Book Review: Without a Summer (Glamourist Histories #3) by Mary Robinette Kowal
(Four Stars)
“Vincent’s jaw tightened. ‘Jane. Stay in the carriage.’ She did not.”
This series keeps getting better. Kowal confidently draws the reader into a historical London and the summer that wasn’t. Readers continue to follow Jane Vincent, now Lady Jane, into the deprivation and politics of that time. And sometimes the biggest threat to the happiness of herself and those she loves are her own assumptions.
“She comes from good English stock on her father’s side. It is not as though she were Irish.”
Kowal addresses a time when some people of color were accepted in the upper reaches of English society and some were barred–when Irish were considered not white. When myth and rumor are more readily believed than truth.
“They cannot think that coldmongers are responsible for the weather. It flies in the face of science.” “Superstition rarely troubles with facts.”
The pretty girl on the cover may be Melody, but shouldn’t the gentlemen then have red hair?
“I know that I should not feel sorry for myself because I am pretty, but sometimes it is nice to have someone speak to me as though I am not.”
As a Matter of Fancy 