Jessica Steiner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jessicasteiner) wrote2012-10-08 04:12 pm
jessicasteiner) wrote2012-10-08 04:12 pm
Review: Shades of Milk and Honey by @MaryRobinette
Before I begin, I just want to warn that this will NOT be a spoiler-free review! I'm afraid I won't be able to review the book properly without giving away the ending. The spoilers will be under a cut, so if you want to avoid spoilers, be cautious while clicking and scrolling. ;)
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal is a fantasy regency romance set in a world where it's possible to use magic to form illusions called glamour. The main character, Jane, is a skilled glamourist, but on the verge of becoming a spinster.
I haven't listened to as many audiobooks lately, but this one I did download from Audible.com (it's available for purchase here). It's read by the author, who does a great job. Mary Robinette Kowal is a puppeteer as well as an author, and so she's definitely got the skills and experience to voice her own book.
Romance is not a genre I generally read, but I gave it a chance because I wanted to support the author after listening to her on Writing Excuses for quite a while. But I really enjoyed it! The characters were engaging and I particularly liked Jane.
The thing that I most enjoyed was how realistically the author incorporated the use of glamour into the world. She really thought it through, and I loved all the tiny ways glamour affected how the characters lived.
I really just had one issue with the book, and that's under the cut.
This book is a romance, and I can't do a review without bringing out the romance itself. I found that the romance was developed reasonably well overall - there was a good triangle, and other side plots, and the whole thing fit well together like a jigsaw puzzle.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
However, I think there needed to be more development of the feelings developing between Jane and Vincent. I understand that the author probably didn't want to make it too obvious who Jane was going to end up with, but with all the animosity between them, when Jane found out that Vincent was in love with her, it almost felt like the fact that Vincent loved her was the reason why Jane suddenly fell in love with him, which is pretty shallow.
SPOILERS END
It really didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book, and considering that I'm generally not a romance reader, I hope that this argues for it being quite a good example of the genre, especially as a debut novel.
I'm very much looking forward to reading the next book of the series, Glamour in Glass and in reading any of the author's future works!
Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal is a fantasy regency romance set in a world where it's possible to use magic to form illusions called glamour. The main character, Jane, is a skilled glamourist, but on the verge of becoming a spinster.
I haven't listened to as many audiobooks lately, but this one I did download from Audible.com (it's available for purchase here). It's read by the author, who does a great job. Mary Robinette Kowal is a puppeteer as well as an author, and so she's definitely got the skills and experience to voice her own book.
Romance is not a genre I generally read, but I gave it a chance because I wanted to support the author after listening to her on Writing Excuses for quite a while. But I really enjoyed it! The characters were engaging and I particularly liked Jane.
The thing that I most enjoyed was how realistically the author incorporated the use of glamour into the world. She really thought it through, and I loved all the tiny ways glamour affected how the characters lived.
I really just had one issue with the book, and that's under the cut.
This book is a romance, and I can't do a review without bringing out the romance itself. I found that the romance was developed reasonably well overall - there was a good triangle, and other side plots, and the whole thing fit well together like a jigsaw puzzle.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE
However, I think there needed to be more development of the feelings developing between Jane and Vincent. I understand that the author probably didn't want to make it too obvious who Jane was going to end up with, but with all the animosity between them, when Jane found out that Vincent was in love with her, it almost felt like the fact that Vincent loved her was the reason why Jane suddenly fell in love with him, which is pretty shallow.
SPOILERS END
It really didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book, and considering that I'm generally not a romance reader, I hope that this argues for it being quite a good example of the genre, especially as a debut novel.
I'm very much looking forward to reading the next book of the series, Glamour in Glass and in reading any of the author's future works!