What Janine is Reading in Midwinter 2017
Perhaps this post should be titled What Janine is Rereading, since the books mentioned below are all books I’ve read before.
Indiscreet by Mary Balogh
This was my third time reading Indiscreet. I first read it in the early 2000s because it was recommended by a number of people in a romance readers’ Yahoo group I belong to. On rereading it recently, I was glad to see that it is still a terrific read even now. Some aspects for the beginning are a little dated, but the second half packs quite a punch.
Catherine, a respectable widow, is living in a small village cottage when Rex, a viscount and twin to the local nobleman, visits his brother. Catherine mistakes Rex for his twin Claude, her landlord as well as her friend, and she smiles at him, a gesture Rex mistakes for flirtation and perhaps an invitation for more.
Thus begins Rex’s insistent pursuit of making Catherine his mistress. She rebuffs his offer but also gives him mixed signals (there are good reasons for this revealed later on). Eventually, in a careless moment, Rex accidentally does Catherine a very bad turn.Catherine’s past is tragic and complicated (and could be triggering to some readers, too). When Rex learns about it he really comes through for her, and there’s a great payoff for all that has come before.
The book is also a terrific exploration of slut shaming; without being heavy-handed, it really hammers home how women are so much more despised then men though their “sins” are often smaller and sometimes nonexistent. Reading the book got me thinking about how some older romances had their own subtle social justice messages.
In my earlier readings of Indiscreet, I was angry with Rex for half the book. This time, I was more understanding. He was still in the wrong, but I felt that he wasn’t 100% the callous cad he had seemed to me the first time. I paid more attention to Catherine’s attraction to him and the early indications that he had a heart than I had before.
Though in the first half, Rex tarnishes his armor quite a bit, that is necessary to telling this particular story, and the second half is so well-written and has such a satisfying payoff that I’m giving Indiscreet a B+/A-.
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Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series is one of my favorite YA series. After a seven-year wait, a fifth book, titled Thick as Thieves, is finally coming out in May, so my husband and I decided to reread the prior four books to refresh our memories before Thick as Thieves is released.
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
My mini-review here is going to chime in with this Amazon review titled “This book is a four, unless you read the whole series, then it’s a five in retrospect.”
The first book in the series is narrated by the half-starved, rude Gen, a thief who bragged about having stolen the King of Sounis’s seal and was then jailed. As the novel opens, Gen is offered release from the king’s prison if he’ll accompany the king’s Magus, the soldier Pol, and two of the Magus’s apprentices on a journey to steal a mysterious object.
It is only a quarter of the way through that we learn what the object is, and that its theft could shift the balance of power between the kingdom of Sounis and the two neighboring kingdoms of Attolia and Eddis. Peppering the narrative are folk tales about the gods—folk tales that become more relevant in the novel’s second half.
This was my third time reading The Thief and I was blown away by how much I loved it this time around. It wasn’t always a great favorite of mine. I had difficulty getting into it the first time I read it—its first half felt slow and filled with what seemed like lengthy descriptions and petty squabbles. Two of my friends haven’t been able to finish it and another only finished it on the second try, though she now loves the series.
For that reason, I’ve sometimes recommended that if readers just can’t get into it, they skip ahead to book two. But this time I enjoyed this first book so, so much. Turner writes all her books to reread differently than they read the first time; these books are meant to be reread.
Knowing from the beginning who all the characters were and what their hidden agendas were made the first half of the book highly entertaining. Things Gen did which I originally dismissed as petty, foolish or annoying I now saw in a much different light–as smart moves. The double meanings and unreliable narration had me laughing out loud in several places.
Knowing what the future held for all the characters made the book extra delicious, too. I was able to anticipate not only what they would learn about each other later in this book, but also what fate had in store for them in future books, and I noticed how Turner wove certain motifs through multiple books. The scar on Gen’s cheek, for example, or the way the myths of the gods echoed the characters’ journeys in certain ways.
I came away with so much more admiration for how intricate and clever a novel The Thief is than I had ever had before and I feel a little embarrassed that when I first read it, I gave it a B-. This time I enjoyed it enough to feel that it merits an A.
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The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
I then moved on to Queen, which I *also* enjoyed more this time than ever before. The way Turner plots her twists and revelations is what makes the books so fascinating to reread. The first time they are read on one level, the second time, a new light is cast on the events of the books which allows for a different reading.
I don’t want to say too much about the plot of this book so as not to spoil the big revelation that comes toward the end of The Thief for those who haven’t read the first novel, and I also recommend that you avoid the back cover copy for The Queen of Attolia and later books if possible.
But I will say is that something awful happens to Gen early on in The Queen of Attolia, and that this is the book in which he matures into a man. He is still bright and audacious here, but for the first time, he is also dangerous.
Unlike The Thief, this novel is written in third person and in multiple viewpoints. Here, the countries of Eddis, Attolia and Sounis are at war. There is a pretty amazing romance that begins midway through this book and continues in book three. The Queen of Attolia was originally a B/B+ for me but it’s an A for me this time.
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The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
With this one, the pleasure of rereading wasn’t nearly as disparate from my prior experiences. This has always been my favorite Turner and it probably still is. While, like Turner’s other books it has some big reveals, by this point in the series readers know better than to share the Attolian guard Costis’s view of Gen.
