Glamour in Glass

 Glamour in Glass is the second book in the Glamorist Histories books by Mary Robinette Kowal. 

"In the tumultuous months after Napoleon abdicates his throne, Jane and Vincent go to Belgium for their honeymoon. While there, the deposed emperor escapes his exile in Elba, throwing the continent into turmoil. With no easy way back to England, Jane and Vincent's concerns turn from enjoying their honeymoon...to escaping it. Left with no outward salvation, Jane must persevere over her trying personal circumstances and use her glamour to rescue her husband from prison... and hopefully prevent her newly built marriage from getting stranded on the shoals of another country's war." 

I read this back in May of 2023, a year and a half ago, and boy do I remember being upset by it. 

Plot and Theme: I got half way through it and skimmed the rest to see if it got better. It got worse. Jane's "trying circumstances" were that she was pregnant and while pregnant she isn't supposed to use glamour otherwise she could lose the baby. So her fight over her own independence and freedoms vs the... scariness of soon becoming a mom and not being able to do something she loved doing for nine months. I get it. Putting things down for a time because of children can be hard, but that amount of selfishness and practically intentionally aborting her baby did not set well with me. To have this be the major plot point of the book made me put this down. It wasn't a "she will persevere or think of another way around the problem of her husband being in prison and needing to help him escape." You aren't all Glamour girl! Use your brain and come up with another plan. Don't have the major plot be, kill the baby to save the husband. And the fact that she felt so relieved to be rid of this burden made me sick.

Setting and Writing Style: It has been a minute since I read the book, but from what I recall it's setting and the way it was written was pretty good. I enjoyed the set up of Napoleon breaking out and the French country side being up in arms one way or another. I don't remember being upset by the way Mary Robinette Kowal wrote it, just the themes and plot. 

Spice: The fact that Jane gets pregnant means that there was something going on behind the curtains, but that is where it stayed. Which is perfectly fine with me. When it comes to Jane and Vincent's relationship, I remember there being problems with the fact that he was away all the time. That's not how you spend a honeymoon, dearies. Yes, they've both got to work, but besides one scene where "the curtains fall" that is all the romantic encounters I remember. The rest of the time they seemed extremely mad at each other. Such a happy marriage. 

Characters: From what I recall the characters were actually decently developed. They had differing opinions and backgrounds. Even the side characters had thoughts about Napoleon and how the previous war went with England which was kind of refreshing. I don't recall any Mary-Sue's which is great. Jane was having some major growing pains and she chose extremely poorly in my opinion. She ended up being a character that I couldn't get along with and wasn't someone I cared to read about anymore. 

Overall: Never again. I'm done with Mary Robinette Kowal. Miscarriage is something I've dealt with more often than I would like to and abortion is not something I support. It was her relief at the end that killed it all for me. Apparently she gets pregnant in another book and is all happy hunky dory, but that seemed like it was even more of a reason why I wouldn't want to pick up anything else Kowal wrote. 

I'd Tell You That I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You

I just couldn't do it. I couldn't finish it, because... ya know... junior high was bad enough. I don't wanna go back. 

Cammie is the daughter of the head master for Galligher Girl's School. What everyone else in the world doesn't know is that it's not just some prestigious girls school for the smart and rich, instead it's a school that teaches those smart girls how to be spies. Cammie has become an expert at not being seen and blending in due to her upbringing, so much so that it's become a detriment to any social life that she could possibly have, not that the girls get out much to socialize in public spaces much in the first place. But on Cammie's first "mission" out at the nearby town carnival, she's actually seen by someone. And not just anyone. A boy. With the "help" of her friends, she now has to figure out if he's just some small town boy who just thinks she's cute and wants to get to know her, or if there are ulterior motives that could put their national security at risk. 

I'm sure the story is fine, that's why I would have given it three stars. It probably has a great story, I just couldn't finish it. I don't think this aged well as the slang in particular is so heavy. I know I talked that way and heard may kids talk similarly to the way they do in the book, but ya know I don't need flash backs to the acne, boys, and hard time junior high school actually was. 

Ally Carter, you did a great job at your research, possibly too well for me. I'm sorry. 

I also think the characters were a bit stereotypical. Goth girl rebelling against her rich, snobby parents. Poor but brilliantly book-smart girl who gets on by scholarship. Amazing at everything and anything girl who still is super awesome and best friend to main character. Everyone has everything except stealth and blending in, which our MC has. They all seem fairly like Mary Sue's to me and it makes it hard to relate in the first place. This is why I dropped it to two stars. 

