Shades of Milk and Honey -- Mary Robinette Kowal
At twenty-eight, Jane Ellsworth is aware that she's unlikely to marry. Although she has far more wit than most, exquisite taste, conducts herself with the utmost propriety, and is quite accomplished in all of the skills desirous in a young lady -- music, art, conversation, and the like -- as well as having far more natural talent in the arts of glamour (magic, not being tarty) than most people of either sex, she goes unnoticed. She is always eclipsed by her sister Melody -- who is lacking in all of Jane's positive qualities, including (and maybe especially) the ever-important propriety.
Jane knows that Melody's physical beauty and outgoing nature will always outshine her own plain features and reserved behavior, and it hasn't ever been particularly bothersome... until recently. Now that they've both developed a regard for the same man, Jane finds herself... more easily irritated with her younger sister, and less inclined to make allowances for Melody's often difficult behavior.
Shades of Milk and Honey, in a word? YES. I loved this book.
It won't be for everyone -- the fantasy element will be much too quiet for some tastes, I'm sure, and the Threats to the Family Honor plotline mentioned in the flap copy was so minor that I didn't even mention it in my synopsis. It's a mostly quiet book about a mostly quiet heroine, about manners, creating art, a difficult sisterly relationship and unexpectedly (for Jane, at least) about finding love.
I've tried to avoid comparisons to Jane Austen because, even with the Era and the Trying to Find a Husband and the Manners, it doesn't feel like an Austen. It certainly isn't a book I would just hand to Austen fans willy-nilly. And anyway, peoples' habit of comparing every single novel set in the Regency era to Jane Austen is as annoying as peoples' habit of comparing every male coming-of-age story with Catcher in the Rye. All that said, she is there.
The personalities of the characters are comfortably familiar -- Jane usually attempts to hide her inner Lizzie Bennet behind a Jane Bennet-like countenance, while Melody exhibits a combination of Marianne Dashwood/Lydia Bennet positive/negative versions of passion and impetuousness; it's very easy to draw parallels between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth; and Mr. Vincent is a rumpled artist version of Mr. Darcy. But, while I enjoyed the similarities, I could easily imagine those same similarities turning some readers right off.
While it was a pretty sure bet that I'd love this one (I do love the Regencies), and while I loved the love story -- both love stories, really, even when I was, like Jane, ultimately disappointed by the behavior of one of the participants -- it was the push/pull/love/frustration/protective/jealous relationship between Jane and Melody that I really loved about the book. While I was firmly in Jane's corner at all times, I felt for Melody, even when she was acting (for lack of a better word) like a jerk. Her insecurities were completely understandable, given her sister's talents, and her behavior, though obnoxious, (sometimes) mean, and occasionally almost unforgivable, made sense and felt right.
Mary Robinette Kowal's writing is both descriptive and tight -- again and again, a few lines would give me a detailed image of the scene. I saw everything, and in a book that deals heavily with making art, that is a good thing. More simply: I fell into the world of this book, and I was sad when it was over.
______________________________________
Book source: Library copy.
______________________________________
Amazon Associate. If you click through and buy something, I receive a small commission.