'Outlander' adaptation news: meet Jamie Fraser

I interrupt my regularly scheduled book blogging for some breaking news/fangirling . . .

So, by now anybody who’s anybody will know that the TVadaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s ‘Outlander’ book series is a GO. For realsies, people! … after years of fans clamouring for Gerard Butler (No. Just … no) and Katherine Heigl expressing an interest in the project. After YEARS of fan-made videos on YouTube featuring Liam Neeson from ‘Rob Roy’ (yes, he would have been fabulous, Once Upon a Time…) after YEARS and YEARS of rabid fan speculation, it’s actually happening – Outlander is coming to cable TV channel, STARZ.

I already had high-hopes for this adaptation after Ronald D.Moore was announced as executive producer (he’s notorious for having made hard-to-please ‘Battlestar Galactica’ fans very, very happy). And on a side-note: Ronald is a wee bit lovely himself. Can he cast himself as Dougal? Or just a marauding Highland extra? He looks the part, no?

Secondly, I’ve been watching the STARZ series adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s ‘The Cousins’ War.’ ‘The White Queen’ is amazing. I’ve never read the books, but now I have to because the TV series has suckered me in so much. The cast is superb, the filming locations are breathtaking and they’ve clearly condensed quite a lot of story into highly addictive television viewing.

So, I’ve been feeling pretty good about an ‘Outlander’ TV series. But the real test of fandom would come with the casting announcements. And now we know for sure this isn’t some pie in the sky dream; because Himself has been cast.

That’s right. Hold on to your hearts, lassies, because Jamie Fraser is being bought to life by Scottish (!) actor, Sam Heughan.

Sam is 6 foot 3. He has cheekbones that could cut glass and piercing blue eyes, a knife of a nose … Okay. Basically he’s a very lovely chiselled specimen of a man … I mean. Um. *gulp*. He’s good. Yep, he’ll do. Appearance-wise, he has that lovely long and lean look of Himself and though Sam is 33, he could very easily pass for 22-year-old Jamie in Book #1. But I’m mostly excited because Diana Gabaldon is infectiously excited about this casting news.

On her Facebook page, Diana detailed her finding out about Sam as a Jamie contender. She saw photos of him, before watching his audition tape.

So I’m lookin’ at some of Sam’s photos and sayin’ to my husband, “Yeah, I buy him as a virgin…but I think Claire’s going to get done for statutory rape!” You know, a bit apprehensive. He’s quite big, but a very chiseled face that makes him look a good bit younger than he is, at least in stills.

But then she watches his audition tape, and …

First five seconds, I’m interested—he looks totally different than he did in _any_ of the stills—and five seconds later, Sam Heughan’s GONE, and so am I. It’s Jamie Fraser, right _there_ in front of me, moving, talking. One of the biggest thrills ever.

And that’s what actors do. Good ones. They can “be” someone else, totally.

Now, I saw him do two scenes: the confrontation between Jamie and Dougal, after Dougal exposes Jamie’s back in a tavern. Ferocious, explosive, a glimpse of the warrior. And he…freakin’ _exploded_.

And then…the scene in which Jamie explains to Claire exactly why he intends to punish her for disobeying his orders to stay hidden, thus nearly getting them all killed.

OK. This is arguably _the_ most controversial scene in all the books. And I’m not about to go into the scene itself—not the point here. The point is that that’s one heck of a complex scene, emotionally, and _could_ be read/performed in a lot of different ways. Now, I happen to _know_ exactly how Jamie acted and spoke during that scene…and that’s…exactly what Sam _did_. Thoughtfulness, intimacy, fair-mindedness, annoyance, firmness—and quite a lot of humor. One of Jamie’s hallmarks is the ability to be threatening and funny at the same time—and Sam pulled that off.

So, yeah. I’ve watched those videos a couple dozen times, just to be sure I wasn’t imagining things. I wasn’t.

Woah. Chills. Goosebumps. Hot flush. I’m sold.

