![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A second-time-around story for Francesca Bridgerton and Michael Stirling. Michael, an infamous rake, falls in love with Francesca on the day before her wedding to his beloved cousin, John, so he hides his feelings and becomes her friend… until, unexpectedly, his cousin John dies. Michael inherits the family fortune and title, and unwilling to take advantage of John's widow (despite his feelings) takes himself off to India. Four years later he returns. Francesca, newly out of half-mourning, has decided to look for a husband, and Michael's mother is urging him to look for a wife. We know which way it's heading but it's the route it takes that makes it interesting. Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels are always entertaining.Aug. 22nd, 2020
A second-time-around story for Francesca Bridgerton and Michael Stirling. Michael, an infamous rake, falls in love with Francesca on the day before her wedding to his beloved cousin, John, so he hides his feelings and becomes her friend… until, unexpectedly, his cousin John dies. Michael inherits the family fortune and title, and unwilling to take advantage of John's widow (despite his feelings) takes himself off to India. Four years later he returns. Francesca, newly out of half-mourning, has decided to look for a husband, and Michael's mother is urging him to look for a wife. We know which way it's heading but it's the route it takes that makes it interesting. Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels are always entertaining.
I adore Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary. This is the eighth and she’s not running out of places to take the story. Still quirky, this is darker than the rest because Clive Ronan is back and he’s even more determined to inflict pain and suffering on Max, her family and all the staff at St Mary’s. There’s some gut-wrenching stuff in this as well as Jodi Taylor’s usual wit. It’s a laugh-and-cry rollercoaster and not everyone makes it to the last page. The history side of it is, as usual, fascinating, from the Egyptian desert to the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
Audiobook 22/8/2020
Max's old enemy, Ronan, has a proposition for her, but the Time Police march in and spoil a potential truce. From then on Ronan, always a menace, becomes an even more implacable enemy. This is one of St Mary's darker episodes, and not all of our beloved regular characters will make it to the last page. I'm really enjoying revisiting all the St Mary's stories via audio.
This collects together all the short stories (thus far) from the Chronicles of St Mary’s, which if you haven’t read them, go back and start from the beginning. I’ll wait. Done it? Good. Now you know about the time travelling disaster-magnets who comprise St Mary’s historians and their support teams, especially Max our (usually) main viewpoint character. (I particularly love reading about Markham in security.) I’d read (and reviewed) all but one of these before because I buy anything from Jodi Taylor on sight, but I was happy to buy it for the new story, which has since been published as an individual short, but it’s good to have all the short stories together in one place and if you haven’t read any of them yet, it’s a bargain.
Audiobook:
This doesn't include the most recent stories, but it has my favourite 'My Name is Markham'. Once more they are all read by the excellent Zara Ramm.
· 'When a Child Is Born': Max and company miss the coronation of William the Conqueror in favour of helping a young couple in trouble.
· 'Roman Holiday': Caesar, Cleopatra and some asps.
· 'Christmas Present': Max rescues lost historians from Boudicca's attack on Colchester
· 'The Very First Damned Thing': Dr Bairstow arrives in London ready to found St Mary's
· 'Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings': Max heads for Egypt in a damage limitation exercise.
· 'The Great St Mary's Day Out': A trip to Shakespeare's globe and Markham's acting debut.
· 'My Name Is Markham': Alfred, the cakes and Mr Markham.
· 'A Perfect Storm': St Mary's meets the film industry
There's a quick trip to see Henry VIII fall off his horse and a trip to Persepolis, but Clive Ronan is still causing chaos up and down the timelines, so Max and the time police set a trap for him. Well, it seems like a good idea, but when have Max's good ideas ever worked? As a result, Max is dumped in the Medieval period and no one knows where she is. She knows where she is - in St Mary's but about 600 years in the past. She has to learn to live there and to make a new life for herself because she doubts she'll ever get home again. She's desperately missing Leon, but there's someone in 1399 who can offer her protection. She knows Leon would be the first to tell her to find a way to survive, even if that means marrying.
We've known for a while that there was a traitor at St Mary's feeding Ronan information. At last we find out who. Jodi Taylor is on my buy on sight list, so this is a must-read for me. Highly recommended.
Audiobook 22/08/2020
With Max's husband Leon still recovering from injuries gained in a tangle with arch-villain, Ronan, and her son Matthew in the capable hands of the Time Police for protection, Max has an idea. She concocts a plan to trap Ronan, but the tables are turned and she finds herself abandoned in 14th century St Mary's with no way home. Zara Ramm narrates again.