A Discovery of Witches

 A Discovery of Witches *sigh, and not in a good way* 

Diana is a witch with a lineage that goes back on both sides to Salam, Mass. c 1600. Matthew is a vamp who has been around for a millennia and a half. She is super powerful though doesn't like to use her powers because she considers it cheating and she wants to get her PHD and other studies the "normal way." He is looking for away to save his kind and stop all these murders that scream vamp all over them. Then there is also the big bad "boss guys" who say they can't get together because... I didn't get that far. 

It... *ugh-sigh* The first reason I gave it a 2 was because it was beyond long winded. Setting and descriptions of everything took forever, and I was reading an audiobook where most of the time that doesn't matter. And I'm all about a beautiful setting and wonderful descriptions, but there was so little poetry behind it all and it took For-E-Ver. The 600-ish pages could have been dropped by at least a quarter if she had been more choosy as to what was needed for the reader to know what was going on. It's a brick and feels as heavy as one. Plus, tea and wine. Tea and wine. Tea and wine. And descriptions on every scent and whiff of tea and wine. O.O UGH! 

My second problem is him. If you go for a "Beauty and the Beast" kinda rage problems but miss the whole story of B&B, you just get a very angry guy who hasn't learned to control his temper in 1500 years. That's a long time. Honestly, if he hasn't learned it by now... If she does anything wrong, especially unknowingly (because "forget everything you thought you knew about vampires"), he practically jumps down her throat. "How dare you do this thing which you didn't think was bad! I'm not going to explain how that was actually kinda rude; I'm just going to yell and pretty much throw a tantrum because I'm only mentally 3." Okay, that was probably a bit mean, but it happened. 

Matthew has this over-protective thing (fidgety feeling) almost out of no where and likes to watch her sleep also and other weird stuff that reminds me heavily of another vamp that sparkles. Many of the characteristics that many people disliked about that vamp is the same thing Matthew has. Red flags of all kinds pop up. Then Diana who is supposed to be this warrior-princess of awesome becomes so passive mess every time he's around it seems. Again, possibly an exaggeration, but I got through about half the book. When he's around, almost all of her brain smarts and goes away. And yes, it's cool that suddenly he became friends with every single person of scientific importance over the last 1500 years, but come on. Let some of her awesomeness shine out. It didn't so much. 

And while I didn't finish it, I did look up the rest of the plot on the interwebs and saw that they made a tv series out of the book and it's two sequels. The big baddies are this counsel who won't let inter-species relations happen. But they really want to, but they can't because laws, but they'll probably do it anyway. There is also supposedly time travel in this book toward the end and it gets to the point where it seems like there is just too much going on. Blood science, problems with reproduction, inter-species relations, "I'm too powerful and don't know how to use it," "Yes we should" "No we shouldn't" dilemma, yoga class gets in there too, history class for the ages, and time travel all with an over abundance of description. 

It's too much. 

I don't really want to read a fanfic written by a Twihard mom who, though clean (I will say that, so far as I read though the series trailer will dispute that), wants a Twilight fix. ((Not to blow up on Twilight or hate on Stephenie Meyer, I just don't think her books were written as well as they could have been, and I wish she'd step away from it instead of writing another Twilight novel "but this time from Edward's point of view" (There I said it). Maybe I'm just upset because she didn't choose Jacob in the end? Who knows?)) Twihard mom's might like it, I do not. 

Moving on to the next book. 

The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train is a National Bestseller and supposedly pretty good. I somewhat disagree. I can see why people would like the book, I however don't care for it.

The book is about Rachel who's had a mental crisis and is trying, very poorly, to function. She rides the train to work every day and at a particular stop, she watches this couple whom she deems perfect. They must have the perfect life. She's fascinated by them because her life has gone down the drain since her divorce to her cheating husband. She does drink and often blacks out, not being able to recollect anything whiles she's drunk. Megan who is spotted having an affair. And lastly, Anna, who is the woman Rachel's husband had an affair with and is now currently married to. Megan is suddenly found dead and after a drunken blackout, Rachel is trying to find out what is happened on the night she can't remember. Did she do it? Did she see who did it?

This is the story with a very unreliable narrator. Rachel is on the verge of mental snappage which makes her testimony hard to find solid footing in, which is a way to make this fun. Unreliable narrators bring twists to the story that otherwise wouldn't be there or it wouldn't be nearly as fascinating. This was the point that drew me in and kept me wanting to listen.

