maintaining meaningful relationships. Two’s at times awkward responses, don’t help. These are two people who are similar and grew up close, but still don’t understand each other as adults. It’s when One’s depression grows deeper that they become closer again and Two spends more nights with her brother than her husband, not wanting him to be alone. But when someone wants to die, they find a moment and a way. One’s death leaves Two completely at a loss. Although aware of the strain it’s putting on her marriage she still ignores her husband and spends even more time at One’s apartment than at her own, reading his diaries over and over, trying to figure out what drove him and what she could have done differently. Not knowing how to move on, she slowly comes to a standstill.
The setting of the book doesn’t involve windmills, tulip fields, or gabled houses lining pretty canals. It even takes a while for it to be explicitly clear that this is set in the NL. It’s subtle with the occasional bike ride, or swim in the canal. It’s very Dutch in its directness and straightforwardness though, and, completely fitting the story, the most Dutch thing in it is the way One ends his life.
This book is just like its cover: void of unnecessary adornments. The stripped back style makes it easy to read despite the heavy subject, and the unexpected funny parts offered both relief and sadness. I felt that the style complimented the subject and it completely sucked me in. Grief, depression and suicide are not subjects for everyone, but this was so beautifully done that I still am recommending the book to anyone who is open to it.
Waar ik liever niet aan denk / Jente Posthuma (translated as: What I’d rather not think about)
Hiking boots, sunglasses, and SPF50. Check, check, and check. One big book. … Two medium-sized books. Check. A third medium-sized book, for just-in-case. … Two medium-sized books, so there’ll be space left for a book souvenir. Check, check. It turns out there’s not enough space in my bag for two books. Toss a coin to decide which one. Check.
Read: 20 pages. Bought: 4 books. (borrowed space from travel companion to get them home)
This was the second book taken from the hotel library (exchanged, actually; I left books in return of course!). It’s easily as ridiculous as the Betty Neels book, coincidentally also has a heroine named Henrietta, whose age of four and twenty is more appropriate for the time, but that’s where all comparisons end. This one has enjoyable characters to take you through the story. Also, this story is not chaste at all so if that’s not your thing, steer clear.
The story goes as follows. Henrietta is the only child of the Duke of Granville, which in the mid-ish 1800s (no specific year is given) is a problem, because as a woman she’s not allowed to inherit the dukedom. Henrietta is smart, sharp and an entrepreneur, so she sets out to marry her widower father off so he can sire an heir. Her father though, isn’t into this one bit. Henrietta won’t listen to his objections and plows ahead, organizing a ball with any young woman of peerage in attendance. She’s all too aware that without an heir the dukedom will fall to the Crown after her father’s death and that means she will lose the family vineyard business. At this ball she meets Ash Ellis, who of course is tall, broad-shouldered and handsome as sin. She doesn’t know who he is, but can’t refuse a waltz with this rogue without causing a scene. So they dance and it’s lust at first sight for both of them. Henrietta, happily settled into spinsterhood because who needs a man to distract them from running a business, doesn’t know what to do with these sudden feelings. She decides a woman deserves at least one kiss in her life and Ash all too happily agrees. They are spotted by her father though, so a marriage is happening, no matter how much she objects. Her father won’t hear no, especially not when it is revealed that Ash is actually a long lost relative, and the only one eligible to inherit the dukedom and save it from going to the Crown. The duke is so happy that he doesn’t have to marry any of the women at the ball, and can now elope with his mistress instead, that Henrietta’s objections are overruled on all fronts. The tables have turned on Henrietta which isn’t easy for her to admit. Because she fears that marriage will be the death of her vineyards as much as losing them to the Crown, she goes to the Boadicea Club for Ladies that she is a member of, and seeks the wisdom and input of her friends. (Who all sound pretty awesome, by the way.) After the necessary complaining about men holding all the power, they create a list of pros and cons for marriage to Ash. It ends up being even, and defeated Henrietta decides to get the most out of it and makes Ash sign a document of guidelines and rules for their marriage. It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Ash of course, is running a con on the family, eager to work himself up from the lowest of the low, to the highest possible. He’s not just a bare-knuckle boxing game den owner though, he has his sights set on making a change in child labour laws and he can only do that as a member of the peerage. He was a child labourer himself, before falling into a life of pickpocketing and conning. Henrietta and Ash don’t trust each other and play their cards close to the chest. They are forced into a marriage neither wants. The only things they have in common is that they both want to be in charge, and that they have a lot of pants feelings for each other.
As said: this story is as ridiculous as the others. The ridiculousness comes from the story being so over the top though, not from a lack of story or character. It was published way more recently in 2021, so that makes it more current, even though it takes place in the 1800s, as it clearly is written with a modern view. But what makes this the clear winner, is that the characters have character and as a reader you get to know them and what drives them. Henrietta is not just smart, but feisty and stubborn as well. When she finds out Ash is secretly smitten with his cat, gentle with children, and protective of the people he cares about, she has to admit that he is not the dangerous devil that he makes the world believe he is. Ash learns that even though Henrietta grew up in the safe bubble of nobility, she’s not blind to the problems of the real world and willing to adjust, and fighting for change in her own way. They both have to admit they were wrong and make changes in their approaches. They are both passionate for what they believe in, and because those standpoints are opposing they bicker a lot. Their bickering is a lot of fun because neither is used to losing arguments, and it means that sparks are flying. And because this is a romance novel, we all know it ends with a happily ever after.
All in all this book is an easy escape read for anyone who likes the Bridgerton books (or series).
Bookworm in the City 