Cotillion by Georgette Heyer

Kitty Charing’s penny-pinching guardian has decided to leave her his entire fortune, provided she marries one of his great-nephews. Kitty isn’t completely opposed to the idea, provided the right cousin proposes. Unfortunately, that particular cousin, Jack, a confirmed rake, doesn’t come. Initially planning to run away and become a governess, she instead enters into a fake engagement with another nephew, Freddy, so that he can take her to London and help her make Jack jealous.

In London, she is quickly taken under the wing of Freddy’s sister, Meg (despite the frightening consumerism, I’m fascinated by her fondness for pretty clothes in colors that are bad for her coloring) and befriends Olivia, a young woman who has caught Jack’s inappropriate attentions, but is also in love with Kitty’s mysterious French cousin, Camille. Not only that, but she also has to find a way to free another cousin, Dolph, from his controlling mother.

All the various plotlines are really fun, but with everything else that was going on, I think Heyer forgot to actually make Kitty and Freddy fall in love, and then she remembered at the last minute that it was a romance. On the flipside, this is the first Heyer I’ve read (of a whole three) where I really like both leads, and while I think Heyer forgot to have them fall in love, I’m more convinced that they’ll be happy in the long run than the others.

Reaper and Dollhouse

Note:  I consider Dollhouse spoilers to be a public service.

So, I just watched the first episode of Reaper, and am deeply confused.  People actually willingly watch more than one episode of that?  On purpose?  That may have been the most singularly awful pilot episode of something that I've ever seen.  Then again, I tend to hate the Michael Myers/Jim Carrey*/Adam Sandler/Jack Black type of comedy, which I don't find to be funny at all.  But really, I should have at least been able to get some entertainment out of a show about a guy whose parents sold his soul to Satan and now he has to capture escapees from Hell with a dirt devil.

Also, the main character's best friend/sidekick advocates getting women drunk so they'll have sex with you and thinks it's funny to bash a car door into a dogs head.  I don't think I've vehemently hated a character that much, that quickly since Topher.  Of course, they're both supposed to be the funny guy, which fits. 

Not even Original Cindy and Leland Palmer** are worth watching that, and they're worth a lot.

Oh, and apparently the new pet OTP of Dollhouse is Topher and the disabled woman he punched in the face because he didn't like her work ethics (ETA:  I may have been misinformed about Topher's reasons for punching a disabled woman in the face.  I'm not masochistic enough to find out.).  This is Dollhouse, so it was naturally a cute romance full of fluff and adorableness until she Tragically Died so he could have more reasons to angst. I cant decide what's worse, that or Ballard literally beating Echo into the personality he told her to have.  Wait, the one I actually suffered through is automatically worse.

I bet Sierra Tragically Dies right after Victor tells her he loves her and forgives her of her great sins against him.

Bitterness enhanced by the fact that I finally got the Bones disc I've been waiting for and the second and third eps were unplayable.

I'm so glad I decided I really, really wanted wuxias and sageuks recently.  I need a brain purge.

*Though at least he can act when he wants.
**Actually, I don't like Leland at all and was generally bored by him, but he made me like Ray Wise tons.