BOOK REVIEW: The Story of the Country House by Clive Aslet

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

In Regency Romances, the characters are often jaunting off to house parties in the country. Curious about these British country houses, I was pleased to be able to read The Story of the Country House by Clive Aslet. The book takes the reader on an architectural tour of country homes through the ages: Medieval through the current day.

The text focuses on the houses themselves, along with the owners and architects. There is only a nod to the historical context. The “story” is interesting, but the narrative makes for a rather rambling tour. Details began to blur.

I often found it hard to visualize what the author was describing. There are a few photographs, but not as many as I would have liked. Of course, photographs are not possible for many of the buildings. The author makes the point that a lot of the homes are gone while others have been altered significantly over the years. There are in-depth descriptions of some homes, but sketches or floor plans may have made it easier to visualize what the buildings looked like.

Overall, I think this may make a better reference book to dip into for representative houses of different time periods than as a story to read straight through.

BOOK REVIEW: The Social Graces by Renee Rosen

At the height of the Gilded Age, two women ruled New York High Society: Caroline Astor and Alva Vanderbilt. Their rivalry was legendary. My first introduction to this battle for supremacy was in Gore Vidal’s 1876, though it was only a small part of that novel. A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts by Therese Anne Fowler was a more focused look at the jockeying for position by obscenely wealthy women of the times. The Social Graces by Renee Rosen (released this year) is another look at the dueling Grand Dames.

Caroline Astor (THE Mrs. Astor) is the reigning queen. Coming from “old money,” Caroline is a Knickerbocker and the defender of the old guard. It is critically important to hold the line against “new money,” those who have made their fortunes in railroads, oil, etc. The worst of the new-money encroachers are the Vanderbilts. 

Mrs. Astor’s claim to fame is as a hostess. The goal of every wealthy woman in New York is to receive an invitation to one of her parties. The surest way to find yourself excluded from her company is to hobnob with the nouveau riche. Mrs. Astor is like a Gilded Age mean girl, and everyone wants to be in her clique.

But it’s lonely at the top. Mr. Astor spends his time on his yacht or at his club. Or pursuing one of his many affairs. Mrs. Astor’s children are grown and have different values: they want to marry for love not for purposes of buttressing the fortress of Knickerbocker society. And her loyal minions are too intrigued by what’s going on over at Alva Vanderbilt’s place.

Alva Vanderbilt has a reasonably good Southern pedigree, but her family has fallen on hard times. When she snares Willie Vanderbilt, one of the multi-millionaire grandsons of the railroad tycoon, she thinks she’s arrived. But no. Wealth alone is not enough to gain the family entrance to the correct parties. Alva refuses to take no for an answer and embarks upon a frontal assault, determined to snatch away Mrs. Astor’s crown.

The novel explores the struggle in chapters that alternate between the points of view of each of the women. There are intervening chapters voiced by “Society,” a Greek chorus of the combined voices of gossipy women on the fringes of the battle. Caroline and Alva are humanized. It’s possible to see why ruling society is so important—they have no other outlet. Men rule the business world, the political world, the financial world, even the sporting world. Men are permitted affairs. Women throw parties. At most, they support charities, but even this seems to be a way to maneuver in society.

The case made by the novel is that these women, by virtue of their high profiles, were able to break new ground. Alva hires Richard Morris Hunt and builds mansions. Caroline builds the Astoria hotel. In her later life, Alva divorced her husband and remarried. In a time when divorce was unheard of and would lead to immediate ostracism (for the wife), Alva was able to reclaim her position. She also became a supporter of women’s suffrage.

The book is engrossing. The life stories of Caroline Astor and Alva Vanderbilt are fascinating. And yet… there is something unsatisfying in reading about the lives of these people of vast wealth who devoted themselves to social climbing or to kicking other climbers off the ladder. The wealth was accumulated through exploitation, but, naturally, they take no notice of this. And their pursuits were largely trivial. Their marriages were unhappy. Their families were dysfunctional. They seem more to be pitied than admired.

BOOK REVIEW: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The world does not need another review of Malibu Rising, the latest blockbuster novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Nevertheless, as a devoted fan of Reid’s work, I’m throwing this one out there.

The story focuses on the run-up to the annual Malibu party thrown by Nina Riva, a swimwear model and surfer known for her pin-up calendars and posters, as well as for being the daughter of Mick Riva, a superstar singer (who abandoned Nina and her three siblings without a backward glance when they were children.) After the death of their mother (actually, even before that), Nina raised her siblings. Her brother Hud is a sports photographer whose main subject is her other brother Jay, a rising star in the surfing world. Kit, the baby of the family, is just twenty, also a superb surfer, just coming into her own.