Of course, there are already naysayers. And I’m already sick of them. Doubly so, those who are still whinging for Gerard or Thor (seriously, stop trying to make them a thing.)

But as if I needed more reason to be over-the-moon excited about this casting news, Sam Himself chimed in:

*Swoon*

2014 is shaping up to be the Year of Outlander. Book #8, ‘Writtenin My Own Heart's Blood’, is coming out March 2014 and the TV series will air next year too. I can’t wait. My fangirl heart is swelling with excitement for both and I’ve got nothing but good vibes and well-wishes going out to Diana and the Starz team.    

'The Originals' by Cat Patrick

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

To the outside world, Elizabeth Best is a model student. She's a cheerleader, gets straight As and holds down an after-school job. But what the outside world doesn't know is that Elizabeth Best is actually three girls. Lizzie, Betsey and Ella are no ordinary triplets. Born as part of an illegal cloning program, the girls were forced into hiding when the program was uncovered. To avoid being taken away, the girls have lived as one girl ever since. Living a third of a life can suck. Imagine having to consult your sisters before choosing your clothes, or hairstyle, or boyfriend. So when Lizzie is forbidden from seeing Sean, the amazing guy from her English class, she and her sisters decide they've had enough. But for a chance at a full life, they'll have to risk everything they know.

One of the reasons I love Cat Patrick is because I find her so hard to explain to other people. Whenever I ‘pitch’ a Cat Patrick book, I can never do her justice in trying to explain her unique contemporary/magical-realism-esque plots that make her a sort of Isabel Allende or Alice Hoffman for the younger set. That being said, with each new book that she brings out, I’m afraid she’s starting to lose that quirky edge and magic realist spin. 

‘Forgotten’ was about a girl who remembers her future, but forgets her past. She’s an anomaly who works hard to hide her deficiency, and is just trying to grow up as a normal girl in a small town and get closer to a guy she can’t remember she likes. I loved the balance of out-of-this-world with the struggle for normalcy, and while Patrick does eventually glimpse the roots of the backwards-forwards problem, ‘Forgotten’ doesn’t hinge on a solution and actually leaves off with a fair bit of mystery and magic still swirling.

Second book, ‘Revived’ is about a secret government agency responsible for a drug that brings people back from the dead, and one girl who has lived so many different lives … until she meets the one boy who makes her want to stay in this one. I liked ‘Revived’, maybe not as much as ‘Forgotten’, but it was still a winner for me. 

Third book, ‘The Originals’, brings in yet another secret government agency (a different one, not the same from ‘Revived’) that clone-sisters Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey Best and their lab technician mother are on the run from. For much of their lives, the girls thought they were triplets – until they were woken up in the dead of night by their mother and told the truth, and forced to run. It turns out that, after their mother lost her baby daughter, she went against her company and cloned her dead baby’s DNA, creating Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey. Now teenagers, the three girls live under the guise of ‘Elizabeth’ Best and each is allotted a third of the day to play out the role. But when both Lizzie and Ella develop feelings for two very different boys, they realize how much they’re not carbon copies and are actually desperate to break away from this triumvirate. 

There were elements of ‘The Originals’ that I really loved; one being the genetic engineering that’s explored, with the ethical issues of ‘playing God’ (a role, I would say, the girls’ mother takes very seriously and tyrannically). I also appreciated that the girls’ were created, not from a place of scientific experimentation, but parental love and loss. The story about their mother losing her baby is a haunting and deeply affecting one, and will certainly make some people sympathise with her (possibly not throughout though, as the story evolves). And I appreciated the fact that all three girls are very different, and although Lizzie is our narrator, Patrick definitely lets it be known that these are three very different individuals being straight-jacketed into one personality. 

“I’m not sulky,” I snap. “I’m just … over it.”  

“Over what?” 

