Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.
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The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place: reaction post
Book Info - September 2018 BotM
Kelsey’s Reaction Post
Status: Complete
This is one that I didn’t love but I did like and enjoy it. It was funny and dark and full of wonderful female characters.
I enjoyed how the girls were pretty unapologetically themselves and definitely not models of Victorian propriety by any stretch of the imagination. Dear Roberta probably comes the closest but she goes along with the whole “bury bodies in the garden” scheme as well so... close but no cigar. I also enjoyed that all the girls were different from each other, no cookie cutters here. Even the secondary female characters were all distinct and flawed and fleshed out which was refreshing.
The found family trope is one I adore and this book hit the spot. The girls concoct this whole scheme because they don’t want to leave each other. They have become sisters and prefer this created sisterhood over being forced to return to their families, each of which have their own problems regarding the girls. As the book progresses, it is obvious that there are groups within the sisterhood but they all seem to care for each other deeply and the bond strengthens as everything unfolds.
The girls wanted freedom and independence and that was a driving force in the book. They are seizing this opportunity to be in charge of themselves for a bit instead of under the thumb of a stern headmistress or disapproving families. I like that, at the end, they come under the care of someone who will let them breathe and have some independence while also being a caring, steady, (and disciplinary) presence in their lives.
I also liked the hints of romantic interests for many of the girls. It wasn’t a focus but they’re teenage girls and romantic interests are often a point of interest for most, even in the middle of covering up murders. And the romantic interests were great, they seemed to suit the girls, accepting and being interested in who they really were, quirks and odd interests and all.
Overall, a good book. Victorian murder mystery romp with a strong cast of female characters and a satisfying conclusion.
- Kelsey
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started reading The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place this afternoon! About 30% through it according to kindle.
It’s got quite the cast of characters and I’m looking forward to seeing how everything plays out, both the murder mystery and the girls’ fraud (which they are amazingly good at, despite almost getting caught all the time).Constantly referring to the girls by their nickname/descriptor is a little annoying but it does help me keep everyone straight so it’s not as annoying as it could be. I’m hoping that the girls continue to start being more than their descriptor. Transcend your labels, girls, spread your wings!
I’ll have another post when I’m further in or when I finish! Have any of you started? Finished? What do you think of it?
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
Published: September 23, 2014
Genre: Fiction - Historical, Mystery, YA
Summary:
There's a murderer on the loose—but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce.
The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. Now the school will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home—unless these seven very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong.
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place is a smart, hilarious Victorian romp, full of outrageous plot twists, mistaken identities, and mysterious happenings.
[ Amazon link ] [ Goodreads link ]
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@wholockgal replied to your post “Just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie...”
I am on both the ebook and physical book waitlists for it at my library! Really hoping one comes in before vacation...
I hope it does too!! I can’t wait to hear what you think about it! (I’m firmly in the mode of I’m not leaving the world of this book and I need everyone to talk about it right now :) )
Sending good vibes that you get the book before vacation!!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society : reaction post
Book Info - August 2018 BotM
Kelsey’s Reaction Post
Status: Complete
Let me just start by saying that I unequivocally, absolutely adore this book and the characters and literally everything about it.
It’s a book about people and how the connections they form are the most profound, important things in the universe. It’s a romance, but more than that, it’s a book about love in all the forms it can take. It’s about war, but it’s also about how people hold up during it and how they go on in the aftermath. It doesn’t pull its punches. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love and made new friends. I lived this story with the characters and I could ask nothing more. A book that puts its characters front and center and lets them shine and be so beautifully, uniquely flawed and human is one that will always have a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf.
The epistolary format really, really worked for me. It made it really feel like I was there as this was unfolding in real time, making all these new friends through letters and keeping up with old ones. The format also let the relationships evolve so naturally. I could see them forming and shifting instead of feeling like I was being told about it. The fact that Juliet was doing research into the Occupation of the Channel Islands and telling Sidney what she learned let me learn so much as well, without making me feel like I should already know this and am only being caught up by the author so that I’m not Lacking as a reader.
On to the characters! (My favorite bit, always.)
Juliet is such a spitfire and I love her. She is the kind of person I desperately want to be friends and correspondents with. Honest and loving and passionate and so wonderfully real. She has anxiety about luncheons and writer’s block and is worried about meeting all these people she’s befriended in letters because what if they don’t like her in person? (That “what if I have fooled these people through writing into thinking I’m interesting and they find out it’s not true when we meet in person” is such a Mood). She is so friendly and open and interested in the hearts of people. She’s also a disaster at managing her own love life and I love her for it. (She jilted her affianced the day before the wedding because he boxed up her books and replaced them with trophies and I fell even more in love with her. That is a perfectly valid reason to call things off.) (If it wasn’t for Dawsey, I would propose to Juliet myself.)
Dawsey is so sweet and I love, love, loved watching him quietly fall in love with Juliet, first through his letters to her (and everyone and their mothers mentioning how he was excited that she was coming to Guernsey) and then through their actual interactions while she was on the island. He is the definition of steady and everyone is so at ease around him. He is a Protector and he is gentle until the situation calls for something else (i.e. beating the hell out of the guy who informed on Elizabeth and Peter). He just wants to take care of everyone and I’m so glad that the Literary Society helped him find his voice and the friends that he needed so badly. I just want to imagine him holding a baby animal or crouched down with Kit watching a blackbird hunt worms. (I also want to imagine him sitting with Juliet in front of the fire, Kit having dozed off in the middle of whatever she was doing, just holding Juliet’s hand and letting the comfortable silence settle around them like a favorite blanket.)
