Mid-Year Wrap Up (Part 3) - Least Favourite Reads!

In all fairness most of the books I have red this year I have thoroughly enjoyed...or enjoyed enough to not dislike completely. However, there are a few that I had to force myself through.

Here are the two at the top of the list.

The Klone and I by Daniel Steel

I have read other Daniel Steel books, and while on the whole I found them depressing, I did enjoy them, but The Klone and I made my head hurt. A LOT. Steph was a weak willed heroine and I found her inner conflict more annoying than anything else. I had to force myself to the end of this.

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

This book has been on my radar for ages so when I saw it in the book shop I whipped it off the shelf before you could say 'Oh look, it's that book'. I have read it and after reading it read some reviews. It seems that everyone but me likes this book. I think the only thing that kept me going through this was that it is a collection of short stories. Had this been one novel I don't think I could have made it to the end. 

I was really disappointed by it. I don't know if I chose the wrong Carter to begin with or if it is her style I don't like... It looks like I'll have to try another by the author to find out. 

Rainbird's Revenge by M.C. Beaton

When the Duke of Pelham returns to his town house at 67 Clarges Street, he is grimly determined to find a suitable wife--but completely unprepared for what the Season has to offer. The duke’s title alone has always brought him more than his share of feminine attention; claiming not to believe in love, he has never been spurned by a lady. The duke’s self-imposed search is soon disrupted by the arrival in London of Miss Jenny Sutherland, a spoiled but beautiful country girl whose vanity is her tragic flaw. According to her guardian Aunt Letitia, lack of competition has made Jenny put on airs; in London, she will get the set-down she sorely deserves. Indeed, at her first important London party, Jenny’s blatant disdain for the duke leads to certain disaster. But no one has counted on the intervention of John Rainbird, the shrewd and resourceful butler at 67 Clarges Street. Rainbird befriends Jenny, suggesting she look in the mirror a little less often. The result is a mischievous scheme that will insure Jenny’s social success and determine the fate of the close-knit family of servants at 67 Clarges Street.

This is the final book in the A House for the Season series and I found it a bit of a let down on the whole.

The Lovers
I found Jenny to be utterly unlikeable and even by the end of the book all I could think was, yes, that's all good and well but
a)no one can change that quickly in so short amount of time and
b)what is to stop her from going back to her old self loving self
as soon as I close the book. She felt like she should be instantly liked and forgiven because of her appearance and she was not a very mice person with her self-centred attitude.

The hero was just as bad. He felt like his looks, title and wealth should have women falling at his feet and he is very out out when he proposes to a woman and she refuses him. I felt like it was a reality check he was deserving and he needed to go and grow up a little bit.

This has to be the only book in the series where the hero and heroine spend the least amount of time together and I could not see the marriage working at all.

Of the new characters introduced in this book the two I loved the most where Jenny's Aunt Letitia and her friend Mrs Freemantle. Her aunt was a sweetheart and cared for her niece despite the fact she was not nice and Mrs Freemantle was so carefree. They were lovely.

The Staff
The only thing that kept me reading this book was to see how the staff would end up and to see everyone get there happy endings.

I completed the series where I started with Joseph the footmen. I really didn't like him and wanted to hit him over the head for his attitude. And I still loved Lizzie to pieces.

There was the matter of Luke - the footman from next door that wasn't tied up - but other than that there were no loose ends.

All in All
A disappointment on the whole but worth the read to see the staff of 67 Clarges Street settled and happy with their lives.

Mid-Year Wrap Up (Part 2) - Favourite Reads!

Shout out time for some of my favourite reads of the last 6 months!

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

This book blew my mind to such an extent that I still can't find it in me to write a review.
Touching, heartbreaking and everything in between this book had me sobbing like a baby so bad that my mum came into the room and thought I was having a bad allergy attack.
I haven't seen the movie yet but I hope it cam capture at east a fraction of the beauty and emotion of this book.





The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson 

This book sits at the other end of the emotions spectrum from The Books Thief. This book was hilarious and had me giggling insanely more than once. It also touches on a lot of recent history which made it fascinating.







The Crooked House by Agatha Christie


Out of the Agatha Christie's that I have read so far (which looking at how many there are isn't really all that many) this has got to be my favourite of the bunch.

It was full of twists and turns and had ma suspecting everyone at one point or another but the person who actually did it.

Wonderful!

The Adventuress by M.C. Beaton

WARNING!!! SOME SPOILERS TO THE END OF THIS POST!

Beauty is a powerful magnet, and every man in the ton is drawn to the exquisite loveliness of Miss Emily Goodenough, who has rented the Clarges Street house with her rather peculiar old uncle. Only Rainbird, the butler, suspects that Miss Goodenough's origins might be less than genteel--in fact, that the beauteous Emily may be a runaway chambermaid and her "uncle" a fellow butler! But Emily has fallen desperately in love with the handsome, haughty Earl of Fleetwood, and since the bogus upstairs couple quickly wins the downstairs' servants' hearts... Rainbird and his friends are determined to make a lowly maid the catch of the Season for high society's most desirable Lord!