Immediately, I want to take back what I said, not because I didn’t mean it, but I don’t want to get into a big discussion about it. I think Mum believes that we’re content or at least satisfied with the situation. And I guess until recently, we have been. I have been…maybe because I didn’t know any better. But now I know things need to change… I just don’t know how. And without knowing, now’s not the time to open that can of catastrophe. 

And there’s a very nice, VERY complicated romance at its heart, when Lizzie falls for a boy called Sean Kelly, while her sister Ella likes a Neanderthal called David …and their mother allows the girls to date only one boy (between them) and she chooses David over Sean. Yeah, it’s deliciously, unnervingly complicated and just the sort of push that Lizzie needs to start thinking about what she wants and what she’s not willing to give up.

So, there was a lot that I liked … but at the same time, some stuff just didn’t work. It’s understandable that a book about clones would have to some how bring in a government agency (or else be set in the future or an alternate world?) and Patrick touches on the trauma that the girls have gone through, being on the run from their mother’s former employer and the fact that she broke every single, ethical rule to bring them into this world. That’s a big set-up, right there. But the thing is, Patrick doesn’t want to concentrate on the government agency angle. This is, instead, very much a book about first love, coming-of-age and breaking away from your family to stand on your own two feet … all while being a clone, albeit. I was reminded of that old writing idiom, that if there’s a shotgun on the wall in Act I then it has to be fired by Act III; except it doesn’t go off in ‘The Originals’, making for a somewhat lacklustre end. 

See, this is the problem. I loved that ‘Forgotten’ had the quirky set-up but none of the big bang stuff, involving government conspiracies and a teenager on the run. Likewise, I quite liked that ‘Revived’ was all about a girl who has grown up within the conspiracy institution. ‘The Originals’ feels like an odd mash-up of the two; government conspiracy is how the characters got to the sticky situation they’re in, but the whole story is about first love, as opposed to government menace. It left questions hanging, bought the tension and high-stakes down by a few notches and just seemed a little confused, all round.

I still love Cat Patrick, and I’m actually relieved to read the blurb of her fourth book (with Suzanne Young) coming in August 2013 and called ‘Just Like Fate’ – which sounds like it has more of that magical-realism, teen-angst mix-up that I so loved in ‘Forgotten.’ I’d still say that Cat Patrick is one author you have to read, if only to bask in the brilliance of her eclectic and unique stories … but maybe go for ‘Forgotten’ or ‘Revived’ over ‘The Originals.’

3/5

'Unseen' Will Trent #7 by Karin Slaughter

 Received from NetGalley

From the BLURB:

Will Trent is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent whose latest case has him posing as Bill Black, a scary ex-con who rides a motorcycle around Macon, Georgia, and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. The cover has worked and he has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer who thinks he might be a useful ally. But undercover and cut off from the support of the woman he loves, Sara Linton, Will finds his demons catching up with him.

Although she has no idea where Will has gone, or why, Sara herself has come to Macon because of a cop shooting: Her stepson, Jared, has been gunned down in his own home. Sara holds Lena, Jared’s wife, responsible: Lena, a detective, has been a magnet for trouble all her life, and Jared’s shooting is not the first time someone Sara loved got caught in the crossfire. Furious, Sara finds herself involved in the same case that Will is working without even knowing it, and soon danger is swirling around both of them.

*** WARNING: contains spoilers of the 'Grant County' series and previous 'Will Trent' books ***

The past is never quite done with Sara Linton. This much is true when she gets a frantic phone-call from Darnell “Nell” Long; high school girlfriend to Sara’s five-years dead husband, and mother to Jeffrey Tolliver’s estranged son, Jared. Nell has called Sara for solace and outrage – Jared has been shot in a home invasion, and is now fighting for his life. Nell believes his wife, Lena Adams, is somehow responsible and Sara’s first inclination is to agree.

