The Perilous Guard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

[lightreads]

Kate is exiled from the confined court of Lady Elizabeth Tudor to a strange, ancient castle, where she finds herself entangled with faeries on the way to unknotting a recent tragedy.

Huh, really? I could swear someone recommended this to me when I asked for romances, though now I'm not so sure as the only immediate association I have is that whole Cassandra Claire plagiarism thing. In any case there is a nice enough romance, I suppose, though I was otherwise unmoved. Distant viewpoint, brevity, lots of tell, meh. Probably more interesting for those, unlike myself, who can still manage to give a damn about faeries.

Comments

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Oh, it wasn't just you -- I've been hearing about this book for years.

-The heroine is ugly! And brainy! And the hero is handsome!
Now, see, I was actually right there with you for a while (though modern urban fantasy will often ruin this for you) until we got toward the end and started skittering close to transformation. Everyone's all, "you look so different!" and she has a beautiful new dress and I started muttering uh-oh. But then it didn't quite go there, it was just them being them at each other how they do best.

-I am totally and utterly a sucker for Elizabeth I, even if she only actually shows up for two pages.

This one I'll give you. I was very excited for the first few pages, thinking we were going to get Elizabeth and fantasy on the same page. Alas.

Displeasure magnified by mild disappointment rather than actual dislike, I think.

Oh hai! I know how to answer comments, really I do!