The Ladies Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Rating: WORTHY!

This is a story I normally wouldn't read. The fact that the book description contains the tedious and worn-out phrase 'star-crossed lovers' is nauseating. Just as bad, the cover of a novel once again does not reflect the characters who actually appear in the story - it even has the hair color wrong. Did the photographer not care? Did the author not notice? Or was some random stock cover selected without a second thought because no one really cared? Fortunately the last thing I do is judge a book by its cover.

Anyway, this story is of two women. The first is a wannabe astronmer named Lucy Muchelney, a lesbian at a time (1816) when modern readers believe that such proclivities were, if not exactly banned, denied and frowned upon. I think that's nonsense. No one back then cared enough about women to worry over what they were doing when alone together! Too many people believe that Queen Victoria said lesbianism never happened. Victoria said nothing of the sort and she had nothing to do with the religiously-obsessed British law banning homsexuality (between men) in 1885 - the penalty for which was to be locked-up with a bunch of men. Go figure. The fact is that Victoria was far from Victorian. She loved getting it on with her hubby, and lesbianism probably never crossed her mind.

In the story, Lucy's father has died and she's looking for an occupation. Her overly-protective brother is a nuisance, and her dearest love Priscilla has opted for respectable marriage, in which there is no room for dalliances with her female interest. Distraught and looking for escape, Lucy wangles her way into the Countess of Moth's patronage to engage herself in translating a French author's respected and voluminous treatise on Astronomy. She has the experience from working regularly with her father, himself a well-regarded astronomer, and her skill at math - and she speaks French well. The countess takes a chance on her, and as Lucy works on this project, and has daily encounters with Lady Moth, an attraction grows between them.

The novel is set in a very fictional milieu. Superficially it's regency England, but none of the people or societies mentioned in the novel really existed - to my knowledge. Some people who did exist and who ought to have merited a mention, do not appear. Newton seems to be the only historical person of any note mentioned for example. A less well-known but also noted scientist who was a woman, Caroline Herschel, goes unheralded. Although her star burned brightest before Lucy was born, you would think someone as erudite and up on the sciences as Lucy is portrayed, would have heard of her.

I guess the author didn't want to deal with all that, or risk maligning someone for no good reason, and this was fine with me in general, but for a novel that's trying to represent women, this seemed like a curious omissiol. I know the novel is ficiton, and generally I do not care if it's somewhat historically-inaccurate unless there are glaring errors. I detected none of those, but the lack of a shout-out for someone as accomplished as Ms Herschel seemed cruel.

I loved this book: the writing, the story, the whole idea of a woman scientist back then, and I loved how science and art were integrated, so I breezed through it - that is until the last few chapters, where apparently the author decided she had to toss a wrench - or in this case a spanner, since this is Britain after all! Or if I might make a play on words and deliver a little spoiler, a wench - into the works. To me this part was poorly-written. The only feeling of problematic writing I'd had prior to this was that at times the novel seemed to drag a little when it ought to have been striding forward, but that was a minor thing for me. Life did flow at a slower pace back then anyway!

This artificial crisis though was very badly-done and for a couple of chapters I was going to turn my view around and not rate this as a worthy read, but the author picked-up her frayed edges and stitched them into a decent seam before the end, so I decided not to cuff her. Yes, I made a pun. So sew me.... I can't let this go though without making a mention of this nonsensical hiccup to their relationship. It felt compeltely fake and so artificial that it seemed like a joke.

I don't know if it was the author's idea to add a 'ruffled feathers' bit, or if the publisher had demanded she toss in a problem so their life together wouldn't be quite so smooth, but for me there was no need for it. If she or the publisher honestly thought there was such a need, it ought to have been much better done: something more organic and not fake like this was. It needed to be tied to their homosexuality, not to some poorly-conceived misunderstanding that for me made the book seem like a poor Harlequin romance.

For me, the way it was done here made the two women look like shallow idiots who had no history together, and it spoiled that part of the story since it blew up from nowhere. It suggested that neither woman had any invesment in the other and was ready to ignore everything that had passed between them prior to this point. It made, as I said, no sense.

But the writing improved after that, and for me it turned the story around quite handsomely, so overall I feel like I can commend this as a worthy read.

Best Lesbian Romance 2011 Various Authors

Rating: WORTHY!