Lena was Jeffrey’s partner on the Grant police force – big brother to her reckless little sister. And it was her recklessness that got Jeffrey killed in the end, of this Sara has no doubt – she also knows that Lena’s self-preservation and selfishness has stopped her from ever taking that full blame. Jared is a patrolman, but Lena heads up an elite police taskforce and Sara is certain that the break-in and attempted murder will somehow link back to Lena’s job and reckless attitude …

Georgia Bureau of Investigation officer, Will Trent, also believes Lena Adams is the most likely link between the break-in and a raid she lead, that went bust a few days ago. Will has investigated Lena in the past, over a witness who died in custody – he could make nothing stick then, but he’s half convinced that this time Lena’s true nature is going to come out. 

Will heads down to Macon as part of an undercover operation investigating a mysterious (and possibly phantom) ‘Big Whitey’ ring leader that may lead back to Lena’s raid and her husband’s near-death. But Will also knows Lena’s past with his girlfriend, Sara Linton – and he knows that Sara is heading down to Macon to be by her stepson’s side. What Sara doesn’t know is that Will is undercover, investigating the woman who Sara blames for her husband’s death …

‘Unseen’ is the seventh book in Karin Slaughter’s highly-addictive ‘Will Trent’ series.

When I read the blurb of ‘Unseen’ and realized that Lena Adams would be back, I decided to do a quick skim-read of the six ‘Grant County’ books. I wanted to go back and see Slaughter plant the seed of Lena Adams back in that original series … and because Lena’s return in the ‘Will Trent’ series and Sara’s life would undoubtedly bring back the death of Jeffrey Tolliver, the late and great protagonist of Slaughter’s ‘Grant County’ series.

What struck me in re-reading was that the Lena/Sara battle, which erupted after Jeffrey’s death, and has been slowly simmering ever since, had been raging since the ‘Grant County’ series. Pretty much every conversation between Sara and Jeffrey about Lena includes Sara warning him about trying to save her or suggesting he give her enough rope to hang herself. And I remember thinking, in passing, that it was odd that Sara was constantly (often, begrudgingly) commenting on Jeffrey’s sexual prowess and indiscretions in the series; but she never framed Lena as a threat to their marriage or Jeffrey’s wandering eye. Though there was one instance when Sara herself mused that it would have been easier if Jeffrey and Lena had sexual chemistry – that’s a lot easier to dispel than the brotherly/fatherly hero complex he developed for his deputy. Lena and Sara had always been at foreshadowed loggerheads, and I think fans have been waiting for another showdown between the two since after Jeffrey’s death (which I believe rests squarely on Lena’s shoulders). 

Having said all my bias, I will point out that since I started reviewing Karin Slaughter (and expressing my molten hatred of Lena Adams) many have pointed out to me that she is a beloved character to some readers who appreciate her shades of grey and ‘down-but-never-out’ attitude … Now, this baffles me because I’ve despised Lena from the first, and my hatred only increased after ‘Beyond Reach.’ I always thought Slaughter wrote Lena Adams as a ‘villain’ (and the worst kind, at that; the kind of villain who thinks they’re actually the good guy.) But having re-read ‘Grant County’ and now ‘Unseen’, I can (begrudgingly) see those shades-of-grey Lena-supporters are harping on about. Regardless, it put me in an odd position for ‘Unseen’ – I had to grit my teeth throughout all of Lena’s chapters, and my skin literally crawled when I read about her marriage to Jared, Jeffrey’s estranged child and Sara’s stepson (who bears a striking resemblance to Jeffrey). It also meant I was 100% on Sara’s side when she goes into this new Lena Adams debacle, to be by her stepson’s bedside; 

Her head ached. Her muscles twitched. It was as if all the wires that held together her body had suddenly gone taut. 

Or maybe it wasn’t adrenaline. Maybe it was anger, because by the time Sara walked into the hospital, she was so angry that she could barely function. No – she wasn’t just angry. She was furious. 

Furious to be here. Furious that she wasn’t home taking a shower or eating breakfast or walking the dogs or sleeping in her bed or going about her normal life. Furious that yet again, she’d become ensnared in another one of Lena Adams’s deadly webs. 