Isola is a delight. She is unapologetically herself and does what she wants and is loved for it and that is a beautiful thing to see. Like Juliet, I want to adopt her. Sometimes a family is a blogger, my new witch daughter, her goat and parrot, and a biscuit tin of letters from Oscar Wilde. Just go with it.
I was so delighted when I read Juliet’s description of Amelia and found her to be exactly as I was already picturing. Amelia is so freaking strong and I admire her greatly. I would like her to adopt me, please and thank you. (Sometimes a family is...)
Sidney is fabulous. He is so supportive and enabling and a wonderful brother to both Juliet and Sophie. I loved the reveal of his sexual orientation and how it wasn’t played as a big deal nor was it just set in there as a checkbox of LGBT+ rep. It was just part of him that Isola now knew and it was cool.
Mark can pretty much fuck off, as far as I’m concerned. I’m with Sidney in that he always felt oily and entitled. From the beginning it was clear he wasn’t right for Juliet, even if she couldn’t see it clearly. With the flowers, she was unsure if she was feeling flattered or hunted and that theme seemed to continue. He never seemed to give Juliet’s opinion much credence and acted like he was above her at all times. Also, he did not deal with rejection well and that’s always a red flag.
Mark also made Juliet feel so unsure. She was always wavering on how she felt about him, if she loved him, if she should stay with him. He made her question her plans and if she should go to Guernsey, when it seems like being decisive was an inherent personality trait of Juliet’s. (Running away twice, cultivating her love of books, deciding on the Guernsey project, just so many little things...) (Her decisions weren’t always good but they were made without much dithering.)
From the very start of the book, Juliet bemoans her love life but she is unwilling to settle (hooray Juliet!!). The line “I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with,” is what sets the tone for what she’s looking for, and eventually finds with Dawsey.
With Mark, she can never truly get a sense for who he is beyond his intellectual pursuits (showing off for her) and his entertainment preferences (again, showing off for her). He is always whisking her off to do something or another. They never seem to be silent together.
With Dawsey, she tells in one letter of the myriad of topics they discussed over dinner, and from the beginning when he was showing her around Guernsey, they could be silent together. (Cue that cozy fireplace image again.)
I just adore the growing relationship between Juliet and Dawsey. The way he always signed his letters “Yours” (or “Ever Yours”) and kept a picture of Juliet and Kit in his pocket (*swoons*). He kept the book that first brought them together in a treasure box, had one of her scented handkerchiefs and all of her letters tied up in a ribbon that she thought she’d lost. Can you get any higher quality pining than this???? I think not!! He even read Anne Bronte novels because Juliet wrote a biography of the woman. And Juliet! Slowly realizing her feelings and then doing some quality pining herself when she thinks he doesn’t feel the same. Also, the way that Dawsey started talking more and opening up like a flower in the sun when Juliet came to the island/was corresponding with him, and the way he shut back down post Mark visit. This is what I love. Mutual pining between two oblivious people meant for each other.
And Juliet proposing? Iconic. Showstopping. Perfect. Even if Dawsey did injure himself and take the Lord’s name in vain. I’m glad it was from Isola’s point of view so we knew all that. Neither Juliet or Dawsey would be able to coherently tell about it. I’m just so happy that they are getting married immediately and will have their little family on Guernsey with Kit and the rest of the Literary Society and it’s just so wonderful.
I want to read this all over again immediately, and I might. As soon as I watch the Netflix adaptation which is queued up for when I finish writing this. Before I do that though, I want to give a huge thanks to @skyler10fic whose wholehearted recommendation of this book led to us choosing to read it this month. I can’t thank you enough!! I think books really do have a homing instinct to find their perfect readers - though sometimes they are helped along by great friends. ♥
- Kelsey
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Just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and my snap reaction is i love it and i want to give it everyone and tell them to read it immediately
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Published: July 29, 2008
Genre: Fiction - Historical
Summary:
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.
Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.
Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.
[ Amazon link ] [ Goodreads link ]
We will be reading and talking about this book this month and we would like to invite you all to join us! And what better time to finally read (or reread) this one with the Netflix film adaptation landing this month?
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If you’re anything like us, it’s way, way too easy to get sucked up in the rigors of life and forget about the fun things- like reading!
Who We Are:
Bookish Bitches is a book club blog centered around low-key reading. We know that life is stressful and super busy, but by setting easy-to-meet reading goals (a book a month!) and fostering discussion, we can read some great books and have a good time doing it.
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Follow us on here! (and maybe follow our tag too! so you’re sure not to miss anything) We’ll be posting the August book selection shortly so stay tuned! We will read one book a month and each admin will make a post with their reaction to it during the month. We also hope to foster discussion about the book of the month with our followers.
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Didn’t this already exist? Why is there another welcome post?
Well, you know how we said that it’s easy to get sucked up in the rigors of life and such? Well, long story short, life happened and this fell by the wayside (again) but we’re back for a fresh start and we hope you join us for some reading and fun!
Stay tuned for August’s book selection, and happy reading!
I wrote some books! It would be an honor to have them considered for future reading, esp since they started out as fic and would provide another level to the analysis. I have the links on my tumblr, the books drop on Sept 4th.
Hey there! Thanks for reaching out! We are working on putting together a list of tumblr authors that we know so that we can promote their work and we’ll definitely add you to that when we get it up and also add your books to our list of possible future reads!
For anyone interested in checking out Licie’s books, here’s a link. Go check them out and support your local authors! :)
(I’ve personally already pre-ordered My Fair Baron and am looking forward to reading it soon!)