Very nearly at the end of the series now.

The Lovers
Emily spends the book as a nervous wreck, frightened that everyone would discover that she was an ex-servant and not a proper lady. The paranoia was realistic and not as annoying as I thought it would be from the beginning.

She is very headstrong and she has a goal in mind as is determined to achieve it. And with the help of the staff she goes from being a nobody to a somebody thanks to them spreading gossip to get society interested in her.

I found Fleetwood a bit annoying with his constant complaining about the servant class. Because he had a bad experience with his own servants when his wife was murders he tarred them all with the same brush and now can't stand them. This of course leads to plenty of internal conflict for Emily.

Fleetwood had also written a book that is about a servant girl hat sends Emily into a tizzy and has her jumping at her own shadow thinking someone based the book off of her.

What I did enjoy about this book was that it went past the wedding day, that made a nice change.

The Staff
I had my second 'Oh Lizzie'moment in this as she fancies herself in love with next doors footman after a bit of flattering from him and trusts him with the servants savings...

I still love her to bits though and she does meet a nice stranger in this so I can't wait to see where that leads too.

All in All
One of the more enjoyable of the series with a likeable heroine (even if I did want to shake her a couple of times).

Rake's Progress by M.C. Beaton

Lord Guy Carlton, late of His Magesty's regiment and weary from the war in France, has only wine, women and song in mind when he rents Number 67 for the Season. He certainly has no desire for a serious attachment - and marriage, never! Then his merry eyes spot the lovely but very proper Miss Esther Jones. But what will be her fate if she falls in love with the notorious Lord Guy? Though Esther's business acument has made her one of the rivhest women in England, her innocence could make her a victim of the wild ways of the ton, unless the downstairs staff at Clarges Street devise a campaign to reform the rake who is laying siege to her heart

Here we have a hero who just wanted to have a good time after just coming home from the wars (even if he didn't go about it in the best of ways) and a heroine who was around at the wrong time to see it.

The Lovers
Esther was a headstrong heroine who was used to looking after herself and her younger brother and sister and was more than capable of doing so. Until it came to society matters and then she was a fish out of water.

She made no secret of the fact that she disapproved of the hero after seeing 67 Clarges Street at the end of a party that he had held.

She means well and puts herself out to help people, even very nearly committing social suicide to help a young girl.

Guy did not get off to the best start in this book and when he wakes up in bed after the party with three women in his bed and can't remeber exactly what had gone on I was ready to write him off entirely. But he did grow on me through the book - not much though.

There is a sneaky valet with his own agenda who tries to put a spanner in the works and he almost miraculous curing of Guy's PTSD had me uttering a 'Yeah right'. It went down hill a bit near the end when there was a kissing/groping sessions between Esther and Guy which was a bit of a shame.

The Staff
The storyline with the romance involving Rainbird finally comes to a conclusion in this book. Thank goodness.

Unfortunately I did have my first 'Oh Lizzie' moment. She had finally got fed up of being a servant at the bottom of the food chain and puts an advertisement in the paper looking for a husband, yeah, that didn't turn out too well...

All in All
An ok addition to the series. Not the best, but then again not the worst either.

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Mid-Year Wrap Up (Part 1) - No Reading Regrets!

Was it just me or did the first 6 months of 2014 go by super fast?

I decided that 2014 was going to be the year of no reading regrets and while the blog has been sitting pretty stagnant for the past wee while my reading for the last 6 months has thank fully picked up.

So what do I mean by no reading regrets.

Well, you know those books that have been sitting on your shelf for months (who am I kidding) years and every time you look at them you feel a little jolt of guilt or lack of achievement, because, darn it all, you should have got round to them eons ago?

Well, I am trying to fix that this year.

Goals I achieved!

• I finally read The Lord of the Rings trilogy!!! 

To be honest I felt like a bit of a fantasy-lover-fraud because I had not read these books and now I have. Yay! And while I didn't quite get the hype I did enjoy them.
My thoughts on these will be up in the next month or so.

• I finished the 'A House for the Season' series!

So, there are 6, 200 page books in this series and I took them (along with another series) on holiday with me last year. Needless to say, they didn't get touched. Not through lack of trying, it was just the way things worked out. So with the family trip looming on the horizon once more I set myself the goal of getting these books (that had been sitting on my shelf and glowering at me since July last year) finished.
Woo hoo! I did it!

• I finished the last three books in the 'A School for Manners' series!

This was the other series that went on holiday with me last year. And like above the three books I didn't get to read had been staring at me for a year.





And just like that there are THREE reading regrets all taken care of  and while there are more than a few left to vanquish, these are nothing to sniff at :)

The Wicked Godmother by M.C. Beaton

Lovely but penniless Harriet Metcalf is aghast when a nobleman's will names her guardian of his snobbish twin daughters when they come out during the next London Season! But is innocent Harriet wily enough for the intrigues of the ton-or its two most eligible bachelors, the Marquess of Huntingdon and Lord Vere? Harriet sees them as suitors for the twins, while the gentlemen see only Harriet's charms. Soon she is falling in love with one of the dashing rakes... but a cruel betrayal will be her ruin unless the Clarges Street servants can save a lady's honor when she loses her heart.

Another year and another season for 67 Clarges Street.

The Lovers
Not my favourite so far.

Harriet (the heroine) was irritatingly naive in this book nearly o the point of me putting the book down. She made some of the silliest, unsafe decisions and was blind to the actions of others that should have been glaringly obvious. It really grated on my nerves after a while and then when she did finally find out the truth I felt a little cheated by the outcome.

The hero was a numpty at one point and very nearly crossed the line in his actions towards the heroine which sent my opinion of him plummeting.

As far as the supporting characters go I loved Harriet's spinster friend. She was lovely and only wanted the best for Harriet.

The Staff
The romance(ish) with Rainbird from book two continues (kind of) in this book. I just wanted that side of the story to be over. I didn't like a mopey Rainbird at all.

All in All
Not my favourite so far...


 

Plain Jane by M.C. Beaton

"Oh, to be as beautiful as Euphemia!" plain Jane heart sighs when she joins her sister Euphemia at number 67 for the season. Then Lord Tregarthan might notice her...as she had noticed him and forever lost her heart to the most eligible bachelor of the ton.

But Euphemia's fate is to flirt through balls and into the arms of a marquis, while Jane's is to stay home, amusing herself with snooping into the strange death of Miss Clara Vere-Saxton, a former number 67 tenant...until the downstairs staff transforms a plain miss and sends her waltzing dangerously close to the secret of Clara's demise...and into a daring liaison with the lord of her dreams.

This is the second book in the series and joins the staff of 67 Clarges Street for another Season, a year after the events of The Miser of Mayfair.

The Lovers
In this instalment there is a murder mystery mised in with the romance, and as I like a good who-dunnit I did enjoy this aspect of the book.

Jane takes an interest in the death of an ex-tennant of 67 and decides to find out for herself just what happened to the young woman.

The hero decides to lend a hand because it amuses him to do so and he needs something to divert him from the boredom of the Season.

Jane was lovely and so human. She would make spur of the moment decisions and then instantly regret them. She fell in love with the hero when she was ten years old and suffers a severe reality check when she sees him in the flesh as an adult. I got a giggle out of Jane (18) thinking that 30 is old - specially as in her mind she had never thought of him as aging. She admits her own silliness though which made me like her even more.

The Staff
I love Lizzie the scullery maid. She is a sweetheart who is in love with Joseph the fickle footman who sees himself as being above her and only pays attention to her and he feels like being fawned over.She is a darling and I am sure that Joseph will never be good enough for her.

There is a wee romance involving Mr Rainbird the butler which added a new (if a bit annoying) side to the story.

All in All
A fun instalment to the series with a likeable heroine. I am really enjoying getting to know the regular character more too.

The Miser of Mayfair by M.C. Beaton

#67 Clarges Street is unlucky. Rental agent Palmer blackmails butler Rainbird and staff to stay for pittance of wages. From Scotland for the London Season, dazzling orphan Fiona sets her sights on haughty Earl of Harrington, and gives the servants first cut of her gambling winnings, insists she is the sole heir to her father Roderick Sinclair, a miser with a failing heart.

Yay, another M.C. Beaton series...although I do think it will take me a little while to get used to the recurring characters.

Thumbs Up
As with The Travelling Matchmaker series I think these books are going to be great escapist reading. In 200 pages, girl will meet boy, and after some drama, girl will get boy. Brilliant.
The heroine of the hour - Fiona - has a head on her shoulders that she uses to her advantage by acting like she has no brain at all and although she is the person that fixes situations everyone is still more than happy to continue thinking that she is nothing but an air head.
As for the recurring characters, I think that Mr Rainbird the butler and Lizzie the scullery maid are going to be my favourite members of staff from 67 Clarges Street.

Thumbs Down
Our hero of the book was a bit of a numpty and too happy to jump to conclusions about Fiona and he very nearly goes too far in a situation and this sent my opinion of him sent my opinion of his plummeting.
Although the servants of 67 are certainly a collection of characters (and I suppose we are meant to find some aspects of their personalties endearing?) but I didn't like how they treated Lizzie the scullery maid and I hope things improve where that is concerned.

All in All
Not the best introduction to a series but with the mentioning of a murder being linked to 67 I'm sure it will pop up in future books and liven things up a bit.

2014

Hello everyone.

I had every intention to begin a nice new shiny blogging schedule on the 1st of January.

Yeah...obviously that didn't happen and life became a bit bonkers yet again, it still is to be honest but I am finding the longer I leave it the longer I will keep leaving it so here I am.

As I have failed quite spectacularly through all of January and most of February I have decided to just go with the flow and try my best.

So for 2014 I'm not going to stick to a rota of x amount of posts a week (lets face it, it's been ages since I've been able to do that anyway) and I am just going to post when I can.

This is a good decision I think :)

I hope that you all had a happy and safe X-Mas/New Year - I'm very late with that I know - and may your bookcases never run dry and a reading slump never befall you in the next year.

:)