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Heyer, Georgette. 1934. The Convenient Marriage. Reprinted by Sourcebooks, 2009.

"Lady Winwood being denied, the morning caller inquired with some anxiety for Miss Winwood, or, in fact, for any of the young ladies. In face of the rumour which had come to her ears it would be too provoking if all the Winwood ladies were to withhold themselves."

We meet the Winwood family early on in The Convenient Marriage. We spy on them (in a way) as Mrs. Maulfrey comes to call--or should I say get the juicy gossip on the latest news in the family. Elizabeth, the oldest sister is upset and rightfully so. Her mother, Lady Winwood, has just agreed to an engagement between her and the rich Earl Rule. The problem? Elizabeth is in love with a poor (at least relatively speaking) soldier, a Mr. Edward Heron. Charlotte, the middle sister, doesn't see what the big deal is. After all, in her way of thinking marriage doesn't amount to much. She has no interest--so she claims--in becoming someone's wife. But the youngest sister, Horatia feels her sister's pain. And she's determined--though she stutters or stammer and has thick eyebrows--to do something to solve this dilemma. She gives Mr. Heron her word that she will not let their hearts be broken. Her plan is quite bold and quite wonderful. By that I mean it is deliciously entertaining. The first few chapters of this one are so full of promise. Especially the second and third chapters. If there was an award for the best-ever-second-chapter-in-a-book, I'd nominate The Convenient Marriage.

However, the book soon settles down. As you can probably guess from the title, it is about a marriage--a husband and wife. Marcus Drelincourt (a.k.a. The Earl, or Marcus, or simply 'Rule') and his wife, Horatia (or Horry). And since the marriage occurs early in the book--by page sixty--the reader knows that there must be some drama in the works. And indeed there is. There's the former (and somewhat still current) mistress who's jealous and spiteful, Lady Massey. There's the cousin-who-would-inherit-it-all-if-only-Rule-would-hurry-up-and-die, Mr. Crosby Drelincourt, a cousin. And the villainous and cold-hearted Lord Lethbridge. All three of these people add to the drama--each in their own little way. All want to get revenge on Rule. All want to see the happy little couple become miserable. And oh the plotting that goes on that tries to break up this pair!

Horatia's closest friend is her brother, Pelham. Though he's a bit of a gambler--and often an unlucky one at that--he's got a good heart. I don't know if it was Heyer's intent to make him so likable, so enjoyable, but I just really liked him in spite of his flaws. He truly had his sister's best interests at heart. And she does need someone to look out for her with all the villains roaming about the town (or should that be ton) out for revenge.

None of the characters in The Convenient Marriage are perfect. All are flawed in one way or another. But the relationships are genuinely enjoyable, and are quite well done. The atmosphere of The Convenient Marriage--much like Heyer's other novels--is so rich, so detailed, so luxuriously drawn. The society. The fashion. The wit. The charm. The dangers of being unique in a world where conformity reigns. The delicate balance between being respectable, being boring, and being the Talk or Toast of the ton.

Recommended.

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Clare, Cassandra. 2009. City of Glass. Simon & Schuster. 541.

City of Glass is the third in the Mortal Instruments series. (The first being, City of Bones, the second being, City of Ashes.) I honestly don't know how to review this one. Not without spoiling things. I can gush, however. I can tell you how I loved it. Tell you how it was intensely satisfying. How right it felt (for me). But you need to start at the beginning. You need to read the series as a whole. You need to come to know these characters from the very beginning. So I definitely recommend the series. The characters are well developed. Complex. Diverse. Interesting. Evolving. The pacing is suspenseful. Though the books are thick, time flies when you're reading the books. They're just that good. The series as a whole was good. There were some things that were predictable, but not in an oh-no-not-that-again way. It just felt good reading these books. It made reading fun again. I'd love to see this series catch on like the Twilight series has.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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If you're reading this on a site (other than Becky's Book Reviews or Becky's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission..

Bennett, Veronica. 2007. Cassandra's Sister.

