Name: Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories #1)
Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Number of Pages: 304 (ebook)
Published: August 3rd 2010 by Tor
Genre: Historical, Fantasy, Romance
Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men.
Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right–and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.
My Rating:
My Thoughts:
Shades of Milk and Honey is a charming beginning to the Glamourist Histories, a series of Regency era tales of romance and magic.
The story centres around the Ellsworth family, particularly two sisters, Jane and Melody, and their friendships, relationships, and dramas of varying kinds. It’s a world of courtesies, social engagements and romantic attachments, much like many a story told before, but in this world there is also magic, more specifically, glamour. To be accomplished in glamour is a valued talent, so when Glamourist Mr. Vincent arrives on the scene, employed at a neighbouring property, Jane, who has a natural talent for glamour, is interested.
After an initial meeting sets them off on precisely the wrong foot with each other Jane and Mr. Vincent appear destined to be constantly at odds, misunderstanding or unintentionally slighting the other, which makes each of their encounters something to anticipate, be this in company at a great gathering or in a smaller family group at Jane’s home.
The magical flourishes throughout are charming. Glamour can be used to enhance art and add lifelike detail to a painting, or transform a dining room into a forest glade so realistic in sight, sound and scent and anyone in the room could well believe they’d been transported elsewhere, or to create colours in the air to complement a piece of music. It can also be used to modify appearance if you’re so inclined, to make minor illusory adjustments to appearance, something in which Jane refuses to indulge despite hearing herself referred to as plain and also having a fairly critical self-opinion.
There’s a whole host of would-be suitors for the Ellsworth sisters, from the enigmatic Mr. Vincent, to the dashing Captain Livingston and the steady, dependable Mr. Dunkirk. As the story plays out each of these characters is revealed to be more or less than they appear on the surface. Watching their interactions with Jane and Melody, and wondering who, if any of them, would end up together was just reading enjoyment. I don’t tend to read that much along these lines, but some of the scenes in this book, especially the way a certain character’s feelings are revealed are just perfect and I sat there smiling as I was reading.
It’s not all smooth sailing though, there are those with ill intentions and the honour of more than one family may end up being at stake, and into a pretty exciting conclusion our characters are thrown before we find out whether anyone will end up with their own happy ending.
Shades of Milk and Honey was a pleasure to read. Time spent in this gentle world of manners, magic and misunderstandings was reading time well spent. Even better? It’s the first book in a series so there is more to look forward to.
I’m seriously thinking of buying this entire series, I keep hearing wonderful things, and your review makes me want to read it even more😁
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I think I might have to get the rest too, I definitely want to know what’s going to happen next 🙂
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Great review! Glad you liked it! I’ll have to download it to my phone so that it’s constantly staring me in the face when I go to the Kindle app. lol. I didn’t know it was part of a series! 5 books wow! Maybe I will read it next year. Trying not to start anymore new series this year! At least it’s completed!
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Thank you 🙂 Hope you enjoy it if you do get around to starting it. I wasn’t going to start any more new series this year either but then I started reading The Invisible Library so my plans may change 🙂
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Oh, what an enthusiastic review! I haven’t heard of this before, thanks for putting it on my radar!
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It’s a great beginning to a series, I hope the rest of the books are just as good.
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You’ve convinced me to add this back to my wishlist.
I’ve also just read a very charming story which is based on the Bronte family – and the three sisters trying their hand at detecting. I really enjoyed that and all the references sprinkled throughout that put me in mind of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
Lynn 😀
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Hope you enjoy if you get a chance to read. This book about the Bronte family sounds even from this brief description like something that I’m definitely going to have to read, I love anything along those lines. I’ll look out for your review 🙂
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Wonderful review! You capture so much of what I love about these books. 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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Thank you. It was just lovely from start to end. Really looking forward to the rest of the series now 😀
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I love this series so much. The first one is actually my least favorite in the series–in my opinion it only gets better from here. 🙂
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Sounds like I have some great reads to look forward to. I love discovering a new-to-me author, especially when there’s a whole series of books to read.
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This isn’t my usual cup of tea, but sometimes taking the not usual could be a bliss! And this seems intriguing enough! Thanks for sharing!!
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I didn’t know if it would be mine either but I fancied something a bit different and it was just lovely 🙂
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