The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, by Olivia Waite

[blueshiftofdeath]

This is the sequel to The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, which I really enjoyed. It follows a new couple: a printer, Agatha (who appeared in the previous book), and a beekeeper, Penelope. Both are middle-aged and more experienced than the characters in The Lady's Guide, which I found refreshing and the primary draw of the story.

There's some political side plots, but they feel kind of irrelevant for most of the book; I thought the book probably could have been a little tighter. Like the previous book, where there was a lot of focus on astronomy and embroidery, there's a lot of focus on printing and beekeeping. I liked that, and the way that it's tied to the other going-ons in the story, although I think they didn't work as strongly on their own as the astronomy/embroidery plots in the previous book.

Overall this was a slow but enjoyable read for me, and I particularly loved the ending. I'm looking forward to the next entry in the series. :-)

The Heiress (Molly Greeley)

[shewhostaples]

Short version: an excellent take on Anne de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice with a couple of research failures which probably won't bother you unless you're British, and possibly not then.

Long version: Anne's notorious 'delicacy' is actually due to laudanum use and addiction, prescribed by the family doctor and a tempting tool for her mother. She runs away to London and... well, I'm posting in this community. The other half of the pairing is an original character, who I found very well-drawn and a good foil to Anne.

I was thrown out by some Britpicking errors (Brighton beach: not sandy, as anyone who's had seagulls steal their chips there can tell you) and was irritated by Anne finding the Book of Common Prayer dull despite having read it through severa times (nobody does this! and there are plenty of bits that aren't dull at all) but these were really quite small matters compared to the book as a whole. Overall, I'd recommend it.