If the wires had gone taut, it was only because Lena had pulled them.

Though I will say I was glad that it’s not just Sara who seems to have cottoned on to Lena’s ways; 

He’d spent a lifetime dealing with damaged women like Lena Adams. Their motivations were easy to read once you knew what to look for. “She’d never take a bribe. She does bad things, but she always thinks she’s doing them for the right reason.” 

“Whatever.” Faith had never been a fan of nuance. 

When I knew Lena Adams would be front-and-centre of this new ‘Will Trent’ book (and with such good timing, considering Sara and Will’s somewhat settled romance) I had hoped that would mean Jeffrey Tolliver’s memory would be front-and-centre too. And, he is, to an extent. But Sara is very aware that she’s with Will now, and in a far better place than right after Jeffrey died and she even attempted to take her own life. Though Jared is Nell’s son and his adopted father was Jeffrey’s best friend, Sara doesn’t want to get dragged back into the spiral of being Jeffrey’s widow … and that causes her a lot of guilt. It’s not that she doesn’t miss or still love Jeffrey, but being around the people he grew up with who aren’t yet used to seeing her a little more whole after his death, that drags her down. I completely get it; and the fact that ‘Unseen’ is shared narrative with both Will and Lena who have more to worry about than the ghost of Jeffrey Tolliver for the majority of this book … still, I’m a reading masochist and I almost wanted Sara and Slaughter to constantly pick at the wound of Jeffrey (I just miss him so much! Re-reading his death in ‘Beyond Reach’ made me blubber like a baby all over again). But there were other ways I was hoping Jeffrey’s memory would live on in this book – I was hoping for lengthy interactions between Sara and Jared, for instance. 

Another reason ‘Unseen’ isn’t an ode-to-Jeffrey is that this is very much an important book for Will and Sara. There’s a big hurdle in here for them, and after they’ve already been through so much (Will’s secretive past and psychotic wife, not withstanding). This is such a gloriously important book for Will and Sara, and in terms of developing these characters and their relationship – Slaughter gets top stars. Fans will be delighted for what ‘Unseen’ means for them, and future books will be even more interesting.

It always seems that when reviewing the latest Karin Slaughter book, I harp on a lot about the relationships and not the crime crux. Look, it’s Slaughter so you know it’s going to be good – ‘Unseen’ is another of her gory and bleak dramas, that will keep you guessing and careening down the plotted path right until the last page. But, like I always say, I come back and stick by Slaughter for the characters. I love how gloriously messy and frustrating their lives are, the tangled webs of their romances and relationships. ‘Unseen’ is a stellar instalment for the fact that Slaughter has found new facets in the lives of these old characters; and given fans something to look forward to in their futures and upcoming instalments.

5/5

'Just Between Us' by Maya Linden, Christie Nieman, Maggie Scott, Natalie Kon-Yu and Miriam Sved

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Empathetic, supportive and respectful... 

Or competitive, manipulative and downright bitchy?

Or somewhere in between?

In Just Between Us, a host of Australia's best-loved female writers bare all on this age-old quandary: Are female friendships all-natural and nurturing? Or are some more damaging than delightful? And most of all, what happens when female relationships go off the rails? And who is to blame? While falling in and out of romantic love is a well-documented experience, losing a friend rarely gets discussed. Which doesn't mean the pain is less – quite the opposite, as we discover in this extraordinary collection of heartfelt fiction and non-fiction works that put female friendship in the spotlight.

Nikki Gemmell looks at the hardwiring that keeps us bonded in tightly knit packs, but makes us feel oh-so-claustrophic in mothers groups and at the school gate. Melina Marchetta reveals the peculiar shame of being overlooked for the high-status netball positions of Centre and Goal Attack. Liz Byrski conducts a forensic examination of her own friendship history, and finds some uncomfortable patterns. And Merridy Eastman pens a letter from Helena to Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which shines the light on one of literature's most famously dysfunctional female friendships.

