Last of the Old Book Log

My interest in keeping a book log in the year 2000 petered out pretty quickly. Here're the last of my reviews. I can't believe how little these make sense to me six years later. I can also tell by the last review that I was getting bored with the write-ups.


MY ONE AND ONLY by Katherine O'Neal

2/28/00
Two cat burglars meet during a heist in Edwardian England. Both are looking for the Blood of India ruby. Aviatrix Kitty thinks she recognizes childhood friend/love Cameron in Max. The mystery of who Max is plays out over their journey to India. Kitty learns to deal with herself (she's a quarter Indian) and Max learns to deal with love. O'Neal is far too sentimental for my tastes. (3 out of 5)

I think I may have meant that her prose is too treacly, but who knows at this point. I did like O'Neal's very first book, THE LAST HIGHWAYMAN, very much. That may have been one of the first historicals where a heroine with past sexual experience was presented as no big deal. Despite being attracted to the time periods and plots O'Neal chose, I stopped reading her books because I could no longer stand her writing. I don't even know if she's still publishing.


TRYST by Elswyth Thane

This could have spoilers! I had the benefit of reading the book without knowing much about it except that it is a much-beloved love story and features a ghost.

2/29/00
Lonely, imaginative, intelligent 17-year-old girl moves with her father and aunt to a rented country house in England post-WWI. There, she is fascinated by the hastily abandoned locked room of the younger son of the owner's family. This sense of connection that Sabrina feels in the room is echoed by the far-away, dying Hilary Shenstone. His ghost then begins a journey back to England.

Really exquisite, haunting story, with humorous bits too. The best part of this book was the sense of England, presented with aching love for the country and boundless sadness at the effects of WWI on it. TRYST is all the more haunting for the modern reader because we know that WWII is around the corner. This book's copyright is 1939. (4 out of 5)

Funny coincidence how TRYST contrasted with O'Neal's book (above.) TRYST's hero was a spy aiming to keep India in British hands, whereas the O'Neal book had the hero on the side of Indian nationalists. I guess each is a book of its time.

So. I can't believe I used the word "haunting" twice to describe with a straight face a ghost story.

I read this book again a couple of years ago. It still packs a powerful punch, but with the slight emotional distance of a second reading, I noticed far more that

1. the nostalgia for this noble Britain was predicated on colonialism continuing,
2. "modern" women are scorned by the author, and
3. good lord, the ending of the book was so unfair to the heroine!

I didn't notice the romance so much as the pain of an author who is looking around at her world, despairing at the changes being wrought, and wishing things could go back to a more (mythical?) idyllic time. That's my reading of TRYST now anyway. I still think it's a remarkable book even if some of the pleasure in the love story has been undermined.


THE SWORD by Deborah Chester

3/1/00
This was such standard fantasy fare that I could barely stand it. I liked the doomed king in the first section who is trying to salvage something from the treachery that saw his overthrow. But the second part with his son developed along the lines of a generic quest fantasy novel (i.e., young lad ventures out into world, and there is prophecy, destiny, and power attached to him.) I might try books 2 and 3 in this series, but nothing is guaranteed. (3 out of 5) (link to Amazon)

And, in fact, I never read another Deborah Chester novel.


JUST A WEDDING AWAY by Monica McLean (SIM #993)

3/1/00
Friends-to-lovers plot. Story had potential, but plot didn't serve it well this time--secret baby! Did like characters. Heroine was genius scientist with a low emotional IQ and hero was lawyer with three orphaned nieces in his care. I liked the emotions and the intensity. Author has potential. (3 out of 5) (link to Amazon)

And, in fact, I never read another Monica McLean novel.