A number of my friends strongly … encouraged? (yeah, we’ll go with “encouraged”) me to read The Lord of Stariel when I asked which of the assorted book club books available this month I should read for purposes of Bingo. I might make some enemies by saying this, but I didn’t love this book. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, and I can understand why some people might love it, but I thought it was just ok.
Mostly my complaints come from the book being very, very predictable. Take the blurb:
> Everyone knows who the magical estate will choose for its next ruler. Or do they? Will it be the lord’s eldest son, who he despised? His favourite nephew, with the strongest magical land-sense? His scandalous daughter, who ran away from home years ago to study illusion? Hetta knows it won’t be her, and she’s glad of it. Returning home for her father’s funeral, all Hetta has to do is survive the family drama and avoid entanglements with irritatingly attractive local men until the Choosing. Then she can leave. But whoever Stariel chooses will have bigger problems than eccentric relatives to deal with.
That blurb left me with a pretty solid guess on who would inherit. Turns out I was correct, which, ok, fine, that’s cool. But it took half of the book before we got to that point. That’s just too long for an author to take to lead me exactly where I think I’m going to go. There were other examples of things I considered to be obvious, but that’s the most egregious.
I’ve got no problem with stories that are tropey or cliched. But there needs to be something else interesting, and there really wasn’t here. I certainly got more interested after that halfway point, but it never really hooked me. I can get why some would find Hetta to be a very compelling protagonist, but she never really hooked me either.
I don’t want to talk anyone out of this book. Enough people whose tastes I really respect love this book that I’m sure it’s just a matter of taste. But it’s not for me.
Bingo categories: Book Club Book [Hard Mode, if you read it in January]
The Stariel series by AJ Lancaster has been my new obsession this past couple of weeks, occupying far too much of my brain space and keeping me up way past my bedtime. It’s secondary world fantasy romance/fantasy of manners series, with faeries, set in a time period similar to the begining of the 20th century. It’s absolutely charming and engaging, with most people caring about each other and a lot of great family relationships, while also having serious stakes and danger.
These 4 books complete the series, but there is a spin-off standalone planned for next year, that I’m very excited for.
I’ll try and give my thoughts for each book in the series separately, so the short review for book 2 will probably spoil book 1 and so on, read as far as you’re ok with. If you haven’t read the books at all I’d rec stopping with this post after the review of book 1, since even the blurbs give out info. I also have some hidden full-series squeeing thoughts at the very end
- Genre: Fantasy Romance
- Age group: Adult
- Pub. date: 2018 – 2021
- Format: Ebook
- Pages: around 1500 if you end up binging the whole series
- Goodreads link
https://preview.redd.it/w6281ke7r1q71.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb961c1e71a0ae39cd151fdd33c616a3799aa24a
The Lord of Stariel
>***The Lord of Stariel is dead. Long live the Lord of Stariel. Whoever that is.***Everyone knows who the magical estate will choose for its next ruler. Or do they?Will it be the lord’s eldest son, who he despised?His favourite nephew, with the strongest magical land-sense?His scandalous daughter, who ran away from home years ago to study illusion?Hetta knows it won’t be her, and she’s glad of it. Returning home for her father’s funeral, all Hetta has to do is survive the family drama and avoid entanglements with irritatingly attractive local men until the Choosing. Then she can leave.But whoever Stariel chooses will have bigger problems than eccentric relatives to deal with.Winged, beautifully deadly problems.For the first time in centuries, the fae are returning to the Mortal Realm, and only the Lord of Stariel can keep the estate safe.In theory.
Book 1 is sort of an inheritance story, as Hetta has to come home from her fun job and independent life in the city for her father’s funeral and the ceremony that decides the new Lord of Stariel. We don’t learn a lot about how Stariel is magical but it’s still very i
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Im looking for:
Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology, Edward J. Tarbuck & Frederick K Lutgens,
12th Edition ISBN 9780135238455
Any recent edition will do, any format, greatly appreciated.
I am also looking for:
Laboratory Manual in Physical Geology (12th Edition), AGI American Geological Institute, NAGT -
National Association of Geoscience Teachers, Vincent Cronin, Dennis G. Tasa.
ISBN 9780135836972
Thanks!
This is not a unique thread, ha. Sorry in advance. I’m looking to rent a parking spot in the Frederick Mall/Lancaster area. We only have one parking spot and two cars. Winter is Coming. 😬 Street parking is not going to cut it. Any tips cheaper than city lots? 🤞
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The King of Faerie is a successful and accomplished conclusion to the Stariel Quartet and I devoured it. I highly recommend it, but don’t start here as the books do not really stand alone. Stariel is a grand estate situated in the very North of an alternative Britain. The world has a 1930’s feel, at least to me, with recognisable technology - steam trains, the introduction of elektricity and kineticars - the beginnings of women’s lib but old-fashioned traditions and customs, but in addition the reality of magic and the (long concealed) presence of the Fae.
In Lord of Stariel we were introduced to Hetta, the independent scion of a grand, if impoverished, family, who is reluctantly drawn back to her family home after the death of her father. Hetta’s family are like a Mitford or Waugh novel, racketing around in a down at heels stately home, and are both delightful and infuriating in turn. Wyn, the family’s steward who grew up with Hetta, is revealed to be one of the Fae who are now increasingly able to travel between Faerie and the mortal lands after the Iron Law was revoked. Prince of Secrets deals with Hetta and Wyn coming to terms with their various families and powers, whilst falling in love, and Court of Mortals deals with the political fall out from the events of the first two books.
In this final instalment the stakes are raised as Hetta and Wyn have to reconcile the warring Fae courts, the Fae and mortal realms, Wyn’s family, and Hetta and Stariel’s status in the human world, before Hetta and Wyn’s relationship can be accepted by both the mortal and the Fae worlds. All of the dangling plot threads from the previous books, such as the matter of Wyn’s missing or dead mother, are successfully woven together to form a satisfying and well-plotted conclusion that is lengthy but never drags and makes perfect sense, leaving both the Fae and the mortal realms better places. In addition we get to see large parts of the Fae realms which are as enchanting and dangerous as you would imagine. In addition the arc’s of the minor characters are not forgotten, although room is left for future books to develop.
Hetta and Wyn are rare literary examples of a couple who manage to support each other without one dominating, and whose relationship is supportive and believable, and who are friends above everything else. Their romance is integral to the plot but not heavy handed or off putting. They are the heart of the quartet but there is also a large and
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Business Essentials, Ninth Canadian Edition,
By: Ronald J. Ebert; Ricky W. Griffin; Frederick A. Starke; George Dracopoulos
- Publisher: Pearson Canada
- Print ISBN: 9780135255797, 0135255791
Print ISBN: 9780135255797, 0135255791 - eText ISBN: 9780135257821, 0135257824
eText ISBN: 9780135257821, 0135257824 - Edition: 9th
- Copyright year: 2020
THANKS IN ADVANCE
