63. Faith Fox, by Jane Gardam, 1996, 3/5: her most depressing novel. My favourite Gardam novels are Bilgewater then Crusoe's Daughter then The Flight of the Maidens (but Old Filth is probably her most popular work).
64. The Geographer's Map to Romance, by India Holton, 2025, fantasy romance novel (het), 3/5 A "marriage of convenience" romance novel set in a fantasy version of Victorian Britain (supposedly 1890), peopled by characters with 21st century sensibilities and international English language. The plot, such as it was, would have been enough for a much shorter story, and the magical trappings are arbitrary, but the prose is lively and full of in-jokes and meta-humour about romance and fantasy tropes which entertained me enough to read on. Warning: if you dislike "only one bed" scenes then be aware that's a running joke and Holton crams in as many examples as possible. P.S. Can confirm Much Marcle is the sort of place where a rain of frogs would seem normal.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-06-11 09:05 pm (UTC)63. Faith Fox, by Jane Gardam, 1996, 3/5: her most depressing novel. My favourite Gardam novels are Bilgewater then Crusoe's Daughter then The Flight of the Maidens (but Old Filth is probably her most popular work).
64. The Geographer's Map to Romance, by India Holton, 2025, fantasy romance novel (het), 3/5
A "marriage of convenience" romance novel set in a fantasy version of Victorian Britain (supposedly 1890), peopled by characters with 21st century sensibilities and international English language. The plot, such as it was, would have been enough for a much shorter story, and the magical trappings are arbitrary, but the prose is lively and full of in-jokes and meta-humour about romance and fantasy tropes which entertained me enough to read on. Warning: if you dislike "only one bed" scenes then be aware that's a running joke and Holton crams in as many examples as possible. P.S. Can confirm Much Marcle is the sort of place where a rain of frogs would seem normal.