The Marriage Bed

Review for The Marriage Bed by Laura Lee Guhrke:

The Marriage Bed is a strange novel; it’s well-written, but I didn’t like it. John, Lord Hammond, married 17-year-old Viola for her money. She’d fallen in love with him, and was heartbroken when she realized he was a fortune-hunter. Despite a short period of happiness together, the two turned away from each other when Viola learned this, and became totally estranged for 8 years. But then John’s cousin dies, leaving him to continue the line of the viscountcy. He tracks Viola down and lets her know he needs a legitimate heir. Though Viola hates him over the course of the novel John charms and woos and seduces her into falling in love once again.

I felt bad for Viola most of the time. She had been lied to and used, then rejected and publicly humiliated by John’s many affairs. Nevertheless, she can’t help but fall in love with him. She tries to be cold, but is too sweet and vulnerable to resist.

It’s hard to like John. He’s seriously charming, and funny, and as Viola says, he’s a “heartbreaker.” He attracts women with his humor and thoughtfulness, and they inevitably fall in love with him. But when he grows bored, he leaves them at the drop of a dime. He is, at his core, heartless—he refuses to recognize that these women (his wife and mistresses) are in love with him, and is incapable of love himself. Obviously, he changes by the end. But the change comes late in the book, which is part of what makes the novel so strange (and unsuccessful).

Being unable to love a woman is the worst crime a romance novel hero can commit. I say this with only a little bit of tongue-in-cheek. We’d rather have a kidnapping philanderer like Sebastian in Devil in Winter, or a former criminal, prostitute, grave-robber and blackmailer, like Derek of Dreaming of You. As long as they love their women, we’ll forgive them anything. But it’s hard to read a book where the hero isn’t in love until the very end, and it’s hard to watch Viola give in time and time again while getting nothing in return.

This romance novel is not a woman’s fantasy. So why the hell would you want to read it? Granted, it’s by Guhrke, who apparently couldn’t write poorly if she tried. But the story is unsatisfying and the characters unsuccessful, so even though I was interested while reading, I give this a C.

She's No Princess

Review for She's No Princess, by Laura Lee Guhrke:

She's No Princess is set up as the inverse of And Then He Kissed Her; in this case, it's the man who's rigidly proper, and the woman who is wild and flirtatious and cares most for rules. Sir Ian Moore, a British diplomat, has been given the infuriating task of finding an English husband for Lucia Valenti, the daughter of an Italian prince. She's caused too many scandals, and her father wants her out of his country and out of his hair...within 6 weeks. Lucia and Ian, stuck with each other in London, try alternately to manipulate, bully, and on Lucia's part, seduce each other. Like And Then He Kissed Her, it's one long seduction, and it's truly enjoyable to watch Ian trying to resist Lucia's overtures.

Lucia is some sort of living aphrodisiac, and every man she encounters goes crazy for her. Granted, she's an enormous and shameless flirt, so this is more plausible and less annoying than it is in other romance novels. Plus Lucia is fun and mischeivous and a bit outrageous, so it's easy to see why people fall for her.

Ian is pure English, with strict notions of duty, honor, and propriety that he holds himself to. He works too hard and never lets his emotions show or relaxes. It's why Lucia can't help teasing him and working him up, and why it's so fun to see.

As in the last novel of Guhrke's I reviewed, she does a beautiful job of moving her characters from apathy/disdain to obsession. Unfortunately, she leaves a lot to be desired in this story. Neither of the characters seem to develop or grow. The ending is unsatisfying. And most problematic of all both Ian and Lucia do something really cruel to the other, and Guhrke never adequately resolves this.

Add to that the facat that I wasn't sure Ian truly loved Lucia, rather than being taken over by mad lust by a little sexpot, and I couldn't give this novel more than a B. Up to the last 70 pages, though, it's a superb read.

General Fiction, Hugo Cabret

Review for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick (kidslit):

The amazing...the beautiful...the strange...it's The Invention of Hugo Cabret! This is a kids' book that can only have come from an illustrator. Hugo Cabret is about equal parts words and pictures, but at over 500 pages long, it can hardly be called a picture book. I'd say it's a mix between your typical picture book and comic book.

The story is set in 1930's Paris, and the title character is a young orphan boy who lives in a train station and keeps the numerous clocks running. Thanks to his father and uncle, both horlogiers, Hugo knows all about the mechanisms behind clocks and gears of all sorts. That's why he dedicates all his free time to restoring a small, robotic man, whom he believes holds a message for him from beyond the grave.

I don't want to give too much away about the story, because the surprises and the twists are all so delightful. But I will say that Selznick brings in a bit of cinematic history that really brings the reader back to that decade. And the way he mixes different visual formats--photography, drawing, and more--is also stunning. The visual aspect of the book obviously dominates, perhaps because it is so unusual, but this word-lover loved every second of it. He tells a great story while illustrating it beautifully and innovatively, and mixes in some fascinating history, as well.

Go read this book. I recommend it absolutely, 100%, to anyone who has an appreciation of kidslit. The drawings will captivate you, the format will surprise and even expand you, and the story will endear itself to you. Go. Go on, now. What are you still doing here?