Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle
Aug. 11th, 2008 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore1837, teen twin witches, a missing governess, an Evil Plot, and a handsome neighbor smouldering “I like you! Let’s get married!” at a clueless bookworm. I’m so happy such things are difficult for me to resist.
Persephone and Penelope are 17 and getting ready for their London debut. Since they’re the first females born to their father’s family in a couple hundred years, and twins at that, their scholarly father wanted to give them Extra Speshul names to celebrate. Their much wiser and more practical (and awesome in a “There must be a prequel!” way) mother, who happens to be saddled with the name Parthenope herself, tries to save them from this fate, but doesn’t quite succeed. I like to think her objections curbed the extravagance a bit, though. Also running in their father’s family, and only for females, is the ability to use magic. Fortunately, their governess, Miss Allardyce, is a witch herself (this stroke of convenience does get explained well, btw) and teaches them to use and hide their powers.
But then, just as the girls are ready to go to London for their first season, Miss Allardyce disappears, leaving a note saying she has to take care of a sick relative. The twins, though, think something’s wrong, and are determined to find out what really happened. Reappearing in their lives is Lochinvar Seton, their neighbor who has been away at school for years, and who Persy has always had a crush on, but who she’s also determined could never like her back.
Persy and Pen very much fall into the typical twins dichotomy: Persy is shy and studious and (she thinks) socially awkward, convinced no one could ever be interested in her. She hopes everyone will pay attention to Pen and not notice her, and would rather not go to London at all and just stay home and study magic. Pen, of course, is bright and outgoing and can’t wait for her London season. It doesn’t however, ever really feel like the well path with them, because they’re so well characterized and their relationship so well done. This, actually, is true of much of the book.
And the romance! You know, I have this thing about UST in fiction (and no, I’m not talking about the “this means UST” that fandom is so fond of, but rather when authors choose to use that route in their romances.) In theory, I like UST as a storytelling device, especially in terms of one person projecting it and the other not quite getting what's being sent their way, but so often (not always, just often) it feels like authors are going “Look! Look! UST! Do you see it?!?” and I get irritated. Reading YA this year, though, I’ve noticed that the genre tends to be really good at it. While the UST between Lochinvar and Persy isn’t quite as good as that in Crown Duel, it’s pretty high up there, with Lochinvar spending the whole book sending “You! I like you! Let’s get married!” at Persy, while Persy, despite her huge crush on him, studiously not noticing and even trying to avoid him (why on that in a moment) convinced that he could never really like her because she’s not the kind of girl guys like, while Pen is. Which, of course, makes her fearful that Lochinvar and Pen do like each other.
Again, fairly normal tropes, but done so well that I don’t feel like I’m reading the same thing yet again. Pen, for her part, does like Lochinvar just fine, and is really all for his joining the family. Just not as her husband, and she spends a good chunk of the book clearly repressing her desire to shake her clueless sister.
spoilers for 2 subplots
The subplot I really liked:
Early on, soon after Persy starts to worry that Pen and Lochinvar might be interested in each other, Persy gets drunk and decides to cast a love spell on Lochinvar, and rifles through Miss Allardyce’s things until she finds one. Normally, love spell subplots alienate me, but Persy is so guilty about it and so convinced that it’s the only reason he likes her, and so determined to put him off any way she can think to that I ended up loving it. It also helps that, even though we aren’t explicitly told so, we know from the start that it didn’t really do anything. The reader’s long since noticed how Lochinvar acts around Persy, and there’s no change. What changes is that now Persy actually notices it. The end reveal of that subplot, while expected (by me, at least) is great, and does a nice job of tying it up, and gives a “lessons learned” bit of closure to it that manages to not be preachy or overbearing.
And now the subplot I didn’t:
There’s a more minor “in love with your kidnapper” subplot. I dislike those in general, but this one exceptionally rubbed me wrong. I may not have minded as much had we spent more time with the characters, but the subplot was small enough that the only time really spent with them was “You have abducted me, but I sense your goodness!” and “I am your kidnapper, but you stir my soul!” (No, not actual dialogue, but you get what I mean.) The ending for that subplot also had a very, very strong “Stockholm’s Syndrome” feel to it that really wasn’t a good feeling for me to have so near the end. Still, it didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the book over all.
