After about 15 months and two publishing delays, the second book in Melissa Gray’s The Girl at Midnight trilogy is finally here. The expect
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After about 15 months and two publishing delays, the second book in Melissa Gray’s The Girl at Midnight trilogy is finally here. The expectations were high for those of us who liked the first book, but Gray justifies the long wait and the hype that follows the series. When the first book came out, many reviewers complained about the similarities between The Girl at Midnight and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. They continue in those elements that Gray borrowed, but otherwise the story takes a different direction entirely.
The pacing is a little bit slower than in the previous book, but the end result is no less thrilling. The Shadow Hour is a tangle of action and emotion, discoveries and desperate moves. The book somehow avoids the middle book syndrome, even though it’s less eventful than its predecessor. There is plenty to keep us occupied and afraid for our characters, and Gray once again demonstrates her ability to keep the narrative voices separate, despite there being many, and in fairly brief chapters.
Plotwise, The Shadow Hour is a fantastic book, rich and exciting, full of unexpected twists and complicated betrayals. Even in its quiet moments it keeps the reader engaged and on the edge. There are so many things going on at once, so much resentment brewing that a single wrong step could turn into outright wars. The truce between the Avicen and Caius is tenuous at best, with only Echo to keep it together. With all of them confined to a single place, the tension is unrelenting and palpable.
What makes this book weaker, in my eyes, is the never-ending number of love triangles. Not only do the old ones keep making us miserable, but there are new ones to ruin what little peace was achieved. At one point, everyone seems to be at least a little bit in love with everyone else, and there is hurt and bitterness whichever way you turn. Jasper and Dorian seem to be the most popular couple in the trilogy, but even they face new challenges and yet another person added to the mix. As if Dorian’s unrequited love for Caius and his hatred for all Avicen weren’t challenging enough.
On the other side, non-romantic relationships give strength to this story, making it a deep and challenging well of emotions. Most, but not all of them, begin with Echo and her complicated past and present. The friendship between Ivy and her felt genuine from the start and the love that exists there is quite obvious. My favorite, though, is Echo’s view of Ala – as a mother, a teacher, a protector, and a tether to the world of Avicen. Aside from that, the conflict between Caius and his treacherous twin sister was done exceedingly well. His emotions towards her, , ranging from love to disappointment to understanding to betrayal, and especially during their confrontations made it almost difficult to breathe. Poor Caius was abandoned by all except Dorian, but nothing was as painful as the knife his sister shoved in his back.
The ending can’t really be called a cliffhanger, but Echo and her friends are in a very difficult place. It will be challenging to wait a whole year or more for some kind of resolution, but at this point, I have no doubt that Melissa Gray will make it worth our while. ...more
It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series, albeit knowing without a doubt that this wonderful
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It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series, albeit knowing without a doubt that this wonderful author will give us so much more to enjoy.
It was very easy to fall in love with these characters and their quirks yet again. Each of them is a small work of art, an unforgettable combination of oddities and personality traits. Sophoronia in particular is very easy to love, and so very competent to boot! I loved her in this book more than I ever loved her before. As silly as this series was most times (and really, silliness is what Carriger does best), we’ve still seen Sophoronia grow up to become a skilled, self-assured young woman. No more than a mischievous girl when we first met her, we’re leaving her as someone else entirely, a highly trained, sophisticated girl, but still with that familiar devil-may-care attitude.
Everything is bigger and better in this final installment. It’s funnier, faster, more romantic and more dangerous. There are guns and explosions, secrets and revelations. Carriger did an excellent job of concluding the overall storyline with a bang. I have to reiterate how much I loved Sophorinia in this book, braver and more resourceful than ever before. She makes her own rules and lives by them bravely, which is a quality I admire and hope some younger readers will adopt. But she wasn’t not the only one to show admirable growth in this book – her friends, including Agatha, have all become so much more courageous and quick-witted than ever before.
I was a bit afraid for the romance in this one, to be honest. While I knew how I wanted it to go, I saw no possible way for it to end like that. I suppose I should have trusted Carriger more because she found a very elegant way of giving us all what we craved. I finished this book with a smile on my face, content with leaving my characters right where I wanted them, happy and true to themselves. It’s hard to say goodbye, but what makes it bearable is knowing that there’s more of Carriger’s humor to come.
4.5 stars September already promises to be a month of successful debuts. There have been several excellent first works already, but none as
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4.5 stars September already promises to be a month of successful debuts. There have been several excellent first works already, but none as shiny, well written or as deeply romantic as The Next Together by Lauren James.
James tells the tale of one love affair in four different places and four different time scapes. Matthew and Katherine are, at once, a wealthy young lady and her servant, an ambitious journalist and his assistant, married young scientists uncovering a conspiracy and two college students intent on clearing the names of their relatives. In every time scape, Katherine and Matthew are different, but the love they feel for each other is immutable. We watch them time and time again as they discover each other and inevitably collide, desperate to be together despite so many obstacles.
The narrative itself is beautifully assembled as one story bleeds into another seamlessly. The pacing is pure perfection – James somehow achieved simultaneous crescendo in all four stories, thus ensuring our equal interest in them all. A single small mistake had the potential to ruin everything, to make us care more about one couple than all the rest, but all the threads were handled masterfully and the result is a thing of beauty.
