This one is an easy one. I re-read my favourite books, and vowed not to leave it so long next time.
For the record – the Bold as Love series by Gwyneth Jones.
Ten stars. Seriously. This is my favourite series. This is the series, the book, the author, that I’ll recommend if anyone is asking.
How many times is this now? I read The Salt Box in Interzone, a long, long time ago, and then pounced on ‘Bold As Love’ when it was first published. With every new book, and sometimes between new books, I re-read the series, including ‘The Grasshopper’s Child’.
I love the characters, the story, the world building. It says everything.
And yet, since ‘The Grasshopper’s Child’, this is my first re-read of the whole series. We’ve been redecorating, moving things around, and last year I got the gang together on one shelf for the first time in a long time, and I’ve been indulging in deferred gratification every since …
No more. From now on, this series gets read whenever I damn well feel like it.
Book 2 picks up straight away as Book 1 finishes, mere minutes later. And this is where things start to get very nasty indeed for our three protagonists. Separation and torture are the order of the day, and Fiorinda’s reunion with her rapist father is not a pleasant one.
And through it all, I fall for this threesome all over again.
A re-read, probably number 3 for this book. It gets better every time.
Our trio is back together, fragile but united. Fiorinda is terrified of her powers and traumatised by the torture and barely averted execution that she was subjected to, Sage is recovering from a near fatal injury, and Ax is struggling to get his mojo back after being kidnapped, raped, and kept captive for a year. They’re laying low, and being very gentle with each other.
Can this last? Of course not, they’re figureheads and rallying points, and it’s not long before they’re summoned by the President of the USA to help him deal with some home grown neuronautical terrorists.
The Triumvirate get the old bands back together under cover of a Hollywood film about the UK Countercultural Revolution, and do their very best to track down the Big Bad.
Hard to put down. Bewitching. Gorgeous.
I stayed up until 1 am to finish this one.
This is one of the slower books in the series, but it’s still satisfying. The Triumvirate have been persuaded to return to England, with Ax to take up the Dictatorship again. Spooked by evidence of the machinations of their enemies, they make a detour and spend a while doing baseline poverty reality TV in a cold Paris garret whilst friends and allies join them in France to plan their next steps.
As always, once back in England, they walk a fine line, implementing their plans to care for as much of the population as possible whilst keeping some freedom for themselves. Of course, their resistance makes their enemies hate them even more, and a long ago slight of a journalist by Sage comes back to bite all three on the arse. Last time, Fio was accused of witchcraft. This time, the lads are accused of lycanthropy.
They survive, make a deal, and end up living the dream. Well, their dream anyway. Everything is going well. And then the world changes. Again.
I think this is the third read for this one. Incredibly, it’s coming up to twenty years since the first time I read it. Although it’s not the final book in the series, it’s the last one featuring the adventures of Sage, Fio and Ax. I will re-read ‘The Grasshopper’s Child’ just as soon as I find it on my shelves, but for now, I’ll leave it as a treat for future me.
What can I say about this, the end of the story of the most charismatic, stubborn, talented threesome that ever loved? It’s satisfying, it’s a happy ending, you’ll be glad to know, and it comes after another thick book full of mortal danger. The Chinese have invaded England, but luckily their leader fancies Ax. Who could blame them, to be fair? So, there’s a sex show in an old prison camp, a visit to a bunch of affluent Ruskinites in Cumbria, the Adventures of Cos and Min – deserving of a book in itself – and just as we think everything is going just fine, Fio finds out that no good turn goes unpunished.
I adore these books, and I promise myself that I won’t put off the next re-read so long.
So, that was that. Five amazing books in less than three weeks, savouring every word. I had, as always, a book hangover from hell afterwards. Six weeks later I’m still half in their world.
My only option was a complete change of pace – hence ‘Frankie & Dot’ by Rosie Radcliffe.
Chick lit isn’t my usual diet, but I met Rosie at a craft fair and swapped books with her. Honestly, the first few pages didn’t grab me, but the book was well written and edited, so I persevered. I’m glad I did. This is a well paced book that doesn’t succumb to the usual romantic happy ending, and instead builds a relationship up between a group of intelligent and generous people who have ended up sharing a house.
I did find that the main character found herself to be rescued from her frequent pickles a tad too quickly, real life in poverty doesn’t work that way, but this is a feel good story and I can forgive the author for her magic wand license.
I enjoyed this book, and found myself returning to it whenever I had a few moments of spare time.
I finished my seventh May read at the beginning of June, but will include it in the May blog, as I spent the last week or so of the month reading ‘The Mill on the Floss’
Maggie Tulliver just can’t get a break. She adores her dad, and he adores her, but he lets her down by being an arrogant idiot who won’t listen to his wife. She adores her big brother, but he’s a self righteous fool who dismisses everything she says and thoroughly believes that she’s a naughty kid. She loves her friend Phil, and honestly, he loves her back, but a family quarrel and her brother’s prejudices disallow the friendship and anything that might come of it. And finally, she seriously has the hots for Ste, and if anything, he’s nuts for her, but he’s dating Maggie’s cousin and is friends with Phil, so …
Duty or love? Passion or obedience?
I love this book because Maggie’s aunts are such an important part of her life. The sibling relationship is horrendous, and Maggie has to tolerate it.
Location is such an important part of the book, we learn to love the natural world that surrounds Maggie and Tom, and which form their characters. The Floss, that quiet river that brings life and livelihood to the family, is always there in the background, a constant presence.
There are so many bold, fully formed characters in this book. I loved it. I will try to read more George Eliot, because to my shame, I’ve left it until late in life to read this. I think there may be a copy of Middlemarch lying around somewhere …