However, I didn't finish the book. It had a few too many and strong swear words for my liking as well. It was also more dark than I really wanted to read. I don't get drunk, I don't drink at all. I don't find it as fascinating as others might. I don't have a point of reference for it, not that I really want one either. Then there is the concept of affair this and that and having it constantly swirling around the page. I don't read for that. Getting cheated on isn't something I like focusing on. To have it be so constant, has put me off.

I'm sure it's a good book, for other people. Not me.

If others don't mind the concepts that are very prominent here, then they would probably enjoy it very much. Have at it. It was written well with good characters and an interesting concept. It's just not more me.

That Summer

That Summer is Sarah Dessen's debut novel and it shows. 

It follows a fifteen year old girl who is six foot tall and feels very awkward about it. Hey dad is getting married again after cheating on her mom. Her sister is also getting married. And the world ends up just falling apart on her. But then get sister's ex-boyfriend confess into town and is the only person who seems to be listening to her instead of The Bride. 

The story goes on... And it takes forever to get there.  The exposition is soooooo long. I got to page 70, bored for most of the way, and skimmed for most of the rest of the 130 pages of the book looking only really at the dialog that happened.  It was so long winded. On more than one occasion am entire paragraph took up more than a single page.

Will I was sad for her situation, I found I didn't really care for Haven at all. For at least the first quarter of the book, Haven said maybe 20 lines of dialog. Maybe? Her sister was annoying and somehow we are supposed to like her because "she's right" at the end.  Her mom was probably the one that seemed the most real, but even she seemed to be on the flat side.

Then the over arching theme-ish thing was not very well done. The were many examples of it,  but it just felt, again, flat to me. It was too simple and while Haven saw it in the lives of others, she never actually enlightened it herself. Sure she probably had a crush on Sumner back then at age ten or twelve, but I don't think her situation fits.

Ugh, I was disappointed. Sarah Dessen's books do get much better later on,  but this was probably get poorest on I've read. Which mean she has become a much better writer through practice and experience.

Read her others,  not this one.

The Historian

The Historian dives into the world of the most well known vampire: Vlad Dracula.

In the story, many people have died when they've started to research the true Dracula (Vlad Tepes) and his actual resting place. "A young woman"/"the narrator" finds a mysterious book in her father's library with an ornate wood carving in the center of the book. What is this book, why is Drakuya written it it. Every question she has more mysterious things happen, even the death of her cat as a warning to stop looking. Mysterious figures and strange stories from her father keep her investigating even though her cat isn't the only one killed.

Kostova did a great job in researching the affairs that correlate here. Knowing a lot about Vlad Dracula and Bram Stoker as well as the places "the narrator" visits wither her father. Way to do your research!

However, I didn't finish the book. It was sooooo slow. Her father is so scared of his shadow and can only tell his story behind the book that it takes the girl months go get anything. They travel all around Europe and only get snippets of the story. It is so stock full of description and travel (unless they are eating) that it is hard to get to the actual context of the book. It also jumps from letters, to her father's stories, to her own "adventures" that it is hard to follow in parts. There were parts were she met with another girl who was reading Bram Stokers Dracula, the chapter jumps to letters and what I thought was her own adventures, but then it jumped back to her sitting at the charol in the library across from the girl again. I was so confused. It jumped so badly and went so slowly...

Also, why doesn't she have a name? It's not that hard to give characters names and use them.

It is a large book with nearly 700 pages but I could only get through 115 or so (with Hadi Girl somewhere in the middle). It was kind of depressing and dark (large portions of the story taking place at night, in dark libraries, etc. as well as people getting killed mysteriously) and I've sooo not been in the mood for that. It seemed to actually make my mood worse. So I'm stopping and probably won't pick it up again.

If it was written differently, more engaging, less jumpy, I probably would read on because the idea was interesting, but I don't want to read a 700 page book on how to research the undead and the murder warnings that happen.

If you don't mind slow reading or are super into descriptions, this book is for you. Not for me. Good luck.

City of a Thousand Dolls

City of a Thousand Dolls got kind of boring for me. I couldn't stand reading it for too long even after 100 pages.

Nisha is a girl who is part of no caste, from unknown ancestry, and was left at the doors of the City of a Thousand Dolls--a place where women go to prepare for their husbands or future careers (I think careers, I know they want to get married off though). She is the eyes and ears of the Matron of the City so she sees and hears everything that happens. But then, on the week leading to the Redeeming (where the girls get selected by their prospective spouses), girls start dying. First an accident then poisoning.

