Erin

Not quite right...

Revisado: 01-03-24

While I absolutely LOVE this series, there was something about this book that just felt... off. The characters were not quite themselves. It felt like there was a great deal more sniping that banter this book, and interactions that have been well loved lo these many books were dragged out and pointed at quite a bit rather than just letting the characters get on with interacting. The only character that seemed to be entirely himself was Sir Hector.

As to the story itself, it seemed just a little flat all around. I worked out a good deal of it very early on, which is not usual for me with these books.

This is my go-to series for when I need something fun to listen to and I am very much hoping this was just an aberration and the next book returns to form.

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Not up to par

Revisado: 04-18-22

I have been thoroughly enjoying the Veronica Speedwell series, but this book fell far short of what I expected. There was basically no mystery, really very little actual story, the resolution was less than satisfying, and the main character was hardly herself. I really hope this series has not fallen into the trap of "we can't ACTUALLY let the heroes get together" which many tv shows fall into and therefore begin to throw ridiculous obstacles at them. This REALLY felt like that kind of story. After the relationship development in the previous couple books the author seems to have gone "oh, gosh NOW what am I supposed to do, I can't let them be happy, let's throw THIS into the mix and torture my characters"... My answer: Please just write fascinating adventures! It doesn't need to be a soap opera!

Aside from the unnecessary soap opera, I have also come to expect a certain type of resolution in these stories I found entirely missing here...


(Semi-Spoiler Space)


I have come to expect some form of poetic justice or just desserts for the villain(s), and that did NOT happen here at all. Not for any of the three "villainous groups" Spendlove, MacGregor, or the Hathaways.

All in all, this book falls far short of what I've come to expect (and enjoy) in the Veronica Speedwell series. I hope the books are back on track with the next!

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Reader makes it REALLY hard to listen

Revisado: 03-10-22

I nearly quit listening several times. This is not a comment on the story (at least I don't think so) I just found it SO hard to understand many of the voices the reader did to distinguish characters. I also found many of the voice choices physically repellent and had trouble listening to them, much less following the story.

There is a HUGE difference between character acting and audio-book reading! Audible please PLEASE inform your talent to this effect! They can be excellent character actors, but if I cannot understand the book I can't turn on subtitles. Rodska really needs to find a balance between character and understandability. Rodska may have been much more jarring as I had listened to the previous 7 books read by Prebble and they are completely understandable (book 1 is also read by Rodska, though not nearly as badly).

I really hope Audible has the rest of the Falco books recorded (or re-recorded) by Prebble. After this I am dreading the last three books of the series because they are read by Rodska. I may just skip them.

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Fun as ever

Revisado: 01-03-21

Though I find all the Lady Hardcastle mysteries a fun listen, this one has a little more oomph to it. I have long been interested in Lady H and Flo's undercover skulduggery and this feels like a taste. I am also interested to see how the events of 'next April' will touch our feisty team. I really hope this series continues (it has shown no signs of stopping, but I suppose a series like this could stop any time).

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The quality I expect from the Speedwell Mysteries

Revisado: 05-04-20

Another excellent installment in the adventures of Veronica Speedwell and Stoker. The setting and dedication of this book had me anticipating a particular slant to the story and yet another take on the identity of the most notorious serial killer of the 19th century. However, this particular rendition gives a glimpse, not of the killer, but of the lives of his victims. Just a glimpse, and a shiver for Veronica of "there but for the grace of fortune". When our main characters encounter a certain Mary (Jane) Kelly... the scene, and the generosity of one who has so little and no reservations about sharing, is so much more achingly poignant.

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Not much of a story

Revisado: 05-04-20

Unfortunately, this book really isn't much of a story. It feels like only the first few chapters of a story, as though we've only just gotten past introducing the important characters and discovered the proper crux of the plot and it is just over. I kinda hate to say it, but it almost feels like an angst-ridden "get them together" fanfic... without a whole lot of plot, and it makes me want to read the "real" story.
There isn't much I can say without a lot of spoilers, but I want to know more about that little book and its implications (and what would happen if were to somehow, mysteriously, end up on the internet), more about the wider supernatural society and power structure (just how much power DO the judges have?), more about Max's new role in that society and what he does and doesn't do with it, and how much he can grow up in that role.

So much potential, very little followthrough which is a pity, because I know from Carriger's Finishing School and Parasol Protectorate series that the author is very capable of more.

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A fun romp.

Revisado: 04-23-20

This book was fun. Prudence gets a taste of the world outside her parents' sphere of influence, and we get our first taste of what else is out there in terms of the supernatural: a fascinating dip into a wider world, where everything you thought you knew about Vampires and Shape Shifters might not be anything close to all there is. Then there's the problematic dynamics of Immortal family members... like a saucy (many times) great niece nearly three times Rue's own age, and an estranged "fuzzy-uncle" who is quietly awesome.

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Problematic (with spoilers)

Revisado: 04-23-20

To start off with, we have a complete shift in POV character. Prim is now our window on the Custard. Which could have been a lovely shift from brash, energetic, often heedless Rue to the one who follows after and sorts out the chaos Rue causes (or stumbles into): competent, mild, and wielder of withering etiquette.

