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I am far from the first person to discover that stressful finals period is a great time for reading fluffy romance novels. At the recommendation of everyone and their sister over on my last post about romance novels I got some Courtney Milan out of the library recently and have been reading her trilogy, Unclaimed, Unlocked and Unraveled.
And obviously I enjoyed them all because I read all three, even though I started with the one I liked least!
This is one of those series that is about a set of brothers and every one of them ends up hooked up with someone by the end. Ash is the oldest and the protagonist of Unclaimed; the backstory is that Ash & brothers had a neglected childhood and abusive mother and Ash went off to seek his fortune and came back and found his brothers on the streets and is super guilty about that. According to the book, he went off and made his fortune in India, but since where he went has no actual impact, I have decided that where he actually went is to THE FUTURE, where he absorbed ideas like "class systems are silly and outdated!" and "explicitly enthusiastic consent is great!" Please don't think I'm complaining about this. Ash's Trip To The Future was GREAT.
Ash thinks that his love interest is a servant -- she's not, she actually the sister of his WORST ENEMY in disguise -- so he spends a lot of the book trying to convince her to NOT BE BOUND BY CLASS RULES and LIVE FOR HERSELF and DO WHATEVER THE HELL SHE WANTS. "Damn their bonnets," he says to her, encouragingly, "damn their rules!" (Best line in the book by far. DAMN THEIR BONNETS.)
Sadly, Ash did not learn about dyslexia during his trip to the future, which means he spends a lot of the book having as much angst as possible over the fact that HE SECRETLY CAN'T READ and so he can NEVER WRITE AND TELL HIS EDUCATED BABY BROTHERS HOW MUCH HE LOVES THEM.
Anyway I enjoyed this reasonably well, especially since most of the development at the end is about heroine Margaret finding herself and claiming her value and worth while still figuring out how to maintain relationships with her imperfect family! But I was extra super curious about Unclaimed, which features baby brother Mark, THE MOST FAMOUS VIRGIN IN LONDON. Mark has written a book about the importance of chastity! Now he has a knighthood and a huge horde of fanboys, much to his embarrassment and chagrin, especially since his fanboys are all "GET YE GONE, TEMPTRESS WOMAN" and Mark is like "uh, actually, I wrote the book because of the huge societal double standard around sex and because I thought that dudes should be better to ladies and take responsibility for their actions? . . . anybody?" Again: I appreciated this.
Heroine Jessica is a courtesan who has been hired to seduce Mark and ruin his reputation and most of the book is about her dealing with her Dark Secret and Tragic Backstory. (Mark is like, "I'm not intending to put out before marriage, but talking and flirting and maybe making out is awesome! :D") I wish there had been even more role reversal and exploration of the usual dynamic of experienced-man-inexperienced-woman than there was, but it made up for it at the end when Jessica got to call out the villain to PISTOLS AT DAWN and FIGHT FOR HER OWN HONOR and it rocked.
But the third book, Unraveled, was definitely my favorite. For one thing, it had the most plot. The protagonist, middle brother Smite, is a magistrate with no social skills and no interest in anything but JUSTICE. Heroine Miranda, on the other hand, works for the Patron, mysterious city crime boss!
The Patron stuff is actually really interesting, the examination of justice and responsibility is great; especially great is the fact that Miranda (who is twenty or so) has a sort of adopted twelve-year-old younger brother, and she's like "yeah, when I took him in, I thought, it'll be great! Found family! Warm fuzzies! No one told me that RAISING AN ADOLESCENT BOY IS TERRIFYING. He speaks entirely in monosyllables and I spend all my time freaking out that he's going to kill himself or get himself arrested! AHHHHH!" I LOVED THIS.
Also, loads of sympathetic gay characters; also, Smite's PTSD is interesting and well-handled and not magically cured, nor does he want it to be; also, I like that it is the least sentimental of the books; also, I both like and find hilarious the fact that Miranda is like "I am unfortunately attracted to danger! . . . so I went and found the guy who is intimidating and dangerous TO CRIMINALS! Well played, self. :D" I agree, Miranda; well played.
