Looking Back at February 2023 Reads

I didn't accomplish all of my February Reading Goals, but I accomplished enough of them that I'm quite happy. And I enjoyed most of my reads too.

Apologies if anything in my post seems a little bit off from the norm. I experienced a personal loss on Friday (which is also why I didn't get around to participating in the Danny Kaye Blogathon). I wish I had been able to participate, but I didn't feel like watching The Kid from Brooklyn due to the grieving process and I didn't prep anything beforehand. I was going to watch it on Saturday, oh well.

You'll find my thoughts on Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews, and The June Boys by Court Stephens in this post.

 

 Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery

You can read my complete thoughts over on my Emily of New Moon (a review) post.

SPOILER WARNING

Emily of New Moon was a terrific book, but with some flaws that disturbed a couple of my modern sensibilities. Teddy and his mother scare me. That's a toxic relationship if ever there was one; she's a scary woman. Dean Priest. I probably don't need to say more, but his intentions towards a barely thirteen-year-old are what I call grooming. I'm more sensitive than I might be if I didn't work for a non-profit that takes child protection very seriously.  But I do so I don't see Dean Priest as anything other than a predator. Maybe he'll be less disturbing in the next novels in the series. I also realize it was published exactly 100 years ago, but excusing something from 100 years ago doesn't sit well with me. If he were being portrayed as a predator, I would be fine, but he's not so that's what bothers me. I don't know what kind of man in his thirties looks at a thirteen-year-old girl as a matrimonial prospect once she comes of age, but ICK.

It's a pretty dark book which I wasn't really expecting. There's loss, yes, and I feel bad for poor Emily. But there's a lot of other dark elements in the story that make me feel it wasn't really written for children. I enjoyed reading it, a lot, but I would never read it to a child or allow one of my children, if I had any, to read it until they were at least 16-years-old.

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

And speaking of dark books, The House of Silk is extremely dark. But I LOVED it. Absolutely, hands' down, loved it. From page one it felt like I was reading something John Watson wrote about Sherlock Holmes. Yes, it's imperfect and there were a few sentences where I knew it wasn't something written 130 years ago, but still, I have to give Horowitz some intense kudos. He did a terrific job.

SPOILER WARNING

Now, as to the main topic of the story. I had my suspicions from the very beginning simply because I like stories of psychology and murder and serial killers. You can't be intrigued by those types of stories without being well aware that there is a nasty, gruesome underbelly of society who preys on children for nasty purposes. That's what we have happening here. I suspected it and my suspicions were justified.

What I appreciated most is that the actions of these men is NEVER portrayed in a positive light. Children are meant to be protected and even Holmes realizes that his use of the Baker Street Irregulars puts children in harm's way. AND I appreciate that not once does the author go into specific detail of what they discover at the house of ill repute. He treated the topic with delicacy and didn't feel the need for morbid and reprehensible details to be listed out for the reader. Thank goodness. We don't need every single nasty detail to know what's going on. We don't need descriptions of everything Watson and Holmes see to understand that it's horrific. 

It probably seems odd that I like this kind of story, but I do because it makes me aware. It makes me aware of danger, and it makes me aware that this world we live in is not a safe place and people have to take precautions to protect themselves. If Mr. Horowitz had delved into specific details of the house of ill repute, I would have been furious because it would have treated a serious subject as titillating. But he didn't, he acted with admirable restraint and for that, I honestly can't praise this book enough. It's one I will purchase at some point and I'm excited to read Moriarty by the same author once I remember to order it from the library.

The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

This one won me over because the heroine is an extreme introvert, loves to read, and ends up falling into something of a Jane Eyre/Mr. Rochester type of love story. It's very much a gothic type of romance. Mimi Matthews tends to write clean(ish) Victorian fiction. She doesn't delve into too much description of what goes on behind the closed doors of a bedroom, but she still gives enough description that it would be too much for some readers. Only you will know who you are. I don't mind because it falls into that middle ground of not too much and not too little.

I will say that it wasn't as clever as it imagined itself to be. I guessed all of the "twists" well ahead of the big reveal so I was never surprised. That was kind of a shame, I suppose. But I still enjoyed The Belle of Belgrave Square. Mimi Matthews has an easy-read sort of style that I gravitate towards. She just knows how to tell a story without getting too flowery or falling into purple prose. She's brilliant that way. 

So for me, I loved it. It was a wonderful escape that I greatly appreciated.

The Belle of Belgrave Square is the 2nd book in the Belles of London series, the first being The Siren of Sussex, another book that I enjoyed, although I think I liked The Belle of Belgrave Square just a tad more. The Siren of Sussex deals a lot in Victorian fashion and clothing design, and honestly, I much prefer stories about great readers.

The June Boys by Court Stevens

As previously mentioned, I like stories of psychology and suspense. The June Boys by Court Stevens is certainly that. It's a Christian YA novel where every few years a certain number of boys are kidnapped on June 1st in Tennessee and released the following June 30th, so almost 13 months later. It's the craziest plot concept, but it works and it's interesting, but I did not love it for the following reasons.

It has a morose, brooding heroine who feels a lot like many of the YA heroines I keep finding. It drives me a little crazy, honestly. And I've got an issue with a book that claims God might be some other gender than male. Believe what you want, but publishing it is not the wisest idea because that type of concept is on the fringe of Christianity. There's also my ongoing frustration of "ooh, police bad." It's a problem in lots of contemporary literature, but I expect more from Christian authors. I honestly do. Make it a point of finding yourself some good cops out there who are just trying to do their jobs and aren't making snap judgements about people. I'm tired of the bad cop stereotype and I think that's when I did sort of check out a bit from The June Boys. I'm not an impressionable teenager, but I know that this type of literary stereotyping is only going to reaffirm the stereotypes kids are already being told about the police. Again, that's why I expect better from Christian authors. Don't feed the mania.

The June Boys isn't a bad book. It's really not. But it's one to have a conversation with your kid about and go over where the author gets it right and where they're probably biased.