Esther Friesner, Druid’s Blood. A Holmes pastiche set in an alternate England where Queen Victoria keeps the realm safe by magic. Quite a fun novel; given the number of nods to Victorian England that my history-deprived brain catches, I’m sure there’s a slew that I’m missing. I’m also amused that the chapters all seem to be named after Holmes adventures that Watson didn’t write up.
Rumer Godden, Home is the Sailor and Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum. Childhood favorites about dolls. Still thoroughly enjoyable, and quick reads besides. I also read The Rocking Horse Secret, which was an interesting short book — it’d be almost too sweet, except for the very realistic depiction of the elderly woman.
Steven Brust, the Khaavren series: The Phoenix Guards, Five Hundred Years After, The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode. A fun series, and reading the whole thing in sequence definitely adds to the appreciation.
Loretta Chase, Captives of the Night. This was an interesting romance, with some suspense as to whether the hero is actually a good guy or not.
Cara Lockwood, Wuthering High. A girl gets sent to a boarding school that turns out to have…interesting faculty.
Elizabeth Hoyt, The Raven Prince. I swear I’ve read the opening setup in another novel (and, now that I think about it, I suspect both are homages to Jane Eyre). Anyway, it was an enjoyable read, but while the sex scenes were steamy and well-written, they didn’t pass the “if the book faded to black at the bedroom door, we’d be scratching our heads about the character development” test.
Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. Damn. Even better on rereads. Just read these books, okay?
Didn’t finish:
Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation. To anyone who seriously argues that there’s no problems with using “man” and “he” to mean “generic human, male or female”, this book is a counter-example. It was originally published in the 1950s, so the usage is understandable; it’s also damn confusing. First Eliade seems to be talking about initiation rites for any gender; then context makes it clear that he’s talking specifically about males; then something suggests that he might be talking about both men and women…. I finally decided I wasn’t sufficiently interested in the book to wade through it. From what I read, though, a more accurate title would be “Rites and Symbols of Mostly Male Initiation”.
Joan Aiken, Jane Fairfax. While I love the character from Emma, this story didn’t do anything for me, and I put it down partway through.
Larry Doyle, I Love You, Beth Cooper. Well written, and the chapter illustrations are amusing, but it didn’t grab my interest enough to keep me going.
Rumer Godden, Listen to the Nightingale. I’m pretty sure I read this book as a kid (as well as Godden’s other book about a child who goes to ballet school, Thursday’s Children), but I don’t remember the details. Since I didn’t sympathize at all with the main character, I gave up a few chapters in.