Even though people are dying, I didn't care. I'm sure there are girls who would really enjoy this, but I didn't. There seemed to be little for me to want to grasp and care about.

There is a romance that has kindled, but I don't think it'll pan out like Nisha wants it too--boy thinking of family name more than her (though I could be wrong). It didn't seem to be going anywhere, or if it does it shouldn't have. The romance is very paper thin with lots of makeout sessions hidden from sight. Something you would expect a newly junior high school student to be fantasizing over. Almost 1D, not even 2D.

There were talking cats too, which I know can be a turn off for some people. Like she has no friends, except maybe one, and the cats that follow her around. And the only reason they talk is because she needs to have dialog with someone. But she isn't trusted by anyone or she doesn't trust anyone enough to have meaningful conversations except the cats who can't talk to anyone else. Why can she do this? ... Reasons. That's why.

I will give Ms. Foster points on an interesting setting. The City and surrounding culture was interesting. All the different factions that exist in the City where girls worked to become an expert in specific things. That was cool, but not exactly interesting enough to keep me engaged. I started it well over a week ago, and barely got 75 pages in, still didn't care, and started skimming.

I'd probably disregard this book and find something else.

Drop of Night

I tried. I tried really hard to get through this book, but it took forever to get going anywhere.

A Drop of Night is about a group of supposedly super smart teens being whisked away to France so they can explore this super amazing house and the untouched underground labyrinth under it.

They spend a lot of time getting there and introducing characters. But what really dragged for me, which had the potential of being done awesomely, was that it jumped between "present day" time and "French Revolution" time. The house's labyrinth was built to keep away the revolutionaries and keep the nobles safe. Makes sense, yes? But why ask teens to go down first? Why the mystery and cloak/dagger-ness of their host? (These questions are addressed in the beginning, but not expounded upon.)

Suddenly their host goes berserk, they wake up in the labyrinth under the house, and one of them gets insta-killed. Why? Because... They run away from their host and his associates further in the maze and almost get beheaded like they do in the movie Ghost Ship--all wires moving really fast. Then suddenly there is a zombie/ghost dude walking about and mention-ish of a demon thing that took over the original owners mind... or something. I don't even know. Or really care.

Supposed to be good, but I couldn't find the wanting to keep reading. 100 pages before getting down there and another 50 of jumping times was annoying. The shifting between times gave no real tension. It was all super high tension and no relief to let us breath. It reminded me of the book series  Maximum Ride by James Patterson. SO much jumping. Too much jumping with chapters sometimes not even two pages long. That's okay if there are longer chapters for most of the book, but when most of them are maybe three pages... It feels like all I'm doing is turning pages, not actually reading anything.

Overall, I didn't care for it. Characters were wanting. All the boys were pretty much the same personality from what I could gather or they were stereotypes. I didn't care for them at all. I'd probably read it to see who died in it, but not much more than that. I'm not going to be picking it up again. Sorry, but blah.

Fallen Kingdoms

Fallen Kingdoms let me down. I had been waiting eagerly to read this book for months now and by the time I got half way done with it, I was dreading reading it. And what is really sad is that this isn't just a debut novel. Morgan Rhodes is a pen name for Michelle Rowen and she has lots of different books (paranormal romance stuff that I'm not touching). I was extremely disappointed.

The idea behind it was a good one, but it was executed extremely poorly in my opinion. The cover art is pretty and is what has drawn me into these books. But who is this guy in the white cloak? There is no reference or anything about him.

The characters I believe were developed poorly. Many of them died throughout the course of the book and I didn't care. The major love interest in the book was weak (which is sad from the paranormal romance novelist). It happened so quickly and, as I said, weakly. There was no twitterpated feeling in my chest for the characters. I didn't care for the guy at all, he was actually kind of annoying. It feels like there was no reason why they were in love to begin with except for the guy to kill him and maybe feel bad about it later (which I don't actually think he does.) Then there is the whole brother loves sister (who isn't really his sister) thing which I was done with when I read City of Bones. The idea that I love her but can't have her but love her.... Ugh... I even was able to call who the next love interests will be (taking a sneak peak at the coming books on their blurbs on the back of the books).

