Being bewitched by The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch

 Out of the batch of books that I recently received for my birthday, the one that I dove into first was Melinda Taub’s fantastical take on Jane Austen’s most iconic novel with quite the twist.

To start with, our leading lady here is not Elizabeth or Jane or even Miss Mary Bennet; rather we have The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch. Yes, as it happens, Lydia is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter (due to three elder sisters that didn’t survive their early years) and the first sign of magic that she has is being able to claim a cat as her familiar and turn her into a sister named Kitty.

Lydia’s powers are noticed by her Aunt Phillips, who gives her some instruction into the mystical arts yet there is a limit to her aunt’s knowledge that causes Lydia to seek alliances elsewhere as times goes on.

A major reason for Lydia to find more skilled witches to learn from is due to mistakenly giving a promise to an ancient entity awakened by her powers; one of the targets of its wrath is Kitty, who has very few defenses against such malevolent beings.

The bond between Lydia and Kitty is one of the strongest emotional connections in the book. While Lydia, true to her original version, can be silly and selfish, here her humanity in caring about Kitty’s welfare (to some extent) is a step in the proper direction when it comes to expanding the character:

In order to save Kitty as well as herself, Lydia must go to Brighton in order to find the Jewel of Propriety , a source of power sure to appease such a dangerous enemy.

There, Lydia teams up with Harriet Forster , the new young wife of the regimental commander whose soldiers include Mr. Wickham, who has a deep tie to Lydia’s nemesis and dark intentions of his own. Harriet’s magical prowess and social connections do help her young protege out with her search but her search but not without a price to pay along the way.

As this story is told mainly by Lydia herself (via a long letter of explanation to a certain party), I couldn’t help but hear these adventures chronicled in my head by the voice of Julia Sawalha, who played this character in the 1995 miniseries adaptation.

No offense to any other portrayal of Lydia (I do like the 2005 version quite a bit) but between this version of Pride and Prejudice plus her role as the straight edge daughter in Absolutely Fabulous, this is the go-to voice of the character for me:

 

Meanwhile, one of the many pleasures that Taub’s novels offers to Jane Austen fans are the expansions given to such supporting players such as Mary King, a brief rival for Wickham’s affection who is a more devious and capable opponent here.

A welcome surprise was the introduction of Miss Lambe, who comes to Brighton from Sanditon and turns out to be a major player in the game of power that Lydia finds herself in. Bringing such a character from Austen’s unfinished final book was a good choice and a well thought out one indeed.

As someone who did enjoy the three seasons of Sanditon that we got on Masterpiece, Taub’s depiction of Miss Lambe is very well suited to the lovely compelling one shown on the small screen, in my humble opinion:

All in all, The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch was the ideal Jane Austen flavored birthday cake sprinkled with magic and I wouldn’t mind having another slice of this charming tale again.

I do hope that other Austen admirers take up this tasty tome and devour it with joy. I know that some might prefer the standard edition of Pride and Prejudice (which is perfectly fine) but do allow for the rest of us to have a little fun here. 

Also, for new readers to Jane Austen, a rethinking about certain characters encourages more creative insights and makes our mutual enjoyment of Austen timeless and timely:

Finding some flea market and better world bookish delights this spring

I know that I said that my book buying would be taking a break after my big birthday book haul yet I couldn’t pass up a couple of small opportunities for new reads that came across my way.

For one, there’s a church in my area that holds a flea market twice a year; spring and fall. It’s close enough to my home that going there is a regular event to look forward to and while I picked up some nice new linens and a magazine rack, there were a couple of books that I added to my must-get pile.

One of those books was The Library of Legends by Janie Chang. In 1937, a nineteen year old student, Hu Lian, is forced to flee her university along with most of her classmates due to bombing raids upon the city of Nanking.

Hu is carrying a set of ancient texts that contain the legends of the Ming dynasty that she and others are entrusted to deliver to a safer location.

 Along the way, she starts to wonder if one of her traveling companions, Shao and his servant Sparrow, have more than a scholarly connection to the work they’re transporting. Could it be that one of these legends of lore has been right beside Lian all this time?

The premise sounds intriguing and it’s been awhile since I dive into some historical fiction there. This certainly should be a fine read for book lovers indeed:

I also stumbled across a classic Christie novel or should I say collection of short stories featuring the delightful Miss Marple.

The Thirteen Problems aka The Tuesday Murder Club, happens to be the earliest work that Agatha Christie wrote about Jane Marple and introduces us to her nephew Raymond and her home town of St. Mary Mead.

The main thread of a plot connection is a local club that shares tales of mysteries with its members, encouraging them to see if they can figure out the solution before being told by the story teller. Miss Marple is invited to sit in on one of these occasions and her sharp skills of observation and understanding of human nature do come in handy to say the least.

Since Miss Marple is my favorite Christie detective, this was a must have for me. Some of these stories have been adapted for the Miss Marple tv series over the years and it might be fun to check a couple of them out, particularly to see if they altered any of the endings (I hope they didn’t but you never know…).:

While I did skip my Book of the Month Club selection (hard to do but necessary!), it was difficult to resist getting a nice trio of books from Better World Books as they were having a sale and they had a cozy fantasy novel that I’ve heard so much about available!

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna features Mika Moon, who keeps her status as a real witch under wraps, apart from the online videos she makes about “witch core.”

A request is sent to her regarding a trio of orphans who need to learn how to reign in their magical talents and it’s an offer that Mika is unable to refuse.

