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. :-)