Recent reading
Mar. 8th, 2021 06:29 pmFloodtide by Heather Rose Jones (2019, #4 in the Alpennia series)
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garonne, I commend this book to your attention: it is an f/f romance set in the 1820's, where the main character is a servant who starts out by being unfairly dismissed, and also there is lots of sewing. I believe this is relevant to your interests. *g*
Actually, I take it back: this is not a romance, but a story with a lesbian main character. The three previous books in the series did have romances, so I expected there to be one here, too, but no--it's a story about her life, with one relationship that ends early, an unrequited crush, and a friendship that might become something more, or might not. I thought that was refreshing. It's more of a coming-of-age story, with her finding out what she wants and is able to do in life.
Also, lest you think I always complain about worldbuilding: this story has excellent worldbuilding. It's set in a fictional mid-European country with subtle magic, and the world feels very lived-in, with a lot of details of daily life. I am entirely unsurprised to learn that the author has a Ph D in linguistics--I always thought the names were well done. Many of them are recognizable versions of names we know, like Tavit (David), Maitelen, Efriturik, etc. The d-t correspondence is obvious, but I'm sure she has carefully planned out the rules for the language. Also, the writing style itself is different from the other books in the series, having a much simpler sentence structure in this one, I suppose because the main character is a young servant.
If you start here, you'll have a lot of characters to keep track of, since the ones from the previous books are included, but the story is self-contained.
garonne, I commend this book to your attention: it is an f/f romance set in the 1820's, where the main character is a servant who starts out by being unfairly dismissed, and also there is lots of sewing. I believe this is relevant to your interests. *g* Actually, I take it back: this is not a romance, but a story with a lesbian main character. The three previous books in the series did have romances, so I expected there to be one here, too, but no--it's a story about her life, with one relationship that ends early, an unrequited crush, and a friendship that might become something more, or might not. I thought that was refreshing. It's more of a coming-of-age story, with her finding out what she wants and is able to do in life.
Also, lest you think I always complain about worldbuilding: this story has excellent worldbuilding. It's set in a fictional mid-European country with subtle magic, and the world feels very lived-in, with a lot of details of daily life. I am entirely unsurprised to learn that the author has a Ph D in linguistics--I always thought the names were well done. Many of them are recognizable versions of names we know, like Tavit (David), Maitelen, Efriturik, etc. The d-t correspondence is obvious, but I'm sure she has carefully planned out the rules for the language. Also, the writing style itself is different from the other books in the series, having a much simpler sentence structure in this one, I suppose because the main character is a young servant.
If you start here, you'll have a lot of characters to keep track of, since the ones from the previous books are included, but the story is self-contained.
