What Angels Fear

I love a good historical mystery, as is fairly evident by my book blog so far (note to self - expand horizons). This book is what can be determined as the Jane Fallon of historical mysteries - pleasant to read, kept me mildly interested, but ultimately I don't feel like I spent a magical few hours with a book - it was simply sufficient.

Set in 1811 with the rape and murder of a popular actor (and sometimes whore), it settles around a roguish aristocrat trying to clear his name by figuring out whom the real killer must be. He goes all over industrial London, and enlists the help of another actor-whore and a plucky young eastender. Several red herrings/romances/mistaken identities/ridiculous costumes/regency balls later, he finally gets his man.

Honestly, it was OK. I was mildly entertained, as much by the story as by the portrayal of the thick London Police. It seemed pretty unlikely that even they could not find this guy when he went underground - the hero was about as stealth as myself, but a whole lot less dashing.

Anyway, this mildly amusing tale gets 2.5 rakishly tied cravats out of 5 - a grand total of meh.

Get You Back

First of all, I found out that Jane Fallon is the partner (married to?)
Ricky Gervais. I just thought that was kind of interesting, he seems like he would be a bit of a trial to live with.

Anyway, Got you Back was basically Getting Rid of Matthew version 2.0. Jane Fallon seems to have some issues with cheating husbands (I'm looking at you, Ricky). Anyway, some jerk is living a double life, with a wife in London and a mistress in the country. They eventually find out about each other, and go through all sorts of quirky adventures to get even with him and destroy his life. Eventually, he sees the err of his ways and everything wraps up fairly nicely, although not perfectly.

I do have to say this - Jane Fallon has at least gone away from the regular chicklit standard of a nice, all around clean ending with everyone blissfully happy. This book ends on a relatively high note, but transgressions have not been forgotten, and there is no perfect solution that makes everything wonderful again.

Other than this, though, we have your typical chicklit novel. I think that sometimes chicklit gets a bad rap (the first being called chicklit, but that is another rant for another time). there are some really great writers out there that tend to get pigeonholed, such as jennifer Weiner. Yes, her books have a pink cover, they feature sassy women making a life for themselves, etc. She also develops strong, likable and relatable characters that draw you in and seem very real - to just write her stuff off as "chicklit" and relegate it to the pink section of the store for lonely housewives and beach reads is doing a disservice. But anyway...back to Jane Fallon.

Unfortunately, she really doesn't bring it to the Jennifer Weiner level. I was entertained, but not outrageously so. Her book kept me mildly interested and didn't require a ton of brainpower to keep things afloat. It is ideal for a *cough* beach read. Urgh....

I give it 3 housewives on Valium out of 5. Don't go out of your way, but for something fun and if it's free, enjoy.

Ransom My Heart

I can't believe A) I read this; and B) I am admitting to it. FML

2 cliched romance novels out of 5. urgh.