#2five

[torley]

‘I’ve been in so many ensembles where I’ve been, like, the horny mom. Or the horny divorced mom. And I loved all those parts! But there’s something about this where it was women — and this one beau…

[mcflamegames-blog]

five nights at freddy’s 4 gameplay

[sombrasblancas]

I've been experimenting with new aspect ratios and this wide one was perfect for a low tide seascape. It is 20 x 10 cm (7.87 x 3.94 inches) and you can find it at https://www.etsy.com/listing/1434248360/small-seascape-painting-on-canvas-board

[macguffindesigns]

I’ve had quite a few people asking for a MJ poster and finally(!) it’s here!

Spider-Man MJ poster by MacGuffin Designs

Available to buy at macguffindesigns.etsy.com

[somnolent-snufkin]

If you ever need confirmation that Moomins has queer themes...

[christinaroseandrews]

I've loved Marion Chesney since I was in Middle school, but I never got a chance to read this series. It wasn't in my library system and this was long before Amazon, so I'm catching up now. 

The year is 1800 (early for Regency Romance but relevant) and Hannah Pym has just received an inheritance from her recently deceased employer of over 30 years. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, she aims to travel. To Exeter. In winter. On the flying coach she's seen outside her windows so many times. On the stage she meets Emily, a naive spoiled brat who is running away from an arranged marriage, and Lord Ranger Harley, Emily's affianced husband, as well as other characters like Mrs. Bisley, Mrs. Bradley, Mr. Fletcher, and more! When the weather forces them to seek shelter at an inn, the sparks fly... as do the bullets.

So... I really liked this book. I did. I really liked Hannah Pym. She’s a wonderful character with complex wants and motivations. She’s older (in her forties) but not reduced to a caricature.

But she’s not the romantic interest in this book (there’s hints of a future romance with her former employer’s brother but that’s definitely not realized in this book). And because she’s not the romantic interest, and this book devotes itself to not one but two romances, is where it falls down.

First off, we don’t meet any of the romantic leads until over a quarter of the way through the book. That’s a bit too late.

Secondly, the “main” romance felt more secondary than the “B-plot” romance. Emily and Harley should have been the primary couple. But most of the time when we see them, they’re sniping at each other with Emily being a spoiled brat most of the time while Harley tries to correct her. But it kind of falls into Mansplaining territory at times. (Other characters try to wash the spoiled brat off of Emily too including Hannah Pym but some of the harder points come from the male lead.) The B-plot romance between the wealthy recently-widowed Mrs. Lizzie Bisley and the impoverished solicitor Mr. Fletcher is much more plot relevant. Not only does she have a total of three suitors vying for her. The climax of the whole novel relates to her plot. Emily and Harley are supporting characters in it.

Thirdly, I wasn’t rooting for Emily and Harley to end up together. I liked Harley. The fact that he was so awesome to Hannah Pym was definitely a plus in my book. Emily just annoyed me. A lot. A lot a lot. So when they decided to get married at the end of the book, I had a hard time believing it.

So for that, even though I enjoyed the book, it loses a star.

Other nitpicks that didn’t affect the rating... like the fact that there were three characters whose last names ended in "-ley" two of which were Mrs. B---ley. Confusing. Second the author uses third person omniscient and jumps from POV to POV within the same paragraph at times. Most of the time you're in one of the three lead's heads... but it will jump around as the author decides she wants to share something. It's not my preferred method and as an editor I actually advise my clients NOT to do this. But this was written in a different time.

Things that kept it from being rated lower. The characters. OMG the characters.  For all that I was annoyed at Emily, I loved the well roundedness of all of the main and supporting cast. They were individuals. Real.

I also loved the realism of the time, and the insights I got into the class structure. Seriously Chesney did her research and it showed.

I liked the plot... particularly the B-plot. I liked the women supporting women theme of the book.

I read this book in a day, I liked it that much. So because of that, this gets...

Four Stars.     

If this is your jam, you can get it here. Frankly I’d see if your library system has it... it’ll likely be on Hoopla.

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[girlsbestkeptsecret]

I’ve been inbox by this lovely girl who would like some support ♥️

Dear all, I hope you are well. I wanted to let you know I have started a crowdfunding project for which I am aiming to raise £400. I would love it if you could donate using the link below to access my project page. Any contribution large or small will be hugely appreciated. Thank you. I’ve been furloughed from my job :-(: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ive-been-furloughed-from-my-job

[dizzymoods]

the first paragraph alajdkahsbdhfndbdk

in all honesty though when my girlies say that their bfs are trying to get them to watch one of *these* types of movies i always tell them to run! all bfs, especially str8 ones, have very bad taste.

[zinjanthropusboisei]

I’ve been having fun with some map making recently; I’ve always liked a good meandering river, especially since spending time in Louisiana last semester for fieldwork.

Shop

[queentopia]

2fivee.🍾

[christinaroseandrews]

I’ve been sitting on this review for a while since the author pulled the book to re-release it. Now that it’s back up, I can finally review it.

It’s a pretty basic retelling of the Frog Prince story. A prince, Nolan, is turned into a frog. But this time it’s voluntary, mostly because he’s got an arranged marriage with Princess Blythe from the neighboring kingdom and all of her letters to him are boring, dull, and dreadful. He fears that he won’t like her and she won’t like him. So of course the best way to find out about his intended is to turn himself into a frog.

Because reasons.

To say this book is slow to start is underselling it. Like it’s molasses on a cold day in Antarctica slow. It took me over three months to reach the 30% mark where the story picks up. If I didn’t love this fairytale I probably would have put this down long before I reached the point where the story got good.

There’s infodump. Nolan is not likeable initially. And neither is Blythe. Seriously, the only reason I finished this and didn’t dnf it was because I needed something non-triggering after a spate of contemporary stuff with rape as drama. It’s that slow and tedious.

I really liked the characters once the story got going. The scenes of them getting to know each other and slowly falling in love were cute. But there weren’t enough of them. I felt we missed the whole swaths of their courtship with a sentence of three months later.

It was like the author realized that she spent all of her time in backstory and needed to hurry to the end.

The ending was rushed, like really rushed. Super duper rushed. Like I was surprised it was ending.

And there was a ton of info dump at the end to sort of wrap up everything.

I’m not the biggest fan of the premise which had the main male character go essentially under cover and impersonate someone else while the main female character has no idea about his duplicity. It’s hard to come back from.

But I didn’t hate this book. It wasn’t horrid. It wasn’t great. It had some good features and some really bad ones. In the end, I felt kind of Meh about it.

Three stars.

You can get the book here.

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