I found an excerpt online, and it seemed very bumpy to me. … the meaning’s pretty clear, if you’re willing to help the author out by adding in missing words or punctuation.

I just finished the first book, Silent in the Grave. I see what you call “bumpy” language, but it didn’t bother me. The last book I read was an Anne Bronte, and the unclear sentence structure and missing words weren’t an obstacle there either. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Is it awkward, or is it style? If I find the writing assured in other respects, I can often accept a style in which not every sentence is perfectly clear at the outset. It makes for a slower read, but that’s not a bad thing. Odd metaphors can offer an interesting glimpse of the narrator’s thought process and associations. (Or they can be simply odd, as they struck Laura.)

The setting and characters remind me strongly of Amanda Quick’s Arcane Society novels. I found the mystery flimsy, but Raybourn’s heroine is more introspective and less ditzy than Quick’s; in the course of the book Julia learns a lot about herself and the world.

I enjoyed the first book but don’t feel any great urgency to read Sanctuary. Based on Jayne’s review and others, I might wait till book 3.

Yes, and it’s clear that the shrug and the curl are separate things, but because of how the phrase is constructed they could both be assumed to relate to the lip.

if we’re going to say that the problem is that we visualize a bridal train, which is much bigger than a thread, why are we not including the needle in our mind’s eye?

I was. If the needle is the (very skinny) bride, and the thread is her train, and if trains on wedding dresses tend to be wider than the bride and often widen as they descend to the floor or as they pool around the bride, then there’s a problem with the metaphor, at least for me, because a thread is always narrower than the needle through which it passes, and the thread’s circumference remains constant.

An American speaker would have said, “they don’t have fleas” or “they haven’t got fleas.” But not our Lady Julia. It’s that kind of deft touch with language that gives this novel such an authentic British feel.

Well, I’m British and I’ve wouldn’t use the construction that you think has an “authentic British feel.” I did a very quick search, and in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) Jack says “What nonsense! I haven’t got a brother” and Cecily says “But I haven’t got a cough.”

Just as a small example, do you those of you who have read the novel remember when Lady Julia suggested that one of the house guests take a pup to bed with her to act as a bed warmer? Lady Julia comments about the dogs, “They haven’t fleas.”

An American speaker would have said, “they don’t have fleas” or “they haven’t got fleas.” But not our Lady Julia. It’s that kind of deft touch with language that gives this novel such an authentic British feel.

I’m sure there are other examples, but that’s one that has stayed with me.

As an aside, I like Tasha Alexander, too. I’m eagerly awaiting her next book, A Fatal Waltz, which will be published in May.

I thought there were several nice tongue in cheek moments, though, not least that the guy who speaks like a romance hero is a horses’ ass and meets a bad end. Having read it, I have to say I enjoyed the plot and I’ll pick up the next one. I just didn’t like it as much as I’d expected to.

The book in its entirety is a better read than the excerpt Laura didn’t enjoy.

I liked T Alexanders books too.

Also CL Harris’s Mermaid Sings or something like that.