skygiants

Monday of this week saw me exhausted, cranky, and full of sorrow at having to leave Denver and all the amazing people there. Fortunately I happened to have an unread Georgette Heyer novel out from the library waiting for just such a time!

The Convenient Marriage turned out to be one of my less-favorite Heyers, which does not mean it didn't have me cracking up on the subway several times. The first two chapters are actually pretty brilliant, and go like this:

BEAUTIFUL HEROINE: Oh woe is me! The hero has decided to wed, and I must marry him to help my family out of our financial straights! Now I can never be with my TRUE LOVE.
HEROINE'S LITTLE SISTER: Don't worry! I have a PLAN.

HERO: Beautiful Heroine seems very pretty and I expect we'll be very happy.
HEROINE'S LITTLE SISTER: WHY HELLO THERE! I have come SECRETLY to your house to tell you that ACTUALLY I think it would be way more convenient for everyone if you marry me instead.
HERO: . . .
HEROINE'S LITTLE SISTER: I mean, if you are man enough to deal with my enormous Zachary Quinto eyebrows. And the stammer.
HERO: . . . not that this isn't all kind of adorable, but aren't you like twelve?
HEROINE'S LITTLE SISTER: Seventeen! That is totally legit for a Georgian romance. You can have affairs if you want, too, I actually kind of don't care.
HERO: I . . . okay?

HEROINE'S LITTLE SISTER: So actually I'm the heroine of this novel and my beautiful sister will never appear again, is everyone okay with that?

Alas, after this excellent beginning, the plot pretty much revolves around the hero's GREATEST ENEMY trying to create a Big Misunderstanding between our awkwardly married pair while the heroine frets about her husband's old mistress and gets a gambling problem, which as plots go is kind of annoying. (This is not to say that a heavy-eyebrowed, stammering heroine with a gambling problem is not awesome! But that imagined heroine deserves a better plotline than this one, which is about showing her how headstrong she is and how awesome her kind of jerktastic husband is.)

On the other hand, there are also some plot developments of ( GLORIOUS SPOILERS )

Also, I was totally rooting for the hero's long-suffering secretary, who was way too sane for this novel, to get together with the heroine's long-suffering middle sister, who was way too exasperated for this novel. I actually think the romance novel about them would have been twice as interesting as this one! And we could have kept all the hilarious side characters. And possibly even the wacky highwayman hijinks.

Speaking of romances that would be twice as interesting as the ones we're actually shown: last night I went to go see a production of As You Like It with obopolsk. It was a decent if lengthy production (with gorgeous music - I am actually really excited for that company's Tempest now, coming up next, since I suspect they will do a better job with eerie atmospheric than with straight-up comedy) but I came out of it with a desperate desire to know more about Celia and Oliver and their WACKY SURPRISE ROMANCE. Partly this is because that production's Oliver had amazing comic timing and ended up one of my cast favorites, but also, I mean, look, he is a murderous Unspecial Brother on the road to reform! She is the constantly facepalming villain's daughter who is possibly in love with her cousin! I WANT TO SEE HOW THIS HAPPENS.

I am going to Boston this weekend! I will see Millifriends and friends from school and my baby brother who is in his second week of college in Boston and is thus not a baby anymore (:O :O :O) and possibly my friend from high school's baby sister who is in her second year of college in Boston and therefore even less of a baby. (All in two days. It will be a packed weekend.) It will be full of awesomeness. Tragically, however, this also means that I will miss the Brooklyn Book Festival. Susan Choi (whom I have not yet read, but I have checked out of the library due to schiarire's LJ recommendation)! Joan Didion! Arthur Phillips! Susan Cooper! I was going to send my roommate as my proxy for awesome, but she has some kind of work bonding thing that day. BUT New York-area people, you all should totally go and then tell me about it!

Meanwhile, I will sulk and instead get my book-babble fix by inflicting more booklogging on you all. I read The Winter Prince on shati's orders; now I have finally managed to get my hands on the next book, A Coalition of Lions. This is the book in which Goewin, King Arthur's daughter from the complex English politics of the previous book, bops over to ancient Aksum (what is presently Ethiopia) to engage in complex politics there. I did not like it quite as much as The Winter Prince - I think Goewin is slightly more compelling from the outside than the inside - but I still very much enjoyed it; complex politics! Ancient Aksum! It is mostly, I think, that the plot is not as strongly crafted in terms of arc as in The Winter Prince. But Wein's prose remains very compelling, and I will definitely be reading on in the series.

I do, however, have to share my one facepalm moment:

BECCA, reading book: Oh, I really like how she is handling the relationship between Goewin and [Character X!] It is pretty clear that they feel strongly about each other without her ever having to hit us over the head with a 'ZOMG I love him, how did I not realize?' sledgehammer moment. This is kind of refreshing!
BECCA: *turns, literally, a single page*
GOEWIN: ZOMG! I love [Character X!] How did I not realize! *pulls out sledgehammer, bonks Becca over the head with it*
BECCA: *sees tiny book-shaped stars!*