Spoiler (Spoiler): Show
One of the best aspects of the novel is that three books in, there are still new facets to discover in our hero. If I had to compare him to a character whom readers of romance might be familiar with it would be Lymond from Dunnett’s series (I have only read The Game of Kings but other readers have made this comparison as well).
I gave The King of Attolia an A-/A the first time I read it and an A the second time. So it really couldn’t rise in my estimation, but I still have tremendous respect and love for it. Also, Gen’s relationship with his lady love is amazing in this book. We only see it in glimpses, but those glimpses are potent. There is a dance scene that might be my favorite dance scene in any book, and later on, a kiss that is one of the most romantic kisses I’ve read. A.
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I’m so excited for MWT’s next book and it’s about a month away if you think it’s April already. I loved Indiscreet as well and find that to be my favorite of the series. Glad to hear it holds up well.
I love this series! The fourth book is A Conspiracy of Kings, which focuses on one of the characters from the previous books, rather than Gen (although he shows up briefly), but it’s still very satisfying.
You must must *must* read the entire Lymond Chronicles. It’s a dense & juicy ride, with lots of travel, political intrigue & action, & a very romantic payoff. I’ve managed to reread it once -there are, after all, 6 thick books in total- but so very worth it.
I just finished rereading The Queen of Atolia in preparation for Thick as Thieves too! And Indiscreet is one of my favorite Mary Baloghs. So all of your selections made me nod my head vigorously.
I think I have first three books of “Queen’s thief”. I read the first one liked it well enough but never continued . I guess I should :). Thanks Janine.
@Keishon: Yes. Me too! I didn’t get an ARC so I have to wait patiently for mid-May like the rest of the reading public. Thank you so much for being one of the people who encouraged me to read this series in the first place. I am more grateful than I can say.
Indiscreet does hold up, esp. the second half. I had never read the others but I’ve now read Unforgiven which I will go into in my next reading list post. For now I’ll just say I didn’t like it nearly as much as I liked Indiscreet.
@hng23: I reread A Conspiracy of Kings, too, but this reading list column was long enough that I decided to hold my review of ACoK until my next one runs.
Re. the Lymond Chronicles. I want to read them, I really do. My dilemma is this. I read The Game of Kings about fifteen years ago and I don’t recall the plot or most of the side characters that well anymore. The book was just meh for me and took me a really long time to read, so I’m not particularly eager to reread it. I understand things get more exciting in the later books, but I also hate reading series out of order. So I’m trying to decide whether to read it again or to just move on to Queen’s Play. Do you have any advice?
@Jo Savage: I had so much fun rereading The Queen of Attolia this time. And yeah, Indiscreet. Back in the early 2000s, that romance reading yahoo group I was on had a poll for favorite Balogh. She had over fifty books out at the time, but Indiscreet came in first. Of course, she’s written many other books since then, but this is a really good oldie.
I’ll add that I’m doubtful that the HEA Balogh envisioned would have been posssible for someone with Catherine’s history in the real regency era, but by the time that part of the book rolled around I was so caught up in the story and wanted so badly for her to have the happiness she deserved that I didn’t care about that.
@Sirius: Read them! I didn’t fall in love with the series until late in book 2 or maybe even sometime in book 3. The later books are written for older readers than those The Thief is aimed at, and there is also romance in them.
I say just move on to Queen’s Play. I read it first and then went back and read Game of Kings after I finished the rest of the series, and it is a slow start. The Niccoló series has some lulls within books but Game of Kings is uncharacteristically slow. Dunnetts’s Johnson Johnson series was republished in eBook format a few years back, also.
On a road trip, my daughter put on the audio book for The King of Attolia. It was a great book, but I never went back to read the 2 earlier books. I figured I knew all the twists already. But maybe I should rethink that.
@Anne V: Thanks. It’s been suggested to me before, so I think I’ll do that. It’ll have to wait at least a few months, though, since I have some review commitments for spring piled up.
@Elizabeth Langston: I think it’s worth it to try because there are some wonderful details in those books that aren’t mentioned in The King of Attolia. And knowing the twists doesn’t ruin the joy of Turner’s series for me. If anything it amplifies it. It’s also really cool to see Gen grow up through the series.
ETA: Where did your daughter find an audiobook? I searched Audible but couldn’t find one.
@Janine: One of the things I love about my favorite Mary Balogh books is the uniqueness she brings to clichéd topics. I have read so many books about the hero accidentally compromising the heroine, and none of them discussed it with the depth that Indiscreet does. None of them talked about how unfair it might have been to the woman, how distressing it could be to her future, how the hero might be affected by the aftermath. It was just a plot point to justify the marriage of convenience about to follow. Not so here. Ms Balogh forces us (and Rex) to think about society’s fairness and the consequences of being rash. I think I’ll give Indiscreet a reread soon, too!
I am trying to avoid being smug, but I’ve read THICK AS THIEVES and (of course) loved it. I liked it better than CONSPIRACY OF KINGS (partially because I loved the snarky, vain voice of Khamet — he reminded me a lot of Gen in THE THIEF without being at all a copy of him) but not as much as the 2nd and 3rd books.
WARNING: There is not much of Gen (or Irene) in this book, but the snippets that are there are both absolutely perfect and will rip your heart to shreds and stomp on it.
@Jo Savage: Yes! That is a huge part of what I loved about Indiscreet.
@hapax: Lucky you! And wow. Good to know.
+1 for the need to read the Lymond Chronicles! I loved, loved this series!! Slow start but huge payoff.