Finished FitzOsbornes

[chocolatepot]

The good is mainly that there was some politics, that Simon and Veronica seem to be coming to terms with one another despite their forbidden, hidden longing for each other, and that Simon, Veronica, and Toby were all fantastic. There were some cute bits:

"Besides, that nephew's never going to ask anyone to marry him," said Toby. "He's a confirmed bachelor. He made a pass at me at the Fortescue Ball."

"Ugh," Veronica and I said, because the nephew is vile.

"He did not," said Simon. "You think everyone makes passes at you."

"They do," said Toby calmly. "But I can't help being irresistible."

He's sort of in the vein of Mistful's Draco, but he annoys me less as he's not the center of attention.

But the bad. Well, it's really the same as before - Sophie is still bland, still humble/insecure all the time but still supposed to be amazing. I don't have a problem with her being all that, but it never comes across to me in the text that she's a brilliant writer, or really good with people, or incredibly competent. I really do think the story might be better if Veronica were the main character (and if it were not in diary format).

I feel bad as I've said a lot of times that I'd like more conventional heroines, more slice-of-life historical novels, but I think the trouble is that it's not normal enough to seem like a record of life pre-WWII while too normal for the plot itself to be interesting. Basically I wanted more politics and really important royal/social engagements, because they seemed more like your standard upper/upper-middle class historical heroines and heroes with a strict and proper female relative who wants to marry them off. They'd be doing the occasional diplomatic-type thing and would apparently not even tell people they were the ruling family of Montmaray, which seemed odd.

I'm also confused about ages. I thought in the first book Toby was turning 15? And he's older than Sophie, but in this book she was 19 by the end, which would make her 16 in the earlier one?