While feeling somewhat free to be her true self among these fledgling witches, along with Jamie, one their guardians, Mika is wary of getting too close to them but when outsiders threaten to break up this happy home, she must decide whether to stay or go.

This is the first in a series but I just want to see if this book is as charming as I’ve seen almost everyone who’s read says it is. It would be nice to enjoy a new take on magic schooling, that’s for sure:

I rounded this purchase up with a pair of Nora Roberts suspense thrillers. Being almost done with her Irish Born books that started off my Trilogy Time challenge, I thought it would be good to try some of her standalone titles.

My picks were Hideaway and Identity, the latter being the newest one of that genre from her.

The leading lady of Identity is Morgan, whose life is turned upside when a serial killer steals her money and personal information, ending her roommate’s life by mistake in the gruesome bargain.

Morgan goes home to Vermont to rebuild what she’s lost, including family ties and manages to do so yet the killer is determined to claim the victim he missed out on. This time, however, Morgan is ready to defend what’s hers.

This sounds like some awesome summer reading and with the frenzied  news headlines we see everyday, a Nora Robert’s thrill ride is a welcome relief from all of that:

Well, a little light spring shopping is fun and helpful for my budget as my mom’s birthday is near the end of May and of course, Mother’s Day is right around the corner!

Happy Mother’s Day to all those who celebrate and may every one have a bit of flea market fun this season. It’s something good to unite with others about and we certainly need more unity these days as well as good books:

 

Some twists and turns, plus a surprising switch made on this Spring into Horror

The month of May has begun and so ends the Spring Into Horror readathon at Seasons of Reading (courtesy of Michelle Miller).

This reading challenge worked out pretty well for me as I got reacquainted with a familiar author, discovered a new one and swapped out one book for another that fit this theme as perfectly as a glove there.

I have enjoyed many of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s books over the years but the last one that I read to completion was Mexican Gothic. Her more recent titles, I’ve started and stopped (pressed pause as I like to put it) but not Silver Nitrate; this one was a total page turner of the best sort.

The main focus of the story is the friendship between Montserrat, a sound editor constantly undermined by the inherent sexism of her profession, and Tristan, a former TV star whose career crashed and burned after a car accident where he survived but the troubled woman who was driving did not.

As lifelong horror movie fans, meeting the aged director Abel Urueta, whose time in the spotlight vanished quickly, is a definite bright spot in their lives.

 When Abel reveals that his last movie was never completed and carries a curse upon it, he offers the two of them a chance at reversing their luck by helping him break the spell. They do so but the results are far and away from fortunate and more frightening than any terror film they’ve ever seen.

SM-G once again showcases her talent as a genre writer with true cinematic flair and the emotional nuances brought to her characters that make them larger than life. Hopefully when her next novel arrives this summer (The Seventh Veil of Salome in July), I will be ready like Freddy to buy that ticket to ride:

My next read after that was The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett. I first heard about this book from Booktuber Mara(Books Like Whoa) who praised it to the skies. Her recommendation was not only a good one, it’s made me seek out of this author’s work.

Told by a series of text messages, emails and transcripts of recorded conversations, we follow a pair of British reporters, Amanda Bailey and Oliver Menzies, who are both assigned to write a book about a long ago sensational crime involving a cult that intended foul play with a baby believed to be the Antichrist.

Seeing no choice but to work together, Amanda and Oliver decide to see if they can find the baby who survived the ordeal and is now about to turn eighteen for the crux of their true crime story. However, the deeper they go in, the longer and stranger this particular rabbit hole goes defies any wonderland indeed.

I don’t want to give anything away so let’s just say that this book is a fantastic thriller that keeps you guessing up to the end and is well worth the trip. It’s like watching an entire season of one of those excellent British mystery series and appreciating all of the hard work put into such creative storytelling there:

Now, I was planning on having my final read here be Jessica Knoll’s acclaimed Bright Young Women but while I start it, my reading mind wanted something a little less stressful.

So I put that aside and picked up The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, the follow up to the sleeper bestseller The Maid. Our leading lady is Molly, the maid accused unjustly of murder at the Regency Grand Hotel a few years ago and now has the title of Head Maid with more responsibilities than ever before.

One of those responsibilities is preparing a reception for famed mystery writer J.D. Grimthorpe, who is planning a special announcement for the public. Before he can make his statement, Grimthorpe adds more honey to his cup of tea which proves to be a truly fatal mistake.

His sudden demise is due to poison and a wide array of suspects are available, including Molly who did place the honey pot on the tea cart herself. Also, she hasn’t told anyone about the past encounter she and her late grandmother had with Grimthorpe that might be the roots of a motive…

I did enjoy The Maid and was interested enough to tackle the second book, which moves at a brisker pace than the first one. The tone is a touch lighter but in a good way that does make you want to follow Molly on her quirky detective adventures, much like that new show Elsbeth which is Columbo meets The Good Wife/Fight(that’s a compliment, I assure you!):

I do hope that everyone who joined in for this scary reading fun had a great bookish time(thank you as always to Michelle Miller for making this possible!) and I am pretty much ready for Sci-Fi Summer this upcoming June.

Although, my TBR for that event is more in the fantasy realm (which is allowed) particularly Romania’s, that new flavor of fiction these days. I do think that maybe it’s not as new because I can make a good argument that the Xanadu movie is very much a romantasy with music but nevertheless, I will dive into this genre with an open mind and literary heart: