Shades of Milk and Honey (The Glamourist Histories) [Paperback] Mary Robinette Kowal
Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men. Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right--and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.This debut novel from an award-winning talent scratches a literary itch you never knew you had. Like wandering onto a secret picnic attended by Pride and Prejudice and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Shades of Milk and Honey is precisely the sort of tale we would expect from Jane Austen…if only she had been a fantasy writer.
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Shades of Milk and Honey (The Glamourist Histories) [Paperback] Mary Robinette Kowal
Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men. Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right--and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.This debut novel from an award-winning talent scratches a literary itch you never knew you had. Like wandering onto a secret picnic attended by Pride and Prejudice and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Shades of Milk and Honey is precisely the sort of tale we would expect from Jane Austen…if only she had been a fantasy writer.
Popular Reviews(1)
Reviewed by CarinaI did enjoy this book a lot. It truly felt like Jane Austen with magic. The magic system is really interesting, though I was at first at a loss how it worked and what the ether was (maybe it's a problem lost in translation as english is not my native language). I think the magic is a wonderful idea and I can't wait to see it develop in the further novels. <br/>As for the characters. Jane immediatly struck me as a mix of Eleanor, Lizzie and Anne Elliot, but to her credit, the author said that her characters were very much borrowed from her characters, so I thought it's okay. They still ended up being refreshing enough, though the parallels were quite obvious most of the time. THere were some things that really struck me as weird. First of all Mr. Dunkirk murdering Beth's husband? Like...why did Jane not cry murder at that moment? I mean, even in Jane Austen times, if a guy, even if he ran away, was to be murdered by a gentlemen, surely you would not just calmly take it? That struck me as really weird. Then the whole confrontation with Captain Livingston seemed kind of weird to me, but it was good to see Mr. Dunkirks real character so exposed, after Jane failed to notice it before. <br/>While I adored every tsingle scene between Jane and Vincent (God bless this name, it's a favourite of mine), I do wish we'd seen Jane's feelings for him, develop more openly. Suddenly it was like "I was in love with him". And I went "WAIT WHEN?". That struck me as a bit forced. As for Mr. Vincent: I adored him completely.<br/>AS for the end. I am a bit confused about the end, given that there are five other books? It seemed so final and not like there would be sequels. I guess I'll have to find out!