Sadly, what we get is poor proper Primrose besieged by a Were-Cat (Lioness) who cannot take no for an answer. Yes, CAT, but that does not excuse shoving Prim into a relationship she is utterly uncomfortable with. And in the end, yes I am also aware that is NOT quite the case, but if there had been less shoving, and more SHOWING of Prim coming to that realization it would have felt far less uncomfortable. And I don't mean uncomfortable in the social conventions way, or the I'm not ok with fem slash way (don't care), or the Prim is REALLY having a hard time with wrapping her head around the possibilities and ramifications (which incidentally are NOTHING to the dangers of being homosexual in OUR Victorian era) way. No, it was an uncomfortable in the stalker/obsessive-abusive sort of way. This poor young woman is hounded, and pressured, and even has her BEST FRIENDS pushing her into the Were-Cat's arms when she clearly IS NOT COMFORTABLE with it. And her friends are basically telling her "you know you want it". And the Were-Cat immediately jumps on the fact when Prim is no longer wearing her engagement ring; basically demanding to know why she wasn't told immediately and that now Prim can be hers... belong to her. I find it very hard to read without seriously disturbing overtones.

Wow, I guess that bothered me way more than I realized...
Incidentally, if one is going with the "but she's a cat, cats are just LIKE that" rationalization, I would like to point out that cats are also FICKLE. So... how long before the Were-Cat, satisfied with her worshipful due, flicks her tail and moves on to other interests?

Um... review... yes. So we get about five sixths of the book being relationship drama of epic proportions, and, oh, yeah, there are Ether Pockets which could be catastrophic to navigation... or unbelievably useful... and we have a half-mauled-to-death pirate prisoner (what ever happened to him?)... and we're supposed to be on a mission to save the last of a group of immortals who have been hunted to near extinction by the Church and the Inquisition... No problem! We'll go make nice and send them to a country equally as intolerant of immortals but they might just overlook their ingrained prejudice because Americans are more ruled by vanity than the Church. (And incidentally I'm not sure "you can never be too rich or too thin" was exactly the motto of Los Angeles in 1896-7) Can we have more of a plot and less of the woes of Were-Lioness courtship? And maybe a solution that isn't a jab at the "Hollywood ideal" of body shape? Not that I have any problem with a bit of snark here and there, or a lot of snark, but not as a deus ex machina.

Could have been SO much more.

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Custard Protocol As A Whole

Revisado: 04-23-20

This series (The Custard Protocol) started out quite lively and interesting... then it devolved into "The Love Dirigible". Honestly, there was SO much potential set up in the Parasol Protectorate quartet: history, questions, nefarious secret societies, political intrigue, and a HUGE potential in Book 1 of Custard (spoilers!)

(you have been warned)
A WHOLE WORLD OF NEW AND DIFFERENT SHIFTERS AND TYPES OF VAMPIRES. And yes, they DO meet a few, but by about halfway through Book 2, and certainly by 3 such things feel like an absolute afterthought to matchmaking on the dirigible. The OBO (Order of the Brass Octopus) is pretty much never mentioned again, there is only an afterthought of fall-out from the Were-Monkey debacle, the Were-Lioness debacle actually ISN'T AT ALL... Can we say "consequences"? No? ...sigh...

So, I'm really rather disappointed in the series as a whole. A strong start, but absolute fail on the follow-through. Not to say there aren't some truly fascinating bits, but they're squeezed in around foisting characters onto one another. And I'm not saying I was expecting an adventure series and got a romance one instead. There is NOTHING romantic in the way the characters are thrown at one another. No huge character revelations either, in spite of having a different POV character this book (Percy).

Aside from the plot issues, I find a somewhat glaring temporal glitch as well. (More spoilers ahoy if you haven't read the Finishing School quartet.)

Bear with me as this gets a bit convoluted... the Custard's new Doctor (Arsenic) is supposed to be the daughter of one of the Finishing School girls. Arsenic is basically established as being the same age as Rue, Prim, and Percy (21ish). The (not much older) sister of one of Arsenic's mother's classmates is Percy and Prim's GRANDMOTHER. And this is the late 1800s. Not with me? Arsenic's mother would have had to be in her mid to late 40s when Arsenic was born... in the 1870s. Biology says not so much. Or Arsenic is a good deal older, and her mother was still older (for the 19th century) when she was born. I know, "but it ties all the series together so nicely"... I get picky about things like this, and it bothers me. Or my math is way off... :-)

All that said there are some fun bits, and really cool possibilities to ponder, and cameos galore, and a sort of sideways answer to a question or two I'd had for a while, but I would have been far more interested if one of those answers had been a lot less "oh, by the way it just isn't done" and more "this is why it can't work for the English Supernaturals, but can for others".

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Entire Quartet review (kinda)

Revisado: 04-23-20

I listened to Parasol Protectorate (second? set by Gail Carriger) roughly concurrently with the Finishing School quartet. In terms of world-building and exposition Parasol Protectorate feels like the introduction to this world. I know I listened to Finishing School book 1 first of the Carriger books and when they mentioned a particular character was from "Westminster" (with background British knowledge) I presumed he was a government agent (precursor to MI5 possibly...?). It wasn't until two books later (one more Finishing School and the first Parasol Protectorate) that I became aware the character was, in fact, A VAMPIRE OF THE WESTMINSTER HIVE. So, despite Finishing School being set earlier...NOT the place to start for complete understanding of Carriger's world.

Temporal faux pas aside, the Finishing School books were quite fun. Somewhat fluffy on occasion, but quite fun.

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