This is a collection of assorted very short stories which are all focused on lesbian relationships. A tiny few were very good which is why I am recommending this. Some of them were awful. I refuse to believe that these stories constitute the best lesbian romance for a whole year! Either that or the editor (who wrote the last story) doesn't have the first clue as to the difference between romance and adolescent lust. With very, very few exceptions, this book seemingly set out to prove that lesbianism is nothing more than cheap and shallow lust. I can't imagine why it's referred to as romance since there's so little romance in evidence here.

If this kind of thing had been written with one of the protagonists being a guy, it would be considered a superficial overdose of juvenile hormones. I don't think lesbians should get a free pass. Is it not possible to write a romantic short stories? I know that part of romance is great physical attraction, but that's not all it is by any means. I thought a lesbian perspective would appreciate the mental as being superior to the physical, but I evidently thought wrong! Either that or I'm reading the wrong authors.

The thing about the best lesbian romances is that there really wasn't any sex either, which is the other reason for which something like this might have been written - as soft-core porn. All of the stories were pretty much about some woman who was not up for a relationship, or who hadn't had one in a while, or who was sour on them, meeting someone brand new and pretty much launching herself at her new acquaintance's lips, or her new acquaintance launching herself at her lips.

It was pretty much all about new relationships, almost instant kissing (just add warm lips) and lustful thoughts about bodies. Only one story was about an existing relationship, and that was just plain odd. Fortunately, only one or two stories actually depicted sex, though. The saddest thing is that very nearly all of these tales were essentially the same trite story with only the character's names and ages, and the setting being changed. It was romance by numbers, where the template was pre-drawn and all you had to do as an author was color between the lines. Boring.

For some reason I had the idea that lesbian romances would not be as cheap, shallow, juvenile, and tawdry as hetero romances. I thought there might be a different perspective on it with some deeper insights. I'm sorry to say that I was so wrong! Anyway, here we go with a few or fewer) words about each one.

Hearts and Flowers by Theda Hudson
There's a somewhat dysfunctional relationship between Gina and Jen. To me it didn't feel realistic. That is to say it began feeling like it was real, but it grew increasingly fake to me. I found it hard to see that a girl who likes to be on the receiving end of (some mild) BDSM ends up rather cruelly punishing the woman who likes to give it, and without a really good reason.

The best way to pursue a relationship in which both parties are evidently seriously invested is to be open about I - not to walk out in a huff, offer neither solace nor information, and hope your partner figures it all out before it's too late. On the good side, this was technically well-written and had some nice moments, but it had a fake feeling - like I was reading fiction, which is exactly what it was, but it shouldn't feel like that to a reader.

Mother Knows Best by Rachel Kramer Bussel
This is a Very short story about how Stacy met Tanya, the love of her life. Stacy is 38 and her Mother is trying to match-make her not with a guy but with a girl. Stacy likes a girl whose ass she can smack?! This is too stories in a row where one partner likes to inflict pain (even if only mildly) on the other. This was not a great introduction to a series purportedly about love in my opinion!

There was also a lot of objectifying, which is curious form female authors, yet here it is! That said, this story did have a certain sweetness to it, and Tanya definitely came out of this looking as hot as she was purported to be when Stacy's mom told her about this new girl she wanted her daughter to meet.

Twelfth Night by Catherine Lundhoff
The unfortunately named BJ is in lust with Tasha, a fellow player in their production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night which turns out to be more like As You Dyke It turning into The Comedy of Eros or Amid Sappho's Night Dream. Nadine has the hots for BJ, who has the hots for Tasha. Sara, BJ's supposed best friend is pissy. At the last minute BJ decides to relinquish her role as Viola and take the Duke Orsino's role instead so that the more suitable Tasha can take the starring role in order to impress the critic who will be at opening night.

It's pretty obvious from the start how this is going to play out. It's one of those YA stories where the guy (or less frequently the girl) doesn't realize that the best friend is actually also the ideal partner. You'd have to be pretty stupid not to realize this, and you'd have to be a moron to go that long without sharing your feelings or without them becoming obvious from numerous hints and circumstances along the way, so I wasn't impressed with this one.