On the surface, a collection of fiction and nonfiction stories from nineteen different writers on the topic of ‘friendship’ sounds like it could be the stuff of a dull Year Nine English writing assignment. But it’s in the subtitle of 'Just Between Us' that the tension and purpose is revealed; ‘Australian writers tell the truth about female friendship.’ And then you only need read the foreword by Helen Garner to know that this is a very special book indeed, promising “a feast of things that women do not consider trivial.” Garner surmises; “that to examine with reverent attention the tiniest of human details is anything but a waste of time. It may even be essential to survival.” Indeed. 

This book is about the little things from which big things grow – the silences and missed phone calls, a crackle of tension in the air and a gaze averted. Some stories are funny, others confessional; many of the nonfiction authors, especially, try to offer condolences and answers to sunken friendships, while others are willing to let questions go unanswered and friends untethered. In this book nothing is too small, all is worthy of examination. From those friendships that drifted into the ether, to those cut short by death. All are examined with the same weight. In the introduction, the books' editors promised that this anthology would “escape the simplicity of those often-seen caricatures of female friendship: the effortless ‘best friends forever’ and the bitchy rival.” And they deliver. 

It’s often the end of a friendship that is examined in these stories. And Julienne van Loon inadvertently questions that in her nonfiction piece ‘In Broad Daylight’, about her last “real” female friend who lived a short, tragic life; 

It is curious that friendship is most often written about after it has gone, as if death legitimises the discussion of what was previously too private or fragile a territory. Are friendships between women particularly private and fragile?  

—‘In Broad Daylight’ by Julienne van Loon 

It’s often said that truth is stranger than fiction, and that seems never truer than in the case of female friendships. This anthology has six fiction and thirteen nonfiction pieces – and some of the true stories come from surprising authors. Cath Crowley and Cate Kennedy have decided to don truth over fiction for their pieces, with glorious results. Lots of the stories sting a bit, because there’s universal truth in them and the authors are laying bare some of their deepest regrets and bad behaviour, and it was in these pieces that I saw most of myself; 

I want to give you a reason but I can’t remember why I told. It wasn’t a mistake; I know that. I used your secret as a kind of currency but I can’t remember what it was I bought. 

— ‘A Letter to a Lost Friend’ by Cath Crowley 

Clementine Ford’s piece ‘Girls Who Wear Gingham’ rings especially, uncomfortably true for me. I went to a private all girl school. I wore gingham. To this day if I have a particularly nasty gossip session with my best friend from high school, we shrug at our petty nastiness and blame it on the school environment that bred it in us. 

There are girls who are never the victim, and there are girls who will always find themselves in that role. But in between, there are girls who pulsate between the two. So it was with me. I was the mouse. Sometimes I was the cat.

— ‘Girls Who Wear Gingham’ by Clementine Ford 

Other authors make delicious breadcrumbs of their stories, like Melina Marchetta’s ‘The Centre’, which is written entirely in epistolary email format between old high school friends rehashing an old debate over netball hierarchy … but which eventually reveals deeper hurts in one of their own, called Matilda. Even if I didn’t know (having heard Melina speak at a Penguin teachers function) that this was the beginning/trigger of a new book she’s working on (two words: Jimmy Hailer) I would want to follow wherever this story leads. 

Sexuality and romance is also beautifully explored in some of these stories; it’s all part of the prism, and love often follows friendship. As the editors promised, there’s nothing cliché or deliberately titillating in such stories – unsurprisingly (to women, at least) there’s none of that ‘male gaze’ pillow-fighting during a sleepover stuff … it’s quieter in ‘Just Between Us’, runs deeper. 

