When comes the wind that billows our words' sails?

The Green Pearl
by Jack Vance

This is the second book in the Lyonesse trilogy. This one focuses on Aillas, king of Troicinet and South Ulfland as he wages war against the Ska in order to secure South Ulfland and consolidate his power. The last third of the book brings in a second plot in which Glyneth, Aillas' love interest, is kidnapped into another world by a mage working for Aillas' rival, King Casmir. Framing this narrative is the story of the green pearl, a cursed gem that brings out the greed of its bearer and brings them bad luck.
I enjoyed this book as much as I did Suldrun's Garden. Aillas is a fair and capable ruler. He's also quite clever in his approach to the Ska. I found his brief captivity of Tatzel, a Ska princess, to be a pretty interesting episode. Aillas' motives are complex, born of both his attraction to Tatzel and his desire for retribution for his time as a slave to the Ska. Yet he does not subject Tatzel to assault or cruelty, and they end up feeling some grudging respect for each other.

Suldrun's Garden
by Jack Vance

This is the first in Vance's Lyonesse trilogy, and I quite enjoyed it. It's set on the Elder Isles, a fictional group of islands off the coast of Cornwall based on Celtic legends of a land that sunk into the sea. The first third or so follows Suldrun, princess of Lyonesse. She is a disapointment to her royal parents due to being a girl, and is largely neglected until she is of marriageable age. When she defies her father's attempts to use her and her future as a pawn in his machinations, he confines her to a remote garden on the castle grounds. There, Aillas, prince of Troicinet, washes ashore. Suldrun nurses him back to health and they fall in love and have a child. The remainder of the book follows Aillas' adventures as he seeks his son and strives to regain his birthright as the ruler of Troicinet.
Suldrun's Garden was published in the early 1980s and is fairly old school. The prose style is a bit old-fashioned but still enjoyable to read. Vance does a really great job of weaving together plots, themes, and tropes from medieval legend, Celtic myth, and fairy tales. There are a lot of side quests added to the main plot, but they always connect back to the story. Aillas is a very likeable character - he's brave, caring, clever, and honest. Suldrun is also sympathetic, but in a different way. She's an introverted loner who just wants the time and space to find and make her own path. I do wish her part of the story had lasted longer. I alsoreally enjoyed all the secondary characters, particularly the mage Shimrock, who is clearly inspired by Schmendrick from The Last Unicorn.

A Curious Beginning
by Deanna Raybourn

This is the first of the Veronica Speedwell mysteries, set during the late Victorian era. Veronica is a young woman and naturalist whose elderly aunt and guardian has just passed away, leaving Vernoica with even more freedom to pursue a life of adventure and lepidoptery. When an attempted abduction leads her into the company of a German baron, Veronica discovers that her true origins are more mysterious and perhaps dangerous than she'd been told. The baron leaves her in the care of his associate Stoker, another naturalist. But then the baron is murdered and Veronica and Stoker find themselves on the run and in search of the truth.
This was a pretty good start to a mystery series. I liked both Veronica and Stoker, and the simmering sexual tension between them. Veronica is brash and brave and very observant. Stoker is brooding, loyal, and also quite clever. They make a good team, and their banter is quite good. The mystery itself was fine, but not super compelling. I do wish that the episode with the circus had added up to more or come back around later in the book. I hope it does so in future books.

The Light Fantastic
by Terry Pratchett

This is the second Discworld novel and picks up where The Colour of Magic leaves off. Inept wizard Rincewind is still traveling with the tourist Twoflower, getting into and out of various scrapes. Except now there is something bigger on the horizon, literally. A giant red star has appeared in the sky and grows larger by the day. Discworld's residents are grappling with the threat of apocalyptic doom, and Rincewind gets caught up in the machinations of the wizards of the Unseen University. Of course, those machinations are mainly aimed at killing him to get at the spell lodged in his head.
This one was very amusing, and the plot hung together better than in its predecessor. Rincewind does manage to save the world, mostly by dint of bumbling into the right places at the right times. Along the way, we encounter a sly parody of Conan the Barbarian, several puns and dad jokes, and plenty of satire. I really enjoyed the ride.

A Daring Arrangement
by Joanna Shupe

This historical romance takes place not among the British aristocracy but among the wealthy of New York during the gilded age. Nora Parker is an earl's daughter sent over to her aunt and uncle from England to escape the scandal of her relationship with an impoverished artist. Desperate to get back to England and her lover, Nora hatches a slightly ridiculous plan to enter into a fake engagement with the most scandalous man she can find in order to force her father to recall her to London where she can reunite with her artist. Nora chooses Julius Hatcher, wealthy stockbroker who is known for extravagant parties and somewhat dissolute behavior. Hew will provide the notoriety she needs and she will gain him entrance to the higher echelons of society that have previously snubbed him due to his humble origins. This plan, of course, backfires when Julius and Nora find themselves not just strongly attracted to each other, but also liking each other a great deal. They ultimately fall in love.
I enjoyed this one a great deal. Nora, while sometimes reckless and naive about some things, is an intelligent and brave woman who goes after what she wants. I very much liked the way this book dealt with the emotional upheaval of Nora's changing feelings away from the artist and towards Julius. It's not easy for her, and that is not glossed over. Julius is also very appealing. He's smart and knows what he wants, but is not pushy about it. He can make it clear to Nora what he desires without being at all coercive. He was also surprisingly steadfast. The trajectory of their relationship was satisfying - it took a while to get going but when it did it was brilliant.