Boiled Peas by Clifford Henderson

This one is about Penny and Lil a couple in their mid-twenties, who aren't even a couple when the story begins but you know for a fact they will be one when it ends. For me it felt just a wee bit too convenient and fairy-tale-like, but maybe twee was what the author was aiming for in translating this into another language, so to speak. It is very convenient Lil happens to come over on the very night when Penny, feeling annoyingly sorry for herself on her birthday, is about to eat boiled peas with her champagne. Lil is the apartment's new maintenance person, and Penny is about to celebrate her birthday and remind herself that her mother was right when she compared her daughter to the princess who was obsessed with the pea.

It's also a bit too convenient that Penny, as a self-diagnosed ice queen, suddenly thaws after knowing this girl for all of a hour. I could only buy this one as a fairy tale.

I think I will Love You by Rebecca S Buck
"She was beautiful in a striking sense"! In what way, I found myself wondering, is something beautiful yet not in a striking sense? This story - the story of how wounded Carolyn, and dominant, shameless Karmen pair up, marked three out of four stories so far here where physical appearance is held up as a positive trait! It also, disturbingly, marked two out of four stories wherein the prospective partners leapt into depth (if not bed) on the first date (in one case literally, and in the other, for all practical purposes). Is this what we want to represent lesbians as being - half the time they're committed in one way or another, the other half they ought to be committed for being as loose as the gravel on Carolyn's driveway?

Camellias by Anna Meadows
This is yet another example of a rush to sex

The Panacea by Colette Moody
Simone and no, not Nina, but Hope - a crashing personification - meet in a coffee bar, except that Hope is serving the brews and Simone comes in feeling bruised after being laid off. All Hope has in mind is getting laid on Simone.

Lost and Found by Andrea Dale
We couldn't get two screens into this one before lust raised its ugly head. Lara, in Hawaii for god knows what reason since she isn't attending the sessions at the conference, wants to drag Evie into bed the moment she lays eyes on her. So here am I, half way through this romance book and there's been zero romance, not so much as a spell of magic, no hint of subtle seduction, in fact, nothing but lust raising its ugly head. Do lesbians really need this rap laid at their door?

If this one had been written about a guy picking up a woman, it would rightly be pilloried. Do lesbians get a bye where guys don't when it comes to objectifying women? I think not. We're supposed to be treating genders equally are we not? Does romance, when it comes to lesbian relationships mean nothing but the shallow and superficial? I hope not.

A Witchy Woman Called My Name by Merina Canyon
I don't know if Merina Canyon is really this author's name, but it's a pretty cool name regardless. This was a good story with an ending I totally expected, so no surprises except at how clueless the main protagonist was. Still a decent read and more romantic than most stories here.

Rebound by Charlotte Dare
Is a story of a mature woman who falls for an even more mature one, and while in some ways it's charming and has an element of realism to it, it still focuses purely on lust and physical attraction (and is a bit more graphic than most stories here). Despite a happy ending - marriage, it has disturbing overtones of stalking in it.

Things I Missed by Kathleen Warnock
This was one of the most enjoyable stories, if tinged with sadness. It's about regrets and brushing off regrets, and it's about cruel injustice and faded friendships. It's very different on tone form many of the others. There's no room here for the shallow and superficial, for the lust and hormonal rampages of so many other stories in this collection. It's a mature and serious story and was very much appreciated.

Dirty Laundry by Cheyenne Blue
Another author with a cool name! Set in Eire, this truly appropriately-titled story is about the appalling cruelties organized religion is capable of perpetrating, in this case upon "wayward girls" in an evil convent where "Love thy neighbor" never did get any air-play evidently. Maura is the new girl dumped in the convent, torn from her baby and is fortunate that Eileen chooses to befriend her without thought for anything she would get out of it. Eileen's sin was to be unwillingly molested by a priest. What she does get out of it is a lifelong friendship and the love she was starved of for nineteen years before she met Maura. This was a brilliant, sweetly-written, though hard-to-read-at-times story and made this collection worth enjoying, all by itself.

The Game by Elaine Burns
This one was also one of the best. Short and to the point, perfectly titled, beautifully written. What looks like a first encounter over a pool table has much more going on than you'd imagine! Who's going to break first?!

