stapsreads

Another one from the Ibbotson sausage romance factory. They are all exactly the same, of course, but that doesn't stop me enjoying them. I particularly love the theatrical ones - in this, the heroine, a don's daughter, runs away to Brazil with a ballet company. Awesome. There she meets the standard charismatic cadet of some minor aristocratic family, and it's all a bit yada yada from there, but the ballet bits are good.

Light-hearted, though not dismissing the competitiveness and pain of the stage. Also surprisingly relaxed about sex, which was a nice surprise. I would have much preferred this had it ended with Harriet being a great dancer and a kept woman, but you can't have everything. I hold high hopes for Natasha.

You know, what I would really like (having moved straight from the last book to this one) would be the story of Eugénie Danglars and Louise d'Armilly, told from Louise's point of view by Eva Ibbotson. I think I might have to write it myself.

First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde

Re-read. I had forgotten quite how much fun this series is. As ever, I found the BookWorld parts much more interesting than the AU!Swindon, but it's all very enjoyable.


The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - C S Lewis

Re-read of an old friend. This isn't my favourite of the Narnia books (that accolade goes to Dawn Treader) but it has some wonderful moments and is a joy to revisit.


61 Hours - Lee Child

Trying this to see what all the fuss is about. It took me a while to get into, for all that the first thirty hours take up a lot less page space than the remainder. Once I did, it was harder to put down, but I still don't quite get all the Jack Reacher-mania.


Deadheads - Reginald Hill

As ever, I am hopping around all over the place within the series. I started off quite well with Dalziel and Pascoe (that is, with A Clubbable Woman) but I've skipped about ten years, I think. I liked this one - the use of rose varieties for the chapter headings was interesting, characterisation fantastic, lovely twist in the tail. Poor Sergeant Wield, though!


While the Light Lasts - Agatha Christie

A collection of not recently republished short stories. Something of a disappointment, as I found that I'd read most or all of these before, even if not necessarily in this particular form. A number of them are in The Hound of Death. Quite interesting as a curiosity, anyway, and it's good to have re-read them.


Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean - Justin Somper

Shipwrecked twins, each fearing the other dead (so far, so Twelfth Night) get picked up by pirates. The boy ends up with normal pirates (in so far as this is possible, it being the 26th century); the girl with the titular Vampirates. They spend the book trying to find each other. Blood and guts and gore, usual piratey stuff. Unimpressed that Grace spends most of the time stuck in a cabin while Connor gets to do sword-fighting and such; maybe the balance is redressed in later books?


The Mind-Readers - Margery Allingham

Couldn't get into this; gave up.


More William - Richmal Crompton

More William? Absolutely. Vastly improves a day in bed with the flu. My favourites in this one: A Busy Day, William's Burglar, The Ghost, The May King, and William and the Smuggler.


The Morning Gift - Eva Ibbotson

Another Ibbotson romance featuring refugees and desirable Englishmen. While still fairly formulaic, this is a departure from Ibbotson's usual form in that the protagonists get married in chapter 2 and then spend the rest of the book working out that actually they might want to stay married. Though of course it's considerably more complicated than it needs to be, and at times I was wishing to smack both of them round the head. I love the backgrounds, though, and in this case particularly intellectual Vienna.

My first foray into the world of vampire romance. I have to say that I wasn't entirely convinced; this was due mainly to a) poor editing; b) enduring squick at the non-consensual vampire-turning. I do appreciate that the poor hero faced a rather difficult choice, but I'd have appreciated the narrative addressing this with greater attention rather than skipping straight to the unresolved sexual tension. (Also the resolved sort.) And the quasi-date-rape stuff was rather nasty, too.

All that said, it was a compelling story, and I raced through it. And it was hilarious in parts - particularly the sequence with the police at the end. I don't know. I wanted to like it, it being a sweepstake prize and all, but it kept throwing me off. A pity.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6219147/

I'm not sure why I keep up with Jill Mansell's output. Considering I'd got her plot (she only has one) sussed to the extent that I nicked it for my 2006 NaNoWriMo (and stuck it in space, thankyouverymuch) I was always several chapters ahead. But I do. This one is still on the posters in WHSmith. Good for a laugh, I guess.

The only crime in Ibbotson's world is to be nouveau riche. Or nouveau riche and female.

Re-read, prior to bookcrossing. I do enjoy these, though they are all exactly the same. Here's what I wrote about it last time round:

I approached this with some trepidation, due to the frankly diabetic coma-inducing candy-floss pink cover, but remembered that a) I was very keen on her children's books (Which Witch?, etc) when I was little, and b) some people on LJ had recommended her adult stuff. It was a sweet and fluffy book and reminded me more of Lorna Hill's Sadler's Wells series than anything else, being very difficult to put down, but displaying some horrendous snobbery that I didn't dare prod too much. Despite covering some of the same ground (post-war, though different war, setting, estate Going To Dogs for lack of money, ill-advised engagements) as The Little Stranger, totally different. Fun, if you didn't think too much about it. Won't send to charity shop just yet.