Nina is not looking forward to the party. She was just dumped by her tennis pro husband. (Absurdly handsome, wealthy, and winner of numerous grand slams, he ran off with another tennis player. It made all the gossip news, humiliating Nina.)

The close-knit siblings have always relied heavily on Nina, but things are reaching a breaking point. Each of the siblings has secrets gnawing at them, and Nina can’t fix them all. When the party—a drunken, drug-fueled, sex-saturated free-for-all—gets out of hand, it may be the signal that it’s time for radical change for the Rivas.

The novel is fast-paced and angst-packed. The ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’ vibe is reminiscent of Daisy Jones, as is the theme of rampant infidelity and its devastating aftermath. The main characters are mostly sympathetic. Even the worst of them is not all bad, though Mick Riva, blaming his narcissism on his own poor upbringing, is pretty close to being all bad. If you’re looking for a quick beach read with an emotional punch, pick up Malibu Rising.

BOOK REVIEW: The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Why do I keep reading heart-breaking retellings of the Fall of Troy? Do I imagine the ending will change?

The latest edition to the genre is Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy, a sequel to her earlier work, The Silence of the Girls. I haven’t read book one, but the overall story is familiar enough that book two can stand alone. The Women of Troy picks up the saga in the immediate aftermath of Troy’s fall, telling the story primarily from Briseis’ viewpoint. (I was a bit disconcerted that the novel starts off from the viewpoint of Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, and several chapters unfold in his perspective. This helps the story along, but it was not ‘the women’s story’ the way A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes was.)

After the episode with the Trojan Horse and the destruction of Troy, the Greeks are eager to sail for home with their loot, which includes the newly enslaved female population of Troy. Briseis, who had been Achilles’ war prize, and who is carrying his child, is now married to Lord Alcimus, so her status has risen to that of a wife. It’s not much of a promotion, but at least she is allowed to roam about at will, unlike the other women who are captives.

The Greeks are also, to some extent, captive. Having offended the gods in myriad ways during the orgy of destruction during the capture of Troy, they are now confined to the beach by ceaseless strong winds that prevent them from sailing away. Without a Trojan enemy to fight, old factions and quarrels are renewed. 

One of the worst of the Greeks is Pyrrhus. He is accorded some respect as Achilles’ son and as one of the heroes of the sack of Troy, having killed old King Priam. None of his fellows is aware of the cowardly way he botched the killing, since he boasts of having done it heroically. Pyrrhus is bitter, indecisive, and insecure, aware that he can’t match his godlike father. He makes up for it by lying, drinking excessively, and bullying those around him.

Briseis, in contrast, is kind, generous, and self-confident, using her position to help the other women where she can. Briseis is a survivor, who makes the best of whatever position she finds herself in. 

It’s a fine re-telling. Briseis is a good choice for a new narrator of the timeless story.

BOOK REVIEW: Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill

 It’s one thing to read the thick tomes of Victorian and Edwardian history for the political, socioeconomic, and artistic history of the times, but another thing altogether to get the nitty-gritty history of nineteenth-century daily life, particularly the lives of women. What did they wear for underclothes? How did they clean themselves? What about…excretory functions? What about sex?

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill tackles these fascinating but often difficult to tease out questions, taking the answers mainly from contemporary “self-help” books for women, largely written by men. (And men pretending, for the purpose of authorship, to be women.) Mansplaining has been around forever! Misguided and condescending as these pseudo-medical tidbits can be, Oneill’s snarky presentation manages to make it funny rather than infuriating.

The book is informative, but in a big-picture, getting-the sense-of-things manner, rather than providing the more granular analysis (I hate that expression, but it’s currently in vogue) of historical data that novelists might want for historical accuracy. And readers of historical romance might end up with a jaundiced view of the next novel they pick up—things weren’t that rosy! But this is all good stuff to know, and this book is every bit as entertaining as a novel.

BLOG TOUR BOOK REVIEW: Along Came a Lady by Christi Caldwell

Welcome to my blog tour book review! Thank you to Netgalley for this e-galley.

Billed as a reverse My Fair Lady, Along Came a Lady by Christi Caldwell is a lovely just-released Regency Romance, the first in a new series. I haven’t read this author before, but I’ll definitely be following this series.