The Gift by Sacchi Green
I was starting to wonder at this point whether giving your daughter a cool name means she will grow up to be an author of lesbian romance stories! This one was excellent if rather fantastical. Unlike the other stories, this one had an element of the magical to it - and I don't mean purely the magic of romance! The question of this Christmas night was: how are Lou - stuck on an unexpected tour of duty in Afghanistan, and Meg - urged by Lou to go enjoy their planned vacation in Switzerland anyway - going to get through this family night without each other, their own family, to hold hands and hug? Maybe the odd gift box Lou was handed by an Afghani woman she helped can help Lou in turn? Or is that just too ridiculous?

Rock Palace by Miel Rose
This story is about Taylor and Lilly (not Lilly Taylor) - a late twenties early thirties couple. Taylor grew up on a farm and feels a need to get back to her roots, but she's never had a girl she could take back to those roots with her. Finally Lilly came along and Now Taylor thinks that there's a possibility that she can have the best of both worlds. The story was gorgeous - just gorgeous.

The last story, by the editor, I'm not even going to talk about because it was so awful. So most of them turned my stomach, but a precious few, a happy few, a band of sisters; for she to-day that shares her story with me
shall be my sister; be she ne’er so vile, this day shall gentle her condition. I recommend this for those few.

Keep Austin Weird by Mary Jane

Title: Keep Austin Weird
Author: Mary Jane (no website found)
Publisher: Smashwords
Rating: WORTHY!

Errata:
"He then flawless recited..." should be "He then flawlessly recited..." (note I read this on a smartphone which means that page numbers are useless and locations are pretty much worthless when we can simple do a search).
"when I picked up you backpack" should be "when I picked up your backpack..."
"...once or twice.”“Really, just one our twice..." should be "...once or twice.”“Really, just once or twice..."
"Texas’ capitol building" should be "Texas’s capitol building". Texas isn't a plural so it's apporpriate to add apostrophe 's'.
"...if she was like that when they first meet..." should be "...if she was like that when they first met...".
"knew each other at UT.”They shake hands and exchange pleasantries, Kim mentally trying to place the term, 'know each other..." should be ”They shake hands and exchange pleasantries, Kim mentally trying to place the term, 'knew each other..." (Tense is changed).
"You’re Bitchy Barista reputation" should be "Your Bitchy Barista reputation"
"I’m violating the only philosophical tenant..." should be "I’m violating the only philosophical tenet..."

Mary Jane may be male or female (I am by no means convinced by the Goodreads blurb for this author! Is "Mary Jane" really comedian Lindsay Rousseau? Who knows?) and it doesn't matter, except that this author treasures anonymity so highly that I can't give you an author's website, although you can try here to get a sampling of this author's writing which sports titles such as, "Like Water for Macaroni". The title of this novel is unfortunate because if you enter it as a search term on the web, you're going to get everything but this novel showing up, including an ungodly number of tie-dyed T-shirts! That and a few too many typos aside, it was a fun read.

The story is about Eleanor Cooprider and Kim Park, who are people I would definitely like to know. Having said that I wouldn't want to go to one of their soirées, which I confess struck me as slightly tedious. These two are at their best when it's just these two, and they're talking about any topic. They're playful, smart, interesting, eclectic, off-beat, irreverent, supportive, and very warm people who dearly love each other no matter what.

This story begins at the beginning - they day they met, but then it jumps around a lot, be warned - perhaps a bit too much for some readers, but for me it wasn't too annoying, just a little confusing here and there. The chapters have a sub-heading giving time and place, full of pseudo-self-importance which is always a bad sign, and which assumes that the reader actually remembers the time and place from the previous chapter, which is neither a wise nor is it a safe assumption given how engrossing their story is when it's really good. It's not very flowing either, in addition to being rather non-linear.

I had some issues with the story in general. For example, Kim is 23 but she references Larry Bird. Bird was a Boston Celtics player who had a distinguished career, but he retired in 1992, before Kim was born. It’s not really very likely she would recall him or esteem him as a player. It's possible, but a much more recent reference would have made more sense here. The problem was that the author was so locked into the name that she evidently forgot to check for appropriateness.

The Christmas play they put on as the story gets going is one about Charlie Brown and Christmas. We read, "...actually entitled 'Linus and Lucy'...", but entitled is used wrongly. It should be 'titled'. 'Entitled means something different, although I see more and more authors using it wrongly like this.

