@summer-reading-challenge, back again with 2 new updates to my card, Impulse Purchase/Borrow with John Scalzi's Starter Villain, and Favorite Author Reread, Grace Burrowes and A Gentleman Fallen On Hard Times.
Impulse Purchase/Borrow: John Scalzi, Starter Villain
A lighthearted romp with some pointed jabs at mythologizing in our culture, whether that be villainy, cat ownership, wealth, or nation building, I feel like giving too many details of any of it is going to detract from the main fun of the piece, which is challenging what you think you know at every step of the narrative. The difference between this and the Lost-style "need to outsmart the audience" plot twists (see also, George R.R. Martin and 'everyone you love in this book is in mortal danger all the time STAKES, DAMN YOU, STAKES!') is that 1) breadcrumbs ARE there, and 2) Scalzi's protagonist is very much also the good-humored butt of the joke - and has a lot of ambiguous feelings about how he wound up there towards all parties involved.
That said, this is also a love letter to oldschool 1950s-1970s pulp spy and 'action' thrillers, from Johnny Quest to James Bond. Just - again, keep in mind, this is a book about mythmaking, if you want to play beat the author. And while Scalzi is capable of a lot sharper and more painful commentary/satire, this book ain't that. It's a book ultimately about relationships, and the comforting lies we can get lost in about them, but for all that there's some cartoonishly violent episodes in keeping with aforementioned pulp themes (this is a book about villainy, after all) and some tacky dolphin tropes, if you expect this book to revel in either violence against or behalf of the titual villain, well, that's the first expectation subverted here. (I don't judge you if you like those things, but I don't prefer them in my own reading so I'm not gonna be a good rec source for them, sorry)
I think if you enjoy books/movies about ordinary/"little" people thrust into wild scenarios like Galaxy Quest, Kingsmen, Catherynne Valente's Space Opera, or Dennis Taylor's The Bobiverse books, you could vibe with this.
Favorite Author Reread: Grace Burrowes, A Gentleman Fallen On Hard Times
I know, it surprises me too that a filthy commie whore like me likes period romance novels about rich people. Whatever, I contain multitudes.
Moving on, the Lord Julian series are cozy mystery, which is a pretty popular way for romances to be able to inject suspense and tension without resorting to REALLY STUPID MISCOMMUNICATIONS, which is something I have no time for (some people can actually do miscommunication about the nature and structure of a relationship realistically in ways that make me feel and root for the characters, but it's a lot fewer of them than THINK they can.) One of the things that I like about Grace Burrowes is that when she's on her game, she can do both.
The titular protagonist, Lord Julian, is recently returned from the Napoleonic wars with a stint of POW time having left him with a SCORCHING case of PTSD that's realistically handled by both him and the characters around him for the time, which is to say showing real effects and suffering while not modern therapyspeaking it/showing a variety of period-correct responses to the fact that while there was even MORE stigma about mental health then than now, there were also hundreds of thousands of Peninsular war veterans back in the UK with a looooot of unhealed physical and mental trauma, ranging from tolerance and understanding to accusations of malingering and cowardice. He also has an ex-fiancee who while not being a Not Like Other Women Bluestocking is a sharp and witty person with a secret crippling fear of pregnancy (a modern person might say 'phobia' but Hyperia West can list off a number of friends and family who have died in childbirth as to why she wants No Part Of It, I'm not sure that's not just good sense?)
This causes actual, believable problems for this pair - Julian doesn't want to saddle Hyperia with caring for a man who he's not sure will ever recover enough to be 'normal' in either his own eyes or society's, and while Hyperia doesn't care about that, committing to a childless marriage in the Regency period was pretty much saying you were never going to have penetrative sex*, given the untrustworthiness of most of the contraception choices of the time, and also meant that entailed family property would be lost on Julian's death if he didn't have an heir which would have resulted in a lot of social shame and family tension.
So you get that, AND you get a mystery of an attempted kidnapping at a house party, which Julian has actual applicable skills to work on from being a reconnaissance officer as opposed to just being Smarter Than Everyone Else in The Room And Also The Hero. You also get speaking characters from a number of different social walks of life, not just The Devoted Maid/Valet/Family Retainers Who Love The Hero/Heroine.
Warning: the hero/heroine do not get together in this book. the romance component of this is VERY slow burn, for obvious reasons. The main focus of each book is the mystery, with Julian and Hyperia's relationship happening in the background. And Julian's cases are not splashy Jack the Ripper kind of mysteries against Violently Evil People, but more realistic sorts of problems. But if you enjoy a regency where it's not ALL Lord This and Lady Whozits At Balls Gossiping About Other People at Balls (COUGHBRIDGERTONCOUGH), these might be for you!
Next time, going for the BANNED square with Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo!
*yes there's always the butt, but that's harder to figure out how to make enjoyable for the receiver without access to good lube and at least one knowledgeable book or person to ask about technique, a challenging conversation to have when sodomy could get you imprisoned. And a lot of people are no more than "meh" about it even now that it's easier to learn about and make comfortable.