If not for Katherine’s extraordinary sense of humor, the story would have been suffocating and grim at times. Instead, I found myself laughing out loud when the sense of foreboding threatened to overwhelm me, swooning when I should have been biting my nails in terror, and generally reacting unexpectedly to anything Lauren James had to offer. Even more spectacular than the book itself were my reactions to it, my emotions manipulated so skillfully by an author with so much to give. The Next Together demands your full attention and dedication and it simply refuses to settle for anything else. As someone who reads a lot of romance, I shouldn’t have been blindsided by my reactions to this book, a novel that’s not primarily a romance. However, I found myself in utter disbelief and more than a little awestruck. This is one of the most deeply romantic books I’ve read in ages.
Overall, The Next Together broke my heart time and time again, but it was a sweet pain. I wouldn’t change a second of it.
Fortunately for us, Gail Carriger’s sense of humor seems to be as strong and sharp as ever as she keeps providing us with endless entertainment in thiFortunately for us, Gail Carriger’s sense of humor seems to be as strong and sharp as ever as she keeps providing us with endless entertainment in this well-developed world. Waltzing with a bladed fan and using longing looks to seduce unsuspecting young evil geniuses are just some of the things our Sophronia has become quite skilled at in her years at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
The cast of characters is still as colorful as ever, although it sometimes borders on ridiculous. I’ve come to adore Sophronia and her friends, as well as her professors at the Finishing Academy, but her family was just a bit too much. At one point, Sophronia’s mother tried to marry her off to 14-year-old Pillover, and her slightly older sister Petunia was just ridiculously stupid and vain.
We learn more about Sidheag in this installment since the main plotline focuses mostly on the troubles of her pack in Scotland. Sidheag is quite possibly the only serious, dignified character in this series which makes her all the more interesting. We know some of this story from the Parasol Protectorate series, but it was interesting to see it all from a different perspective.
For a smart girl, Sophronia is still quite clueless when it comes to matters of the heart. The odd love triangle she has found herself in takes up a large portion of the book, but nothing about it is satisfactory or even handled correctly. Torn between a Duke’s (and Pickleman’s!) son and a sootie (even one as wonderful and loyal as Soap), Sophronia is oftentimes annoyingly oblivious. She has a tendency to stick her head in the sand when it suits her and instead of being endearing like it was at first, I found it all to be very exasperating.
Waistcoats & Weaponry isn’t quite as good as the previous book, but it’s a worthy addition to the series. I’ll be happy to join Sophronia on her next adventure and I have faith that Carriger will find a way to make everything work in the romance department, no matter how impossible it may seem.
Fans of Gail Carriger, do you remember that spark of delightful, outrageous humor that was there in Soulless, but seemed to have all but disappeared iFans of Gail Carriger, do you remember that spark of delightful, outrageous humor that was there in Soulless, but seemed to have all but disappeared in later books? It was probably somewhere collecting interest because it’s back in full force in Prudence. This is Carriger’s best work since her debut, it’s fresh, full of adventure and has just enough romance to keep us glued to our reading chairs.
Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama, Rue to her friends, daughter of Alexia and Conall Maccon and adopted daughter of Lord Akeldama, was mostly raised by her second father for her own safety. Her birth parents lived next door to stay close to her, but Dama was always her biggest ally and friend. As a result of her unusual upbringing (and her excellent genes), Prudence is a highly opinionated young lady, resourceful, smart and naturally very fashionable. She is also a bit of a tomboy and she doesn’t concern herself too much with society’s many rules, much to her adoptive father’s delight.
Prudence and her Dama conspire regularly to manipulate Alexia into allowing Rue to do all sorts of outrageous things, like traveling to India to investigate tea. Once convinced, of course, Alexia easily convinces her husband to do exactly the same. So begins Rue’s journey on Spotted Custard with her carefully selected crew and her trusted friends.
Like their mothers before them, Rue and Prim Tunstell are the best of friends. Prim is so very different from Ivy, though. She is flawless, stylish, and she always does the right thing. She outshines Rue regularly, but Rue is never even a bit resentful. She just loves Prim like a sister and doesn’t care about petty things. Prim’s brother Percy is, of course, just as interesting, but in an entirely different way. He is a bookworm if there ever was one, with all sorts of knowledge and very little practical application. His obliviousness was a constant theme in the book and it never stopped being hilarious.
“You’re not worried he’ll escape?” Prim watched her brother with affectionate exasperation. “I’ve given instructions for the footmen and porters to wall him in with his own books. By the time he reads his way out, we should be ready to float off.” “You’ll leave a feeding hole?” “I’m not a monster.”
The romance begins with (mostly feigned) antagonism and proceeds to entertain with hilarious banter. I liked Quesnel Lefoux for Rue. He was always more than capable of standing up to her, which not many people can. I enjoyed seeing her manipulated for once, and her unacknowledged jealousy made me laugh all the time. This is merely the beginning of what promises to be a delightfully entertaining romance.
Carriger made sure that you can easily enjoy Prudence even if you haven’t read the original series. There are many links that connect the two, but even without those, the novel is simply wonderful. I can’t wait for the next one to come out.
Maja (The Nocturnal Library)
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