If you can handle this however, you're in for a treat. This story follows the two from their first meeting at the school where they teach, until Eleanor retires - and it's quite a short book. Kim is convinced that Eleanor is a super hero because she can detect which career is best for her young school charges, but even super heroes make mistakes. The question is, what will happen to their relationship if Eleanor's "high flying" days come crashing down around the two of them?

I loved this story (mostly!) and recommend it.

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Title: Huntress
Author: Malinda Lo
Publisher: Little Brown
Rating: worthy

Huntress promises, at first blush, to be a better than Ash. It begins with a vision experienced by Taisin (which my spellchecker wants to change to raisin, lol!), of another girl in her year at the sage's school, a girl called Kaede, getting into a boat on an icy shore and rowing towards an ice castle across the water. In these times, there is a blight on the land. It's cold; there's very little sunshine, and crops are dying. People are starving.

There comes an invitation from the fairy kingdom for a representative from the human world to meet their queen. Despite a longstanding treaty between the two peoples, there has never been any contact between them since the treaty. The king himself cannot undertake this journey because of the perilous condition of his kingdom, so his son is chosen to go. Because of her vision, which has been confirmed by other means, Taisin must also go, and because her vision involved Kaede, she, too, must go. Three royal guards, one of whom is a woman, make up the party of six who undertake this journey. It's a complete mystery why they do not send more guards. The prince, a rather lackluster and feeble royal pain reminiscent of the royal dishrag Prince Kai in Cinder asked that they limit the party, the ostensible reason being that they want to undertake the journey in secret, but undertake is what they do as their number is cut in half when they travel in the forest.

Lo skirts dangerously with instadore (my term for "instalove", a word which I dislike because it's never actually about love) between the two main protagonists. It stays just this side of absurdity, but flirts dangerously with it. There is no real attraction between the two main protagonists in any meaningful sense, only an inexplicable compulsion, as though they aren't in control of their feelings, which is a huge turn-off if you ask me. It's like getting drunk and having sex and then someone crying rape. Well duhh! These two girls have spent absolutely no time together in any capacity prior to this journey, and they barely know who each other is, so it's really hard to accept this acutely focused attraction they suddenly develop, and Lo's prose describing it is rather too Harlequin for my taste. It comes off very badly when compared with her awesome romance in Ash for my money.

Having bitched about that, the story itself is pretty good, and made me want to find out what's happening on the next page. Lo relates the tale in the third person, but alternating subtly between the PoV of Taisin, and that of Kaede. A note here about pronunciation. I've already addressed this bit of silliness in my review of Ash. In that novel there was no guide to names, whereas Huntress does feature one at the front of the book, but it makes as little sense as the names in Ash did! For example, in Ash, the name Kaisa is pronounced Ky-sa, but in this novel, Taisin is pronounced Tay-sin - pretty much as in Mike Tyson! Who knows, maybe the pronunciations have changed in the couple of hundred years between the two novels - or maybe Lo is just annoyingly whimsical. Kaede is pronounced Kay-dee FYI, which does make a bit more sense.

As they approach a certain village, tales of a demon child begin to grow, until at last, Taisin can stand it no longer. She insists that her party do not avoid this village, and when they arrive there, she purposefully seeks out the child, only to find it's possessed by an ugly demon. Kaede saves Taisin's life by stabbing it with her iron knife, but then it vanishes and Kaede's knife is stuck into a dead baby.

The push on with the journey until the reach Shae's home town, where they find a thoroughly weird "monster" the like of which they've never seen before. It's dead, and the villagers are about to bury it as the travelers arrive there. it's blindfolded and has a stone in its mouth so that if it rises from the grave it cannot find anyone, and cannot lure them away with whisperings! Yeah - and it can't spit out the stone and tear off the blindfold, either...!

After a day or so of rest and (relative) relaxation, enjoying some good food, the team of six push on, heading for the part of the map which is blank! In fact, it's so blank that it doesn't even say "here there be monsters" even though there are actually monsters there! They find as they press deeper into the forest that there are whisperings on the night (why not in the day is a mystery), and one of their party, Tali, is lured from the camp and is found dead, with no identifiable means of execution visible anywhere. From that point onwards, Taisin wises up, decides to protect her fellow travelers each night by casting a spell around the camp. Unlike the wizards in Patricia Wrede's Thirteenth Child series, Taisin can't cast this kind of protective spell while they travel. This ritual leads to rapid heartbeats in Kaede as Taisin has to touch each of the party on their chest as she completes the circle.