Miriam Sved’s fictional ‘One True Thing’ is about a woman who finds a collection of short stories written by one of her old school friends; one story clearly borrows heavily from their girlhood, and the sexual overtones colour her own memories of their past and have her desperate to reconnect and get to the bottom of what was fact and what was fiction for both of them. Francesca Rendle-Short dissects and vivisects in the nonfiction ‘Glossus’, on her marriage that eventually crumbled, and the little loves she held for the female friends along the way until she found ‘My Beloved’: 

Memories are encoded in our bodies – the forgetting and remembering; they press and lift us into different shapes, change the colour of our skin. There is a kind of ecstasy thinking about what J gave me that night, I feel it in my bones: because she didn’t care what anyone thought, no matter who or what she was or wanted to be – which was none of anyone’s business anyway, she was quick to add. She kept holding my hand, kept dancing, and became even more provocative and free. She challenged them all to yell it again, to grow more furious than they already were. J was always very good with her voice. 

— ‘Glossus’ by Francesca Rendle-Short 

I would love it if Pan Macmillan Australia made another anthology, of Australian writers telling the truth about male friendships. Helen Garner’s foreword includes a conversation with a male friend about the break down of her female friendship, to which he replies “Blokes tend to shrug and barrel on through.” Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s oversimplified. I know that in reading ‘Just Between Us’ I felt a deep connection to all of the stories in some way, because they’re my story too – but I’d quite like to be surprised and learn something about male friendships that could also benefit from an anti-cliché short story anthology. 

Here is a book that explores the shifting tectonic plates and little earthquakes that make and break female friendships. It is equal parts beautiful and uncomfortable, true and elusive … I found a bit of myself in every single piece, and after I finished reading I instantly wanted to pass it on to my friends so that they too could find themselves within the pages.

5/5

'Beguiling the Beauty' Fitzhugh Trilogy #1 by Sherry Thomas

From the BLURB:

When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg on a transatlantic liner, he is fascinated. She’s exactly what he’s been searching for—a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast—and soon proposes marriage.

And then she disappears without a trace…

For in reality, the “baroness” is Venetia Easterbrook—a proper young widow who had her own vengeful reasons for instigating an affair with the duke. But the plan has backfired. Venetia has fallen in love with the man she despised—and there’s no telling what might happen when she is finally unmasked…

Christian, Duke of Lexington, fell in love with Venetia Easterbrook from afar, as many young men have done. But she was married at the time of his falling was for naught. But Christian still made a promise to himself that one day, no matter how long he’d have to wait, he would take a chance with the beautiful Mrs. Easterbrook. 

Christian harboured this thought close to his heart for years. Even after an unsettling conversation with Mr. Easterbrook about his downfall, thanks in part to his beguiling wife, Christian still wanted her. Even after he heard rumours that Venetia Easterbrook had been blazingly, openly unfaithful to her second husband until he passed away, even then, Christian wanted her. Desperately. Maddeningly … until he didn’t. Until the day, while giving a lecture in America, that he realized Venetia Easterbrook’s beauty was a biological lie that harboured a cruel woman behind a beautiful mask. 

Little did Christian know that Venetia was in the audience that day, and listening with a sinking heart to every cruel misconception he uttered about this ‘anonymous’ and evil beguiling woman. 

What happened next was almost out of Venetia’s control. When she found herself staying at the same hotel as the Duke of Lexington … when she wore a veil to hide her face, and called herself Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg to avoid his detection.

And then somehow it all went horribly, damnably, wrong.

‘Beguiling the Beauty’ is the first book in a new historical romance series from Sherry Thomas, called the ‘Fitzhugh Trilogy’. 

I have very quickly become a big fan of Sherry Thomas. Having read two of her stand-alone romances and been wholly impressed, I was so happy to become ensconced in a romance series by this new favourite author. And the first book of the ‘Fitzhugh Trilogy’ certainly delivers.