Rafe Audley is the illegitimate son of the Duke of Bentley. Since age thirteen, he has been raising his siblings alone, with no help from the man who sired him. Growing up in a coal-mining town, he went early into the mines and has risen to the respected position of foreman. Despite the dangers to himself and his younger brother, and despite the lack of opportunity for his sister, Rafe is proud of his accomplishments and has no wish to ever meet the father he despises.

Edwina Dalyrmple is the illegitimate daughter of an earl who acknowledged her once upon a time, but then cut her off in deference to his wife. Alone in the world, unable to take a place in “Polite Society,” Edwina embarks on a career as a governess-of-sorts to young women who have the opportunity to rise socially but need polish. If anything, Edwina knows the rules. She would give anything to regain her place in her father’s heart, but, in the meantime, she has to guard her reputation carefully and stay out of his sphere.

When the Duke of Bentley decides he wants to acknowledge Rafe’s existence, he hires Edwina to teach the coal miner how to behave properly, then bring him to London. Rafe, infuriated, is dead-set against it. However, Edwina will not take no for an answer. She’ll give him those lessons whether he wants them or not.

This is a fun story with surprising depth. While Rafe can be very rude and bullying, he also has a heart and turns contrite before losing the reader’s sympathy or Edwina’s. Edwina is an intelligent, feisty heroine whose reliance on perfect manners and sometimes forced good humor make her more than a match for Rafe’s scowling sulks. The sex scenes are steamy, which could seem a bit hypocritical given the protagonists’ judgey-ness of their respective parents’ extramarital indiscretions, but they recognize this. It leads to better understanding and self-awareness. These two belong together. They earn their HEA.

From the publisher:

Christi Caldwell is the USA Today bestselling author of the Sinful Brides Series and the Heart of a Duke Series. She blames novelist Judith McNaught for luring her into the world of historical romance. She enjoys torturing her couples before they earn their well-deserved happily ever after. Originally from Southern Connecticut, Christi now resides in North Carolina, where she spends her time writing and being a mommy to an energetic little boy and mischievous twin girls who offer an endless source of story ideas. Learn more at christicaldwell.com.

BOOK REVIEW: An Eligible Gentleman by Alice Chetwynd Ley

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

After my recent spate of serious reading, I needed something light. I picked a Regency Romance from my Netgalley queue: An Eligible Gentleman by Alice Chetwynd Ley.

The Honorable Frederick Eversley is a twenty-six-year-old confirmed bachelor and man-about-town. Good-hearted and certainly no rake, he simply enjoys his life as it is, being wealthy and unencumbered. When his mother asks him to accompany her to his cousins’ house in the country, he acquiesces, but reluctantly. His cousin Thomas is a twenty-three-year-old Mama’s boy. His cousin Phoebe is a lovely young girl who lacks any spirit. Fortunately, the trip is only to last a few days. His mother is going primarily to fetch Phoebe to London for a Season.

Frederick would be even more reluctant if he were aware that his aunt’s purpose in sending her daughter to London was not only to catch her a husband, but specifically to catch him.

Miss Eleanor Denham, Phoebe’s dearest friend and neighbor, is being pursued by Thomas, the Mama’s boy. She considers him a friend but no more. Devoted to Phoebe, she’s sympathetic when she learns Phoebe has no interest in going to London and no interest in Frederick Eversley. Phoebe has formed an attachment to another neighbor, whose title is insufficient in her mother’s eyes.

So, on the basis of a slight acquaintance, Eleanor schemes to make Frederick appear to be a trifler with young lady’s affections, to throw Phoebe’s mother off. The scheme fails, only serving to make Eleanor look bad and to put a wedge between her and Frederick when they might otherwise have been friends.

Off the young folks go to London for a social whirl. Thomas must learn to be more self-sufficient. Phoebe must avoid the attentions of any number of men attracted to her beauty. And (and here is the Romance) Frederick and Eleanor must clear up their misunderstandings and find their way to each other.

Interestingly, as I began the book, I found it to have a noticeably old-fashioned tone. It followed the Regency Romance conventions, but the conversations seemed stilted, the conflict was minimal, and there were no sparks. Reading more about the book, I learned it was a re-release of a novel by a writer popular in the 1960s and 70s.

I’m partial to clean rather than excessively steamy Romance, so I enjoy older Romances (like those of Georgette Heyer.) But here, I found the love story so subdued as to be a bit dull. It was interesting, though, to consider how Regency Romance has changed over the years–and also how it remains the same.