As the journey in the bleeding cold and fatiguing wet continues, the party finds itself stalked by wolves, and as usual the wolves are portrayed as evil which is an awful stereotype to perpetuate. One night the wolves launch an attack and because Prince Con perhaps he has that name advisedly?) failed to bring along sufficient protection, another of their party is savaged to death by the wolves and the girl, Shae (which is actually pronounced Shay believe it or not) is mauled so badly that they cannot continue. Fortunately a "greenwitch" ex machina shows up and they're able to stay with her for a couple of days to recover. This greenwitch (no word on whether she's actually from Greenwich, but they do have a mean time!) also happens to be a skilled healer, but Shae cannot continue with them which breaks Prince Con's heart because he was falling in lurve with her - again for no apparent reason. It broke my heart, too, because she was my favorite character!

So they continue the journey and after Kaede saves Taisin's life yet again in the river crossing, they encounter the Xi (of course, pronounced she, as in sheesh!). From that point they are escorted to the fairy city, Taninli (TAN-in-LEE) on Midsummer's eve. Taisin and Kaede have a hot and heavy moment, but then they're escorted to meet the fairy queen.

The upshot of this is that the fairy queen wants them to kill her daughter Elowen who is at the root of the blight. She's capturing fairies and sucking them dry of life force to make herself stronger, and she's trying to invent an army of half-breeds to destroy the fairy queen and take over as ruler of both the fairies and the humans. Only a human can kill her because Elowen is a half-breed human-fairy, so the three of them set off on a tedious journey over the raw ice until they reach the ice castle of Elowen, whereupon Con the wimp waste of time promptly breaks his leg, and Taisin becomes a limp rag, weakened by Elowen's psychic invasions during the journey, so Kaede is the only one who can go kill her with her iron knife, which she does. It ought to have ended there, but inexplicably, it doesn't. Lo tacks on a really bad extra ending which is just nonsensical, and the actual ending sucks weiners.

How anyone can rate this is a great example of a feminist-leaning novel is a mystery to me. I saw no reason to perceive this as a great example of feminism or of how a decent lesbian story should be told. But it is a story about two lesbians, and it was okay as such.

However, I am prepared to rate this as worthy with the exception of the ending! I don't know how Lo could have slipped so badly after her outstanding ending in Ash, but the bulk of the story - with a bit of a meh! for the instadore-wannabe - is really rather good. Even the anticlimactic non-fight between Kaede and Elowen is acceptable. It's just the last 20 pages or so (part five) which is a waste of time. Dud only knows why she wrote that tacky tack-on. Just don't read that, imagine the romantic and happy ending of your choice, and you'll like this as much as I did before I read the last 20 pages!

Ash by Malinda Lo

Title: Ash
Author: Malinda Lo
Publisher: Little Brown
Rating: WORTHY!

I picked up the two Malinda Lo novels, this one and the prequel, Huntress because I'd read somewhere (I forget where, now) that Lo is a strong voice for feminism. She's also a lesbian, which might make for another interesting perspective on her writing, and as long as we don't confuse lesbian with "feminist" (the two are not the same set after all) I think we have we should have a cool read here - at least I hope we do!

I have to confess, though, that I don't see any overt feminist influence on this story at this point; that is to say that I don't so far see how the story is any different from how it would have been had it been written by any other author, lesbian or straight, male or female. Maybe there won't be any, or maybe it will be too subtle for me to see it, but if that's the case, then I fail to see how she garnered for herself the reputation for being a feminist author. Or maybe that rep came out of pure invention like so much in the popular press does these days! We'll see. it really makes no difference as long as we get a good story out of it, after all. That's what we're looking for when we read, are we not?

To her credit, at least Lo has no problem calling fairies fairies, which is nice. I hate it when authors try to hide the fairy-esque-ness of their writing by calling them "fae" - like they're so mortified to be writing about fairies that they're willing to do anything, no matter how obvious, to cover their embarrassment!

So Aisling (pronounced Ashling or Ash for short) begins with Ash losing her mother, and her father disappearing on business and coming back with a wife and two children; then her father dies. Lady Isobel blames Ash for her financial position: if her father had been better with his money, she claims (not that I necessarily believe her!), she would not have to be scrimping, and firing the maid and having Ash take her place! Way to justify slavery!