Cassandra's Sister is a novel inspired by the life of Jane Austen--a fictional interpretation of her life--her teen years, her first supposed taste of love, the writing of three of her novels: Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. (They apparently weren't published in the order they were written.) The novel focuses on several things: her family life--her relationships with her sister, Cassandra, and her brothers and their wives, her writing life, and her 'love' life such as it was. It touches upon the limitations of the time--how women didn't have all that many options when it came to life--dependent upon their parents and/or other relatives OR dependent upon a husband. (In that way it reminded me of Katherine Sturtevant's delightful books At the Sign of the Star and A True and Faithful Narrative.) Should a woman marry for security? Should she marry a man because he can provide for her? Or should she remain single, remain an 'old maid' because the right one never came along? Is love a requirement for marriage? Is it wrong to want love? To expect love? To not marry for convenience or security or whatever? It's historical fiction with a tiny bit of romance thrown in--miniscule really--but it's richness in certain details might make it a good choice for young Austen fans.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Smith, Jennifer E. 2008. The Comeback Season.

Opening Day at Wrigley Field isn't always April 8. It's not like Christmas or the Fourth of July, with their dependable calendar slots, the reassurance of a fixed number.

Ryan Walsh is a baseball loving teen who is still aching over the loss of her father--five years or so previous--her mother and sister may have moved on...her mother has remarried and is expecting a baby even. But Ryan can never forget her father--the man who taught her how to keep score while watching the game. The man who passed on his love for the Cubs. That the anniversary of his death should fall on Opening Day? A sign that she should skip school and go to the game.

Ryan is in many ways a girl after my own heart--"she doesn't care about makeup or jewelry, and has grown used to getting the once-over for her lack of fashion sense, an up-and-down stare reminiscent of the way her mom studies produce at the grocery store. Ryan prefers ponytails to curling irons, the soapy smell of her shampoo to the fruity ones all the other girls use. She feels most put together when wearing jeans, and she would never trade her flip-flops for a pair of heels. And mostly, she's okay with this." (27) And this telling passage as well--"Given the choice between future and past, she would always and without hesitation choose to move backward, and for years she has lingered through her life in this way, loitering and meandering, a wanderer with the most aimless of intentions." (38)

On that fateful day, April 8, Ryan meets Nick. Okay, so they've been going to the same school together. And true, she's seen him around enough to know that he's her classmate. But on this day--the two share a purpose--to catch the Cubs game. The two begin talking, chatting, and soon it looks like a beautiful friendship is born. Could it be more than friendship? Ryan certainly hopes so. There is an easiness, a rightness, about when they are together. Perhaps Nick says it best, "Sometimes I feel like talking to you is the same as talking to myself. Like you already know all there is to know, so there's no point in explaining..." (123) For Ryan to find love with Nick, she'll have to risk her heart--risk that it could be broken once more.

The Comeback Season is a bittersweet novel about life, love, hope, and redemption. You don't have to love baseball to love this novel. (Though if you do, it might mean that much more to you.) Ryan Walsh is a character that I won't soon be forgetting. I ache when she does. And her hope became my hope.

This is Jennifer E. Smith's first novel, and it is definitely recommended.

Other reviews: The Compulsive Reader, Not Acting My Age, TeenSpace Blog, Shooting Stars Mag, The Story Siren, Let(t)'er Rip, A Patchwork of Books.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Anderson, Laurie Halse. 2008. Chains.

The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up. That's when they can hear us true, Momma said. That's when ghosts can answer us.

Isabel and Ruth are two slave girls who have just been freed by their master's will. Their mistress, Miss Mary Finch, has just been laid to rest. And Isabel, though nervous, is excited about their future prospects. Unfortunately, Mr. Robert Finch, the visiting nephew, has different ideas. Ignoring their protests that they have been freed within Miss Finch's will, he insists that they are his property to sell and make a profit from. His. His. His. And the local pastor who witnesses this exchange, Pastor Weeks, well he supports Mr. Finch in whatever he decides. The girls are told to gather their blankets and shoes and come with him.
These two girls are sold to Mr. and Mrs. Lockton. This wealthy loyalist family owns several properties--one in New York City, one in Charleston, I believe. (It is in the south, that much I know.)

Ruth becomes a favored curiosity for a short while in the Lockton household. Unfortunately, her epileptic seizures bring an end to that status. Mrs. Lockton knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ruth is possessed of the devil. And she tries her hardest to convince her husband that the demon-child must go. Her husband refuses, but tells her that the girl can stay out of sight and do her work well away from Mrs. Lockton. Everyone is hoping that out of sight will become out of mind. Isabel, though accused of being too talkative, does her best to stay in her lady's good graces. She still dreams of freedom. But she knows that her place is precarious. That Ruth's place is extremely so. If she wants to stay with her sister, she must be cautious.

