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chocolatepot) wrote2012-02-20 08:42 am
chocolatepot) wrote2012-02-20 08:42 am
A Shadow's Bliss
I read this one *so fast*.
The book starts out with Our Hero Jack hurt and in the care of a priest. I don't know how I was supposed to take it, but the priest struck me as a jerk - neither of them say what happened, but the priest tells him he needs to atone for some wrongdoing by wandering around Cornwall, working without accepting any pay beyond food and shelter, and not defending himself when attacked (though he's allowed to defend others). I mean, it's a good hair shirt, I guess, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with his crime.
We come back to the action a couple of years later. Jack is called "Crazy Jack" by everyone because of the not defending himself, the poverty, and the occasional PTSD flashbacks/blackouts, and he gets kicked out of every village he stays in eventually, sometimes violently. He's lucked out a bit in the most recent village, because this old woman takes him in (but everyone says she's a witch) and he works for a one-handed carpenter. Sometimes Jack does carpentry on the village school, which is run by Jennifer Britewell, the (barren) daughter of the local landowner. She is the best heroine so far, mainly because she's positive and active, while Naomi concentrated on spiting Rossiter and Amy had incredible mood swings.
At first, I was disappointed because I thought there'd be no Falcon and Morris. But! Jennifer's brother is under the thumb of the loathsome Lord Hibbard Green, who is trying to get their father to sell him a depleted mine and is also trying to get Jennifer to marry him. A branch of the Morris family lives nearby, and Falcon and Morris go to stay with them. Jack first comes upon Falcon when he's dressed as a tramp with a fake beard; Jack is being beaten up by some local guys because of the parakeet some kid or somebody gave him. Falcon rescues him, sort of recognizes him, and asks why the hell he doesn't stand up for himself. And then leaves.
Jack can't bear to see the sea (oh, right, part of the priest's penance was that he has to always stay near it to ~remind him~ of what he can't actually remember) so he goes out one morning for driftwood when it's really foggy. But he's kind of spacey, so the tide comes in without his realizing it, and he blacks out and finds himself halfway up the cliff. D: When he gets to the top, he's in just the right place to help Jennifer when Green is practically forcing her horse over the edge. Green goes over the edge instead, and is an asshole to Jen about no, don't go back for help, climb down and get me. After Jack pulls him up at great personal risk, he finds Green's dropped jewelled man (he's in the League!) - which makes Green flip out and start beating him with his whip. Later, Jen tells her father and gets Jack a job at their castle. (I think. I don't have the book with me.)
The servants are of course horrible to Jack, but he's good with horses so Mr. (Lord? Sir? can't remember) Britewell has him act as coachman to Jen and her maid to go over to the Morrises, and on the way after the maid is horrible about him, they stop for a rest, Tilly takes a nap, and the two go for a walk. And oh. They confess their ~love~.
Intellectually, I understand why some people find the whole "we cannot be together, I am not good enough for you" thing irritating, but I just don't get it at all. IT'S SO ROMANTIC. a) Come on, how many romances have the man being of lower status then the woman? I don't find the reverse particularly interesting, because even in extreme cases like Had We Never Loved it's very easily handwaved and everyone gets to keep their nice lifestyle. With this, there's tension and real sacrifice. b) I adore a character sincerely feeling that the person they love would be better off without them. I adore a lot of angst - which, incidentally, Veryan delivers in buckets in this one. She likes it the way I like it, too - there are several scenes from a looser perspective of Jack being angsty and other people watching him and feeling horrified. Why does that do it for me? I don't know. But it does.
Eventually Falcon forces Jack to remember himself by calling him by his real name - Captain Jonathan Armitage. Although he is not really a captain anymore because of his scandal, which was of course engineered by the League in order to hide something or other. There is another bit of tension later when Jen is with her aunt who says ominously, "Did he tell you about his wife?" at the end of a chapter - but it's quickly resolved when he does so and it turns out she died in the first year if their marriage. But they had kids! So Jen still gets to be a mom, yay, curtain drops, applause. TBH, I was impressed that Veryan didn't have her magically not infertile anymore, because it seems like a lot of authors do that. It was a bit of a saccharine ending, but it felt deserved, because the characters went through a lot more hell than usual.