But Ash has an out, of a kind: she's entranced by fairy stories and by the real possibility of meeting fairies in the forest, which she does, and one in particular, named Sidhean (but pronounced Sheen!). I have to say a word about these pronunciations! There's no guide to the pronunciation in the novel (at least not when the name is first given). These names, for reasons unknown, are evidently Irish, in the cliched tradition of fairy-folk being Celtic, no doubt, but the Irish name has a version which starts with 'Ash' so why go the pretentious route instead of calling her Ashlinn?

This business of translation from a foreign tongue is a pet peeve of mine. The Chinese "alphabet", for example, bears no relationship whatsoever to the English one, so why not spell Chinese names phonetically instead of the bizarre translation we do get, whereby for example, 'Xiao' is supposed to be pronounced '(H)see-ow' (or something similar)?

It's the same with the Celtic language. That's a lot closer to English than is Chinese, but it's still notably foreign. Unless the fairy wrote his name down for Ash to read it before he pronounced it, there's no way she would know that the spelling of it wasn't phonetic! All too many writers make this mistake with pronunciations of obscure names. But I admit it's a fine line between trying to make something sound exotic or different, and going overboard, so let's move on before I have a hoard of irate Irish and Chinese on my tail. (Now I'm thinking of a scene from the Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles but let's not go there!)

So Ash gets into the relaxing habit of walking on the forest and eventually Sidhean begins walking with her, except for one period where he goes off in a huff and she doesn't see him for two weeks. Inexplicably, she starts falling for him! I say that because he's described as looking like a thinly-skinned skeleton! Perhaps his fairy power is overwhelming her; however, despite repeated warnings of the fairy people's evil intentions, no one harms her and Sidhean seems commendably interested in seeing that she gets home safely - even to the point of taking her on his horse on one occasion. But like Neo in The Matrix, the fairies are apparently waiting for something.

Ash herself has to leave the area next, because she's to accompany Isobel and her eldest daughter (as her maid!) to the capital to go to the Royal Ball (those royal balls are huge!). Once the family is dressed and off to the event, Ash's friend, a fellow maid called Gwen (no exotic names for anyone other than Ash and Sidhean, sorry!) chivvies Ash to hurry up so she can attend the peasant "ball" which is held in the village square. Everyone is supposed to costume up, and Ash dresses as a boy. I don't doubt that's going to play a part in some misunderstanding or other down the road (or more likely, in the town square). Is the Royal prince going to play hooky and attend the peasant ball instead of the palatial one? We'll see how predictable that is!

The answer was no, no, no, and no! The story was even better than my abysmal predictions. Ash sees Kaisa (kay-sa) the leader of the royal hunt, and encounters her on other occasions until the two of them become acquainted and begin spending significant time together. Kaisa invites her on the hunt and Ash has to make an expensive bargain with Sidhean so that he can wangle her into a position to attend the hunt and the ball. She has a wonderful time. I was a bit disappointed in Ash when she made the deal, Sidhean said the price was that Ash would be his, and she failed to ask him exactly what that meant! But aside from that, her conduct was exemplary.

So She also attends the big masquerade, and is asked to dance by the Prince, without her realizing who he was to begin with, but when she does, she sneaks away to visit with Kaisa and they spend time together, as indeed they do at the next dance (which is actually rather reminiscent of the one in Cinder, except that Lo wrote it first, and wrote it better). In this occasion, they pretty much confess their love for one another, but Ash reveals that she has a debt she must pay, and while she will do her best to return to Kaisa, she cannot promise anything. Ash returns to Sidhean and flatly tells him that she will offer him only one night and then their deal is over, and Sidhean amazingly agrees. The next morning, Ash returns to the palace and to Kaisa's arms.

Yeah, I kinda blew off the details at the end there, didn't I?! But this was because this was one of the easiest books I've ever read and I rather lost it and became completely immersed in the novel for the last half of it (Essentially, 'Part 2 - The Huntress'). The story drew me right in and pulled me almost helplessly along, and it had an immensely satisfying ending. So yes, I highly recommend this, and I'm so grateful to Malinda Lo for providing me with such a great novel after having had so many dissatisfying ones of late. Now I'm anxious to get started on Huntress in the desperate and nervous hope that it will be equally satisfying!