Shades of Milk and Honey
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
In Regency England, Jane Ellsworth of Dorchester is a woman ahead of her time.
Not only is she highly skilled in the manipulation of glamour - plucking strands from the Ether to create genteel magical illusions - she's also ambitious for her art, and dreams of being recognised as a glamourist of note in her own right, as men are permitted to.
First and foremost, however, a lady of quality must marry well, and alas Jane's ambitions do not extend to her romantic prospects. Compared to her beautiful sister Melody, Jane feels invisible to suitors, and is resigned to a life of spinsterhood.
But when her beloved family comes under threat, Jane uses her magical skills to put things right, which attracts the attention of professional glamourist Mr Vincent . . . and unwittingly wanders in to a love story of her own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Kowal's quasi-Regency fantasy debut, plain Miss Jane Ellsworth envies her sister's looks, while flighty Melody envies Jane's talent with magical glamour. Rude, mysterious Mr. Vincent, a brilliant glamour artist hired to create living murals in a nearby mansion, shows little interest in the niceties of society, and none (it seems) in Jane. As Jane shyly seeks Mr. Vincent's tutelage and approval, Melody pursues a disastrous romance. A sprinkling of Jane Austen's idiosyncratic spellings (shew, teaze, etc.) doesn't hide the lack of her trenchant wit or distinctive characters, and period errors abound. Despite the tremendous potential in the magical manipulation of light and temperature, glamour is used solely for decoration and entertainment, with implausibly little effect on history or culture. The story plods at a wooden pace until the climax, which achieves a sprightly comedy-of-errors froth.