The book starts out with Our Hero Jack hurt and in the care of a priest. I don't know how I was supposed to take it, but the priest struck me as a jerk - neither of them say what happened, but the priest tells him he needs to atone for some wrongdoing by wandering around Cornwall, working without accepting any pay beyond food and shelter, and not defending himself when attacked (though he's allowed to defend others). I mean, it's a good hair shirt, I guess, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with his crime.
We come back to the action a couple of years later. Jack is called "Crazy Jack" by everyone because of the not defending himself, the poverty, and the occasional PTSD flashbacks/blackouts, and he gets kicked out of every village he stays in eventually, sometimes violently. He's lucked out a bit in the most recent village, because this old woman takes him in (but everyone says she's a witch) and he works for a one-handed carpenter. Sometimes Jack does carpentry on the village school, which is run by Jennifer Britewell, the (barren) daughter of the local landowner. She is the best heroine so far, mainly because she's positive and active, while Naomi concentrated on spiting Rossiter and Amy had incredible mood swings.
At first, I was disappointed because I thought there'd be no Falcon and Morris. But! Jennifer's brother is under the thumb of the loathsome Lord Hibbard Green, who is trying to get their father to sell him a depleted mine and is also trying to get Jennifer to marry him. A branch of the Morris family lives nearby, and Falcon and Morris go to stay with them. Jack first comes upon Falcon when he's dressed as a tramp with a fake beard; Jack is being beaten up by some local guys because of the parakeet some kid or somebody gave him. Falcon rescues him, sort of recognizes him, and asks why the hell he doesn't stand up for himself. And then leaves.
Jack can't bear to see the sea (oh, right, part of the priest's penance was that he has to always stay near it to ~remind him~ of what he can't actually remember) so he goes out one morning for driftwood when it's really foggy. But he's kind of spacey, so the tide comes in without his realizing it, and he blacks out and finds himself halfway up the cliff. D: When he gets to the top, he's in just the right place to help Jennifer when Green is practically forcing her horse over the edge. Green goes over the edge instead, and is an asshole to Jen about no, don't go back for help, climb down and get me. After Jack pulls him up at great personal risk, he finds Green's dropped jewelled man (he's in the League!) - which makes Green flip out and start beating him with his whip. Later, Jen tells her father and gets Jack a job at their castle. (I think. I don't have the book with me.)
The servants are of course horrible to Jack, but he's good with horses so Mr. (Lord? Sir? can't remember) Britewell has him act as coachman to Jen and her maid to go over to the Morrises, and on the way after the maid is horrible about him, they stop for a rest, Tilly takes a nap, and the two go for a walk. And oh. They confess their ~love~.
Intellectually, I understand why some people find the whole "we cannot be together, I am not good enough for you" thing irritating, but I just don't get it at all. IT'S SO ROMANTIC. a) Come on, how many romances have the man being of lower status then the woman? I don't find the reverse particularly interesting, because even in extreme cases like Had We Never Loved it's very easily handwaved and everyone gets to keep their nice lifestyle. With this, there's tension and real sacrifice. b) I adore a character sincerely feeling that the person they love would be better off without them. I adore a lot of angst - which, incidentally, Veryan delivers in buckets in this one. She likes it the way I like it, too - there are several scenes from a looser perspective of Jack being angsty and other people watching him and feeling horrified. Why does that do it for me? I don't know. But it does.
Eventually Falcon forces Jack to remember himself by calling him by his real name - Captain Jonathan Armitage. Although he is not really a captain anymore because of his scandal, which was of course engineered by the League in order to hide something or other. There is another bit of tension later when Jen is with her aunt who says ominously, "Did he tell you about his wife?" at the end of a chapter - but it's quickly resolved when he does so and it turns out she died in the first year if their marriage. But they had kids! So Jen still gets to be a mom, yay, curtain drops, applause. TBH, I was impressed that Veryan didn't have her magically not infertile anymore, because it seems like a lot of authors do that. It was a bit of a saccharine ending, but it felt deserved, because the characters went through a lot more hell than usual.