Point of Honour by Madeleine Robins

Ten years ago, Sarah Brereton, a young woman of quality, ran away with her brother’s fencing instructor. Her fencing instructor dead, she’s returned to England, and London, and set herself up as an inquiry agent, striving to avoid the normal (re: prostitution) fate of fallen women whose families won’t take them back.

This is an alternate Regency England in which George III never recovered from his initial bout of madness in 1788, and Queen Charlotte became Regent. Beyond that, Robins sticks to actual history as much as possible, using the shift in history to focus on the status and lives of fallen women of quality.

Hired by a man named Trux to find an antique fan for his employer, whose father gave it to a mistress over twenty years ago. The writing style is reminiscent of the style of the time (and the opening lines are deliberately spun out of the famous opening lines of Pride and Prejudice), but accessible, and while it’s set up as a mystery, it eventually spins into a fullblown adventure with a swashbuckling heroine.

A very fun romp (though I’m rather annoyed that as is typical, women can only have sex with hot rich men with a stated intention of no commitment if the man is actually one of the murderers.) and I’m disappointed that Robins apparently only has three books and isn’t writing more.

Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale by Holly Black

This is the third of Black’s faerie books, and combines parts of the casts of the first two. Specifically Kaye, Roiben and Corny from Tithe, and Dave and Luis from Valiant. The Tithe characters were the main characters, but the Valiant characters…well, one was a rapist, murderer, druggie and dealer, and the other I barely remembered.

Note: The rest of this has spoilers for Tithe and Valiant.

Kaye’s boyfriend, Roiben, is being crowned king of the Unseelie Court, and his court isn’t exactly thrilled that he’s dating a Seelie pixie, so they play a trick on her to get her to make a special form of declaration that, if accepted, would permanently bind her to the Unseelie Court. Roiben, not wanting that, tasks her to find a fae who lies, an impossibility, and the fae cannot lie. Not realizing he’s trying to save her (not that he bothers to try to explain) Kaye takes off, and when her friend Corny is cursed by a member of the Seelie court and the Seelie queen asks to meet her, they head for New York and the Seelie Court. Their guide is Luis, who became the Seelie queen’s servant to save his brother’s life. Luis attempts to endear himself to the reader by saying that everything bad that happened to them is all the fault of the girl his brother was obsessed with, turned into a drug addict, and raped. Apparently, she made his brother an evil, raping murderer by not loving him back. (While I do not think Holly Black thinks this, she does think I’ll like and sympathize with a character who does.)

Add that to Black reminding us every chance she got that no bad thing he ever did was Roiben’s fault and everything was the fault of the mean faerie queens and Roiben’s just a poor, faultless woobie, and I think I’m through with Black’s books, as much as her world interests me. That said, most of the drug use and creepier elements of the first two books are gone, I found Kaye more likable than I did in Tithe, and Black actually addresses the subject of the human child Kaye replaced, something that was brushed aside in Tithe.  All of which makes me sad that other things annoyed me too much to have an interest in reading more.

Never A Lady by Jacquie D'Alessandro

Colin Oliver is in London looking for a bride. Unfortunately, he’s distracted from that goal by Alexandra Marchmont, a popular fortune teller who used to be a street thief. He knows she used to be a street thief because he caught her picking his pocket, though she doesn’t know he remembers. When she overhears a murder plot and is caught climbing out the future victim’s window by Colin, he’s initially suspicious, but it soon becomes clear that she may be an intended victim herself.

This book can’t seem to decide if it wants to be a romantic comedy or an angstfest. It’d work well as either one, but instead of committing, it just kind of teeters in a neutral zone, and so it’s enjoyable, but not nearly as enjoyable as it could be. Also, Colin is, inevitably, a former spy. I have clearly read too many regency historicals the last few months because I’m starting to be blind to the word. Maybe if there were more female spies who weren’t evil hussies. Not that D’Alessandro has committed that particular crime in the two books of hers that I’ve read.