But several things tempt Isabel. Freedom. She meets a slave of one of the rebels, Curzon, who promises her that the Rebel Army will reward her if she spies for them. Mr. Lockton is a loyalist. He's a conspirator as well. Curzon knows that she could bring back juicy-and-vital details to the Rebels...if she will be brave enough to risk it.

A nation at war. A young country seeking freedom, justice, liberty. Set in New York City during circa 1776-1777, the story is vibrant and heartbreaking. It's a story rich in detail and emotional and powerful in nature. Isobel's story--her struggles--resonates so deeply that I think this one is a must-read.

My only complaint about Chains is that it's one of those cliffhanger books with a big "to be continued" at the end.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Cowley, Joy. 2008. Chicken Feathers. Illustrations by David Elliot.

Chicken Feathers by Joy Cowley is enjoyable enough for what it is: a mostly charming story about a boy who loves his pet chicken, Semolina. Josh is the only one in his family that knows (and believes) that Semolina is more than just a chicken. She's an extraordinary chicken: a chicken that can talk. Not just squawk. But talk. Actually talk in human words. Every one else....well...let's just say that they don't trust Josh that much. Semolina has her vices, however, and one of them is her addiction to "brown water" or brew.

There are a few story elements going on in this one: Josh's first semi-semi-crush on the girl next door; the family dealing with a difficult pregnancy. (Josh's mom is hospitalized at six months.) The grandmother (mother-in-law) coming to take care of the family while the mom's in the hospital. And the chickens. There is a fox on the loose in the neighborhood. And Semolina's warnings are going unheeded--at least in the very beginning--so there is danger on that front.

I liked this one. It was unique enough. Not many books about talking chickens having special relationships with their owners that I can recollect. But as nice as it was, amusing as it was in places, I didn't quite love it. But I liked it.

Publisher's description:

Feather-flapping fun by one of the best-loved storytellers of our time.

A talking chicken! Josh knows it sounds ridiculous, but that’s just what Semolina is. And she’s not just a talking chicken . . . she’s a spirited, sarcastic, sassytalking chicken. And with Josh’s mom in the hospital about to give birth to his sister, Josh needs Semolina more than ever, even if she will only talk in front of him. But when Semolina tells him that a fox is sneaking into the hen house at night, can Josh get his dad to believe in Semolina before it’s too late?

Chicken Feathers introduces one of children’s literature’s most original, endearing new characters to peck her way onto the page. In the tradition of Charlotte’s Web, here is a book full of tender moments, sparkling humor, and classic black-and-white illustrations.

Avi. 2006. Crispin: At The Edge of the World.

Have you ever loved a book so much you ended up hating it? I read the first Crispin book a few weeks ago. (Click here to refresh your memory unless you're perfect and know-it-all.) I didn't know what to expect with the first one, but I went into the second with very high hopes. There proved my mistake. It's not that it's awful. It's not. It's that I'm a baby. Let me clarify, the tone of both books is a balancing act between hope and despair and life and death. Crispin is an orphan on the run. In the first book, he teamed up with a man named Bear, a man who was flawed it's true, but a man who was as good as a man could be when it came to loving and protecting and teaching a young boy in great need. It was interesting. It was suspenseful. It didn't end on the brightest note, but it was relatively good ending. Meaning that there was still hope but plenty of doubt and danger thrown in as well.

Crispin: At The Edge of the World opens right where Crispin ended. But in this case, I would have probably been better off not knowing what happened next. My imagination being much kinder towards these characters than Avi's proved to be. Don't get me wrong. My imagination would have been in fantasy land. Clearly in the territory of happily-ever-after. Avi's was much more realistic, much more rustic and down-to-earth. Humanity is very flawed in Avi's novels and that makes them authentic. This book drowns in reality--the death, the danger, the disease, the despair, the confusion--so it may be authentic and true to the time period. Politics and war were deadly, have always been deadly. We do meet a few new characters in this one. And Crispin does make another connection, another friendship, he gets a "sister" of sorts. But everything about this novel--almost--is just so dark and so depressing.

Maybe it's a mood thing. Maybe I'm just being a baby not wanting a certain someone to die. Maybe I'm being a baby because I don't like the characters always always always being on the edge of certain disaster and death. Maybe I like my characters to be safe and loved and happy. I'm sure it's a mood thing. I can handle death and grief and despair at certain times, many a dark book has gotten a good review. But this one, for some reason, I just wanted it to be completely different than what it was. Dare I say, I think I want this one Disney-fied.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews