A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander

[meganbmoore]

Though not as engrossing as her debut novel, And Only to Deceive,  Alexander's second novel about Lady Emily Ashton is a worthy follow-up. Stepping away a bit from Emily's obsession with all things ancient Greece (though said obsession certainly hasn't actually gone anywhere) A Poisoned Season turns instead to Marie Antoinette, with a thief stealing all jewelry in London believed to have belonged to her.  Meanwhile, a young friend of Emily's is being pressured into marriage with an unpleasant man who believes himself to be descended from French royalty, her best friend's marriage is turning cold, and her mother is pressuring her to remarry-if not to her beau, Colin Hargreaves, then to someone else.  And then a man who had asked to speak with Emily about a private matter is killed.

The book is much more of a mystery than the first, and a good one.  But And Only to Deceive was such a personal story for Emily, and her discovery of Greek literature and antiquities such a major turning point in her life, that the history and treasure surrounding Marie Antoinette just doesn't have the same "oomph."  And Only to Deceive chronicled Emily's growth and journey so well that there was no need to follow it up.  No problem with following it up, just no chance of having as much impact.

I did, though, very much like the deeper look into how Emily's radical (for her time) ideas affected her place in society, and her friendships, and how her relationship with her mother was given more development, with her mother painted in a more favorable light than she had been before.  I dothink, though, that the modern thinking behind Emily's behavior was a little more obvious.

A quibble, though:  This will come as a bit of a surprise coming from me, given my deep love for Sethos inElizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody books, but I don't care much for giving Emily a romantic thief as a second suitor.  Partly, I suspect, because Sethos never had a prayer of being a threat.  His attentions just catered to Amelia's overly romantic nature with the added benefit of driving Emerson crazy, but all three knew he would never get anywhere.  While I doubt Sebastian has a much better chance (and i do like him just fine as a character), Emily and Colin aren't as stable, and I get quite shake off the feeling that an anoying triangle will emerge and distract from the good stuff.
Short version:  Good book.  Good follow-up.  But not as good, and while a follow-up doesn't hurt things, it wasn't necessarily needed, either.  As much as I like Emily and her supporting cast, I wouldn't mind seeing Alexander move on to a new heroine.

Comments

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Gah, so many books to add to my booklist D8 *writes down "And Only to Deceive" on post-it note and sticks it on her desk*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And Only to Deceive did take a little while to get going for me, but once I realized what it was and how I was reading it (it's very dependent on inspiring a reaction from you regarding Paris and Helen, even if you know nothing about them) I really got into it.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

Oooh, kind of reminds me of how it took me a very good while to get into "The Magicians and Mrs. Quent" (a good thing that I know about them, then >.>)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent?

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

It's an attempt made to combine Austen sensibilities with magical court intrigue. The first part of the book is very pleasant, with "ooh, we're entertaining people, ah but pity that so-and-so family is poor off with such pretty daughters" kind of thing, with all of these strange hints at mysterious things going on behind the curtain, and then BOOM something major happens, more backtracking to miserable conditions which build up to "holy crap something I wasn't expecting", and then the wind-down of "WE MUST SAVE THE WORLD FROM BAD THINGS". It takes a while to get used to and even more adjusting to get used to the jumps in narrative (it's from third person with three people in the beginning, then to first person in the middle from one person's perspective, and then back to third person with three people again)