Gentleman Seeks Bride
by Megan Frampton

In this historical romance, two people strike a bargain that ends up being more than they bargained for. Jane Capel moved in with her brother after a refusing to go back on the marriage market after being painfully jilted. Tired of bowing to the expectation that she be demure and retiring, she is now seeking more independence and experience of the world. After a bad investment ruined his family's finances, Thomas Sharpe, a close friend of Jane's brother, feels duty-bound to marry an heiress so that he can keep his parents and sister out of poverty but is not having much luck. Thomas and Jane thus agree to help each other - he will show Jane pleasures and experiences that young unmarried women are not able to have and she will help him find a rich wife. Of course, they fall in love.
This book had a lot of nice elements, but they just didn't click for me. This is probably more of a me problem, though, and I'm sure this one would work really well for other readers. I liked both main characters - they are good people whom it was easy to root for. I especially liked how they both struggled with the ethical aspects of Thomas' need to fortune-hunt. Neither of them wanted to cause misery to anyone. I also liked how what Thomas showed Jane wasn't just carnal experience - he also took her to a circus performance and a hot air balloon ride. They became friends as well as lovers. There was also lots of witty banter.

Mr. Impossible
by Loretta Chase

This historical romance was warm and fun and delivered on the feels. Daphne Pembroke is a widow now living in Egypt with her brother Miles. A very bookish and intellectual woman, she is studying hieroglyphics with an aim to deciphering them (it is 1822 and the Rosetta Stone is a recent discovery). Miles is acting as her front, given that upper class women of the time were not really supposed to engage in such serious scholarship. When Miles is kidnapped, Daphne is determined to find him. To that end, she engages the services of Rupert Carsington, the reckless fourth son of ane Earl. As they work together to locate Miles, Rupert and Daphne succumb to their mutual attraction and end up falling in love.
I very much enjoyed this one. First, it's set in the distinctly warm climate of Egypt, and I read it during a New England winter. Second, Rupert really sees Daphne, and appreciates her, for who she really is. All the aspects of herself that her society and late husband told her were unwomanly and unacceptable, are things Rupert loves about her. Her intelligence, her strength, her passion, her fearlessness, are all the things that draw him to her from the first. I loved Daphne for all the same qualities. When she finally lets go of all the pressure to be what she is not, it is delightful. I also liked Rupert a lot - he was loyal and brave and very caring.

Shield of Winter
by Nalini Singh

This is the 13th Psy-Changeling novel and the Psy world is undergoing a monumental shift. The Silence that repressed Psy emotions has fallen and there is a rot on the psychic plane infecting Psy and driving them into violent frenzies. The Psy must re-awaken their dormant empaths or perish. One of these empaths is Ivy who has long been free of Silence. When Ivy is recruited to a pilot empath training program aimed at defeating the rot and infection, Vasic is assigned as her protector. As they work together to combat the rot and help to stabilize society, they also forge a connection that breaks Vasic out of Silence and blossoms into a deep love.
I really enjoyed this one a lot. The stakes for the socio-political plot were very high, which made everything feel more urgent and made the emotional currents run deeper and stronger. I really liked how the development of Vasic and Ivy's relationship was echoed in the discoveries the Psy were making about the empaths' roles in keeping the psychic plane healthy. Vasic and Ivy were also so great together - they were both willing to fight so hard for each other and to go to great lengths to take care of and protect each other.

Death Comes As Epiphany
by Sharan Newman

This is the first of Newman's Catherine LeVendeur mystery series, set in mid-12th century France. Scholarly and intelligent Catherine is a novitiate at Paraclete, Heloise's convent. When Heloise receives word that someone at the St. Denis monastery has been altering a Psalter created at Paraclete for St. Denis, she sends Catherine on a mission to find out who is attempting to slander the convent. While visiting St. Denis, one of the stone workers is murdered, and Catherine finds out that there is a lot more going on than just the alteration of the Psalter.
I enjoyed this mystery a lot. It was fairly intricate, with lots of different threads woven in, from that of a blasphemous and fraudulent hermit to a complex trade scheme akin to money laundering. Catherine also has to contend with some fraught family relationships as well as the pull of both the convent and a potential love match. All of this kept me on my toes. Catherine is such a sympathetic and engaging character - very smart, loyal, strong-willed, and often brave.

The Empire of Gold
by S.A. Chakraborty

This is the final book in the Daevabad trilogy and brings things to a satisfying, if bittersweet, conclusion. Nahri and Ali plot to return to Daevabad to set things right, even as Nahri's mother Manizheh resorts to ever more brutal and horrific means of securing her hold on the city. Nahri and Ali have to forge new alliances, re-forge old ones, and figure out how to bring their people past generations-long cycles of violence and resentment.
I really liked this book and the way it wraps all the plot and themes. While they do triumph, Nahri, Ali, and their friends must make real sacrifices and hard choices about the costs they pay. I thought Chakraborty brought a good complexity and depth to all those choices, and that makes the mostly happy feel truly earned. I also like that she brought real humanity to everyone, even the villains. It's clear that Manizheh and her associates are doing evil, but their motivations come from justified anger and real trauma. Through these portrayals, Chakraborty explores the damage that cycles of violence and vengeance do to people individually and collectively. Most of all, I liked the emotional complexity of Nahri's relationships, especially with Ali and Dara.