Book: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
Genre: adult fantasy
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
This is a book I've had in my TBR for years and finally read thanks to book club. I enjoyed it. The style and the regency-ness of it, but I felt disappointed in the end because dang it... I wanted some juicy romance!
This book is billed as Jan Austen with magic, which is basically spot on. It feels very Jane Austen and has a lot of nods to Jane Austen books, all with the added element of "glamour" which is where people who are talented in this area can weave colors and pictures and scenes out of the air. They use this to decorate their houses, or to display art, kind of like a painting... or to change their looks, and etc.
Our main character is talented in this regard, and her sister is not. Thus there is a bit of a rivalry going on. But the sister is beautiful and our main character is not. So... yeah. Tension. There are several leading guys in this story and at first we don't really know who our girl is setting her sights on, but we are misled with that and in the end, she goes for someone not quite expected. (Though I knew it would go that way.)
But... BUT... it would have been so much better if we would have had their story develop... and see a romance blossom and have SOME interaction and banter between them. Maybe a kiss? AH! Yes, we as readers are really left wanting! I totally expected this to be part of this story, but no. It wasn't to be. Sadness all around.
It was a bit slow moving too until the end, and then BAM what a crazy climatic ending! So much was happening all at once! I tried to picture it as a movie, and yeah. It would have been a crazy chaotic scene for sure.
Anyway. Fun idea and premise that just needed a little more sweet romance to it.
