Shades of Milk and Honey

Glamourist Histories

Hardcover, 304 pages

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2010 by Tom Doherty Associate Books.

ISBN:
9780765325563
OCLC Number:
471820036

View on OpenLibrary

No rating (1 review)

Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a version of Regency England where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. Despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester's society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody's lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men.

Jane resists this fate, and rightly so, because while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion's share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family's honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right--and, in the process, accidentally wanders into …

2 editions

A fantasy of manners that hasn’t quite decided what it wants to be

No rating

I’ve not previously read anything by the author, although I’d put a couple of her books on my wishlist. I decided to start with Shades of Milk and Honey since I was in a fantasy of manners mood.

The prose was easy to read, though some repetitions stood out. In places, the language seemed to stray between period(ish) and more modern.

The setup and environment will be familiar to anyone who’s read Austen—though with the addition of magic, and a reduced level of “formality” compared to what we might expect. I liked the idea of glamour as an additional tool in social interactions, and I’d guess in future books we might see more practical (military?) applications.

Unfortunately, I didn’t feel invested in any of the characters. They did not feel fleshed out. We spend the entire story in Jane’s point of view, and I found her rather tiresome. She was …

Subjects

  • Science Fiction & Fantasy -- Fantasy