The dialogue between characters was childish. They may be sixteen to eighteen years old, but they are royalty where they are taught, supposedly, how how to act nobly, it is not shown here. Not in the least bit. I think their bantering is supposed to be witty and... something, but it's just not. It's juvenile, even for YA. There is no change of voice between characters. It's all the same, flat, monotone "witty" bantering from one character to the next. And what's worse is that everyone of the characters has the same dry wit. It got boring really fast, but just kept going.

There was also a lot of bedroom talk. Not steamy stuff, but "come into my bedroom," or "his lover," "her lover," "let me give you more experience." Again, childish dialogue.

The setting was faulty and was lacking.

The book was very predictable and not in a good foreshadow kind of way. We knew what was going to happen long before any of the characters did. It took adults forever to realize they were being had and were about to be betrayed. Like knife had already cut into his throat before he realized.

And don't get me started on the throats/necks that were cut. If Rhodes described anyone getting killed it was always gorey, in-your-face---er---neck. Knives, daggers, and swords constantly in their neck with blood spraying on your face or the characters decapitating the enemies. There are other ways to kill people you know, even if they have armor on. I think this could be a close rivalry between J.R.R.Martins books for who's going to die next--except I've heard that his you can't predict nearly so often.

I don't think I'm going to read any more. If I do, it will be a long time from now when I have nothing better to read. (I have lots of better stuff to read.)

Belle

Eh, I have read other Retellings of Beauty and the Beast that I've enjoyed much more. This one had many things lacking for my taste.

This story is similar to the "Belle et la Bete" (the original French story) in that it gives more background to the characters that are there, but Cameron Dokey spends more than half of the book in background and setting up for the venture to the castle of the "monster" than Belle does in the castle with the "monster."

There is a lot more discussion as to what is Beauty vs. beauty in the beginning (that's what takes so much of the space in this small book). Belle, or Annabelle Evangeline, is the most un-beautiful of the three daughters--or so she thinks. Her sisters, Celeste and April, have opposite features are are still considered two of the most beautiful girls in the book. But aside from one being bossy and the other in love with one of her father's sailors there isn't much of a difference in the girls.

Dokey tried to make Belle different from the two sisters in giving her brown hair and she likes to carve wood (very unlike any of the other retellings I've read). For the character of Belle, yes she is headstrong and caring, but she acted like a lady of her age. This Annabelle doesn't seem much like the character I've come to love and that has made me dislike this book more than I would otherwise.

Also, I don't necessarily care for the way that it was written. The tone seemed very childish to me at many parts of the beginning, then when her father was retelling his story of the first encounter with the "monster at the heart of the Woods" the tone shifted to "this is an old story and I'm going to speak to you in an old language" kind of way. For example at the beginning she is describing her oldest sister Celeste by saying "As I'm sure I don't need to point out, Celestial Heavens  is quite a mouthful. "This doesn't fit the era of the novel at all and like I said seems very childish. Not to mention, very telling instead of showing--which is what most writers are trying to do. Then during the shift of tone: "'That settles that,' I thought. Forward I went, and I did not look back again." Who says "forward I went"? First we were going for modern, hip/youthful language, then we are back in old England speaking with Shakespeare or something. These are the types of shifts that I didn't care for throughout the story.

There were some scenes that I thought were good and that I was drawn into, but others that seemed very childish. It was almost like she didn't trust her reader to get it and make connections. Dialogue was choppy at parts that really drew me out of the story. Specifically dialogue between the sisters, which was a lot of the book actually.

So, yeah, this won't be a reread but I may try another of Dokey's books just to make sure it's the narrator's voice that is what I don't care for instead of the author.

UPDATE:
I tried to read Wild Orchid by Dokey and I only got 60 pages in. It seemed to have many of the same qualities that Belle did. A big similarity between the retelling of the Epic of Mulan and the retelling of Beauty and the Beast was that these girls were extremely unlady like especially for their time and place. I will give this to Mulan to a point. She was in a war and mascarading as a boy. But that doesn't mean being a girl is bad.

 There is this feeling I get from this Mulan retelling that being a girl is all hard work, boring work at that, and that boys get all the fun. The only way to have fun is by being a boy. I think this is very false. Dokey give very little to no reason why being feminine is okay. Both Belle and Mulan prefer the masculan arts over anything feminine and that really bugs me.

Like I said, I only got 60 pages in because it took forever to get anywhere in these stories. Most of the book is all preface to everything that is actually in the original story.

In my opinion, Dokey has much to be wanting in these retellings. I don't plan on reading anymore of her books.