Persephone and Penelope are 17 and getting ready for their London debut. Since they’re the first females born to their father’s family in a couple hundred years, and twins at that, their scholarly father wanted to give them Extra Speshul names to celebrate. Their much wiser and more practical (and awesome in a “There must be a prequel!” way) mother, who happens to be saddled with the name Parthenope herself, tries to save them from this fate, but doesn’t quite succeed. I like to think her objections curbed the extravagance a bit, though. Also running in their father’s family, and only for females, is the ability to use magic. Fortunately, their governess, Miss Allardyce, is a witch herself (this stroke of convenience does get explained well, btw) and teaches them to use and hide their powers.
But then, just as the girls are ready to go to London for their first season, Miss Allardyce disappears, leaving a note saying she has to take care of a sick relative. The twins, though, think something’s wrong, and are determined to find out what really happened. Reappearing in their lives is Lochinvar Seton, their neighbor who has been away at school for years, and who Persy has always had a crush on, but who she’s also determined could never like her back.
Persy and Pen very much fall into the typical twins dichotomy: Persy is shy and studious and (she thinks) socially awkward, convinced no one could ever be interested in her. She hopes everyone will pay attention to Pen and not notice her, and would rather not go to London at all and just stay home and study magic. Pen, of course, is bright and outgoing and can’t wait for her London season. It doesn’t however, ever really feel like the well path with them, because they’re so well characterized and their relationship so well done. This, actually, is true of much of the book.
And the romance! You know, I have this thing about UST in fiction (and no, I’m not talking about the “this means UST” that fandom is so fond of, but rather when authors choose to use that route in their romances.) In theory, I like UST as a storytelling device, especially in terms of one person projecting it and the other not quite getting what's being sent their way, but so often (not always, just often) it feels like authors are going “Look! Look! UST! Do you see it?!?” and I get irritated. Reading YA this year, though, I’ve noticed that the genre tends to be really good at it. While the UST between Lochinvar and Persy isn’t quite as good as that in Crown Duel, it’s pretty high up there, with Lochinvar spending the whole book sending “You! I like you! Let’s get married!” at Persy, while Persy, despite her huge crush on him, studiously not noticing and even trying to avoid him (why on that in a moment) convinced that he could never really like her because she’s not the kind of girl guys like, while Pen is. Which, of course, makes her fearful that Lochinvar and Pen do like each other.
Again, fairly normal tropes, but done so well that I don’t feel like I’m reading the same thing yet again. Pen, for her part, does like Lochinvar just fine, and is really all for his joining the family. Just not as her husband, and she spends a good chunk of the book clearly repressing her desire to shake her clueless sister.
spoilers for 2 subplots
The subplot I really liked:
Early on, soon after Persy starts to worry that Pen and Lochinvar might be interested in each other, Persy gets drunk and decides to cast a love spell on Lochinvar, and rifles through Miss Allardyce’s things until she finds one. Normally, love spell subplots alienate me, but Persy is so guilty about it and so convinced that it’s the only reason he likes her, and so determined to put him off any way she can think to that I ended up loving it. It also helps that, even though we aren’t explicitly told so, we know from the start that it didn’t really do anything. The reader’s long since noticed how Lochinvar acts around Persy, and there’s no change. What changes is that now Persy actually notices it. The end reveal of that subplot, while expected (by me, at least) is great, and does a nice job of tying it up, and gives a “lessons learned” bit of closure to it that manages to not be preachy or overbearing.
And now the subplot I didn’t:
There’s a more minor “in love with your kidnapper” subplot. I dislike those in general, but this one exceptionally rubbed me wrong. I may not have minded as much had we spent more time with the characters, but the subplot was small enough that the only time really spent with them was “You have abducted me, but I sense your goodness!” and “I am your kidnapper, but you stir my soul!” (No, not actual dialogue, but you get what I mean.) The ending for that subplot also had a very, very strong “Stockholm’s Syndrome” feel to it that really wasn’t a good feeling for me to have so near the end. Still, it didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the book over all.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:08 am (UTC)but the cover alone made me want it badly XD
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 04:11 am (UTC)This probably would have been the same thing again if it hadn't also been recced.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 06:25 am (UTC)It actually reads as an eccentricity with families who have magic. All the characters who come from families with no history of magic have normal names, but the ones who come from families with a history of magic (with one exception) have unusual names.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 08:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 02:22 pm (UTC)The cover of A Great and Terrible Beauty (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Terrible-Beauty-Gemma-Trilogy/dp/0385732317/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218550410&sr=1-1) caught me and
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 02:51 pm (UTC)I've still only read the first Libba Bray book. Another one I have a lot of problems with, yet plan to read more.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-12 03:03 pm (UTC)