And obviously I enjoyed them all because I read all three, even though I started with the one I liked least!
This is one of those series that is about a set of brothers and every one of them ends up hooked up with someone by the end. Ash is the oldest and the protagonist of Unclaimed; the backstory is that Ash & brothers had a neglected childhood and abusive mother and Ash went off to seek his fortune and came back and found his brothers on the streets and is super guilty about that. According to the book, he went off and made his fortune in India, but since where he went has no actual impact, I have decided that where he actually went is to THE FUTURE, where he absorbed ideas like "class systems are silly and outdated!" and "explicitly enthusiastic consent is great!" Please don't think I'm complaining about this. Ash's Trip To The Future was GREAT.
Ash thinks that his love interest is a servant -- she's not, she actually the sister of his WORST ENEMY in disguise -- so he spends a lot of the book trying to convince her to NOT BE BOUND BY CLASS RULES and LIVE FOR HERSELF and DO WHATEVER THE HELL SHE WANTS. "Damn their bonnets," he says to her, encouragingly, "damn their rules!" (Best line in the book by far. DAMN THEIR BONNETS.)
Sadly, Ash did not learn about dyslexia during his trip to the future, which means he spends a lot of the book having as much angst as possible over the fact that HE SECRETLY CAN'T READ and so he can NEVER WRITE AND TELL HIS EDUCATED BABY BROTHERS HOW MUCH HE LOVES THEM.
Anyway I enjoyed this reasonably well, especially since most of the development at the end is about heroine Margaret finding herself and claiming her value and worth while still figuring out how to maintain relationships with her imperfect family! But I was extra super curious about Unclaimed, which features baby brother Mark, THE MOST FAMOUS VIRGIN IN LONDON. Mark has written a book about the importance of chastity! Now he has a knighthood and a huge horde of fanboys, much to his embarrassment and chagrin, especially since his fanboys are all "GET YE GONE, TEMPTRESS WOMAN" and Mark is like "uh, actually, I wrote the book because of the huge societal double standard around sex and because I thought that dudes should be better to ladies and take responsibility for their actions? . . . anybody?" Again: I appreciated this.
Heroine Jessica is a courtesan who has been hired to seduce Mark and ruin his reputation and most of the book is about her dealing with her Dark Secret and Tragic Backstory. (Mark is like, "I'm not intending to put out before marriage, but talking and flirting and maybe making out is awesome! :D") I wish there had been even more role reversal and exploration of the usual dynamic of experienced-man-inexperienced-woman than there was, but it made up for it at the end when Jessica got to call out the villain to PISTOLS AT DAWN and FIGHT FOR HER OWN HONOR and it rocked.
But the third book, Unraveled, was definitely my favorite. For one thing, it had the most plot. The protagonist, middle brother Smite, is a magistrate with no social skills and no interest in anything but JUSTICE. Heroine Miranda, on the other hand, works for the Patron, mysterious city crime boss!
The Patron stuff is actually really interesting, the examination of justice and responsibility is great; especially great is the fact that Miranda (who is twenty or so) has a sort of adopted twelve-year-old younger brother, and she's like "yeah, when I took him in, I thought, it'll be great! Found family! Warm fuzzies! No one told me that RAISING AN ADOLESCENT BOY IS TERRIFYING. He speaks entirely in monosyllables and I spend all my time freaking out that he's going to kill himself or get himself arrested! AHHHHH!" I LOVED THIS.
Also, loads of sympathetic gay characters; also, Smite's PTSD is interesting and well-handled and not magically cured, nor does he want it to be; also, I like that it is the least sentimental of the books; also, I both like and find hilarious the fact that Miranda is like "I am unfortunately attracted to danger! . . . so I went and found the guy who is intimidating and dangerous TO CRIMINALS! Well played, self. :D" I agree, Miranda; well played.
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Also the problem with devouring all of these in two days is now they are GONE.
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