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Jul. 24th, 2012 09:00 amSometimes you start reading the first book in a trilogy, and you're like "hey! This trilogy is exactly what I want to be reading right now! I should read both the others immediately!" And you pursue this plan right up until the point that you realize that you've read the second book, and World War II is about to break out, and you desperately need to know what happens, and the third book is only available in Australia and will not be coming out in the U.S. until October.
So the moral of this story is: ALWAYS CHECK that the whole trilogy is published before you allow yourself to start devouring it.
But the other moral of the story is that A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile are super delightful books! The protagonists are the FitzOsborne kids, ragtag, vaguely British bunch of impoverished minor royals on a small island off the coast of Spain, trying to make ends meet so they can keep sending Crown Prince Toby to school in England and debating about whether the two teenaged girls ought to leave the island to make their debut. The first book reminded me more than anything else of I Capture the Castle, except with a Gothic backstory (kings locked in attics! mysteriously vanished wives! secret illegitimate heirs!) and also Nazis. (It is not as good as I Capture the Castle, because very few things are as good as I Capture the Castle. But they do get to fight Nazis. I mean, I also would read I Capture the Castle fic where they fought Nazis, but I suppose this surprises no one.)
But I liked the second book even better, because the second book -- which takes place in London, on the verge of WWII -- features one of my favorite type of character arcs ever: Sophie, the quiet, un-glamorous, insecure protagonist who likes books and pretty dresses, learns how to take charge and make people do what she wants and she is really good at it. SOPHIE IS AMAZING. Machiavellian and amazing. I love her even if she has terrible taste in boys. (SO TERRIBLE. But it is hard to be sixteen and find out your first crush is
( major spoilers ))
Some other things various FitzOsbornes do in London:
- get into screaming fights with Fascist Oswald Mosley at dinner parties
- bully their way into the United Nations
- try to figure out how to explain to their elder relatives that they are not going to make a fabulous political marriage, because they are gay
- flunk out of Oxford
- accidentally start a forbidden sort-of romance with a nice Socialist Jewish boy
- make friends with one of the Kennedys
- become leader of an Amazonian gang of Girl Guides
- engage in a high-speed railway chase through Europe
- with Nazis, of course
I should also probably reiterate the part where a major character is gay, because this was exciting to me! I should probably also warn for an extremely Gothic, madman-in-the-attic treatment of mental illness. But mostly I am warning for seriously, not until October? So now instead of the third book I am reading Code Name Verity for my ladies-being-badass-in-WWII hit and having my heart smashed into tiny pieces. WHAT A SMART PLAN, SELF. More on this later.
So the moral of this story is: ALWAYS CHECK that the whole trilogy is published before you allow yourself to start devouring it.
But the other moral of the story is that A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes in Exile are super delightful books! The protagonists are the FitzOsborne kids, ragtag, vaguely British bunch of impoverished minor royals on a small island off the coast of Spain, trying to make ends meet so they can keep sending Crown Prince Toby to school in England and debating about whether the two teenaged girls ought to leave the island to make their debut. The first book reminded me more than anything else of I Capture the Castle, except with a Gothic backstory (kings locked in attics! mysteriously vanished wives! secret illegitimate heirs!) and also Nazis. (It is not as good as I Capture the Castle, because very few things are as good as I Capture the Castle. But they do get to fight Nazis. I mean, I also would read I Capture the Castle fic where they fought Nazis, but I suppose this surprises no one.)
But I liked the second book even better, because the second book -- which takes place in London, on the verge of WWII -- features one of my favorite type of character arcs ever: Sophie, the quiet, un-glamorous, insecure protagonist who likes books and pretty dresses, learns how to take charge and make people do what she wants and she is really good at it. SOPHIE IS AMAZING. Machiavellian and amazing. I love her even if she has terrible taste in boys. (SO TERRIBLE. But it is hard to be sixteen and find out your first crush is
( major spoilers ))Some other things various FitzOsbornes do in London:
- get into screaming fights with Fascist Oswald Mosley at dinner parties
- bully their way into the United Nations
- try to figure out how to explain to their elder relatives that they are not going to make a fabulous political marriage, because they are gay
- flunk out of Oxford
- accidentally start a forbidden sort-of romance with a nice Socialist Jewish boy
- make friends with one of the Kennedys
- become leader of an Amazonian gang of Girl Guides
- engage in a high-speed railway chase through Europe
- with Nazis, of course
I should also probably reiterate the part where a major character is gay, because this was exciting to me! I should probably also warn for an extremely Gothic, madman-in-the-attic treatment of mental illness. But mostly I am warning for seriously, not until October? So now instead of the third book I am reading Code Name Verity for my ladies-being-badass-in-WWII hit and having my heart smashed into tiny pieces. WHAT A SMART PLAN, SELF. More on this later.