We meet Christian, Duke of Lexington, on the day he falls in love with Venetia Easterbrook from afar. Yes, this is one of those abhorrent ‘love at first sight’ clichés … or is it? This is Sherry Thomas after all, the writer injecting a bit of literary spice into the historical romance genre. So what starts as a cliché quickly progresses into a damning obsession for Christian, and then into a horrible public embarrassment for Venetia Easterbrook when he unleashes years of pent-up frustrations and dashed dreams on an ‘anonymous’ (but undoubtedly her, with that marriage history) woman who bewitched him with her beauty, but masked a wretched woman underneath. 

What Christian didn’t see, couldn’t see, on that day when he fell for Venetia from afar was how horribly miserable she was. At the time she had a husband who blamed her for everything – from being unable to give him a son, to London society who forget about him in her presence. And then she agreed to a second marriage with a dear friend, a convenience for them both which society has since warped and misconstrued. 

When Venetia, veiled and hidden, bumps into Christian in the lobby of their hotel after hearing his tirade against her, she only thinks to avoid outright vitriol and so pretends to be the Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg. But when he seeks her out again, this masked Baroness who has him so intrigued, their paths take a decidedly different turn … and a sea-voyage sinks them both deeper and deeper into a tangled web of lies.

Oh! This is such a delicious book with a horrendously messy romance at its centre. In theory, both Venetia and Christian could have been pretty awful characters. Venetia is that particular brand of heroine that can go so horribly wrong if not written with finesse – she’s beautiful but despising of her beauty (even as others fall all over themselves for her). Thomas saves Venetia though, by giving us glimpses into two unhappy marriages that have left their imprint on her and added to her disgruntlement with her own outward appearance. Likewise, Christian could have come across as a bit of a dimwit, easily swayed by a pretty face and not much else. But he has a lot of heart, and spends a good portion of the book making it up to himself (and, unknowingly, Venetia too) for the way he fell for her looks before getting to know the beauty. And then there’s the fact that Venetia and Christian click on more than just a physical level – they are both scientists, and his encouragement of her intellectual endeavours is enough to leave readers swooning for this forward-thinking man; 

“If memory serves,” he said, “some of the most significant finds in British paleontological history must be credited to a woman.”  

“Yes, Mary Anning, I've read about her. My husband said her finds were due to blind luck.” 

He snorted. “If God saw fit to give a woman that much blind luck, he can’t possibly object to such endeavours on a woman’s part.”

I loved that Sherry Thomas teased out the idea of ‘love at first sight’, and wrote against typical romantic clichés to explore real conundrum for both Venetia and Christian. Things become decidedly interesting when Venetia, back home in London, casts off her Baroness disguise and becomes reacquainted with Christian, this time as her beautiful self... 

She tilted her umbrella slightly away from her person. “There are those who like me for the way my nose sits on my face – a ridiculous reason to like someone. But it’s also a fairly ridiculous reason to not like someone – as it is in your case.” 

“I disapprove of your character, Mrs. Easterbrook.”  

“You don’t know my character, sir,” she said decisively. “The only thing you know is my face.” 

This is the ‘Fitzhugh Trilogy’, and the focus is on Venetia and her siblings, who will round out the series. There’s her older brother, Lord Fitzhugh ‘Fitz’, who is married to the young Millicent for initial reasons of monetary gains, but whose marriage has become a friendship. Then there’s youngest Fitzhugh, Helena, who is the reason behind Venetia’s American expedition in the first place, after it was discovered that Helena had begun an affair with a married Ton man. 

If I had any complaints about this book, it would be that the larger series context of the Fitzhugh family feels a little underwhelming. I like it if I can at least glimpse the stories for future books in a series, but I don’t think readers were given enough insight into the Fitzhugh sibling dynamic and for that reason ‘Beguiling the Beauty’ really could just be another stand-alone from Thomas … but I suppose time (and the next two books) will tell if this disjointedness lasts or a trilogy feel becomes apparent. For now, I am again bewitched by yet another Sherry Thomas novel, this time in her lengthy (and messy) examination of the old ‘love at first sight’ cliché, and all the drama that can entail. 

4.5/5