Storm Glass by Jeff Wheeler:

From the Amazon page:

Theirs is a world of opposites. The privileged live in sky manors held aloft by a secretive magic known only as the Mysteries. Below, the earthbound poor are forced into factory work to maintain the engine of commerce. Only the wealthy can afford to learn the Mysteries, and they use their knowledge to further lock their hold on society.
Cettie Pratt is a waif doomed to the world below, until an admiral attempts to adopt her. But in her new home in the clouds, not everyone treats her as one of the family.

 

Sera Fitzempress is a princess born into power. She yearns to meet the orphan girl she has heard so much about, but her father deems the girl unworthy of his daughter’s curiosity.

 

Neither girl feels that she belongs. Each seeks to break free of imposed rules. Now, as Cettie dreams of living above and as Sera is drawn to the world below, they will follow the paths of their own choosing.

 

But both girls will be needed for the coming storm that threatens to overturn both their worlds.

 

I only just finished reading this book. I didn’t know what to expect. I have all these free books and while the title sounded intriguing I hadn’t read much about it and since it was a while since I downloaded it, I couldn’t remember anything. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Freebies are always of varying quality. So many DNF:s, but also a few that are really great. The test of this is whether I would want to buy the book and in this case, I definitely would and continue to buy books in the series, as long as they are as good as this one.

 

You get to know Cettie very well, and Sera quite well. Also the (former) admiral is someone you get to know well. The others, not so much. Some of them are still quite likable. There are also scary ghosts that you don’t really learn much about. They’re probably ordinary spirits of the dead, but not quite. More like monsters that want to suck your body heat from you. All in all, though, this book wasn’t too terrifying. I would probably have been able to read it at the age of ten and up.

 

I love the world building. The sky manors are fascinating and they’re not just opulent mansions, but have their own set of rules that Cettie gradually gets to know. I’ll try to keep this spoiler free, so I’m not going to mention one of the coolest aspects of those manor houses but I really loved it.

 

Poor people participate in lotteries to be allowed to work as servants up in the sky and onyl a few are chosen. The rich use the slums to ’disappear’ undesirables. People can vanish without a trace and children usually don’t live to grow up. People can also ’deed’ away their children for a certain number of years into various positions, some quite prestigious, others backbreaking dull work. Some for so long they’re expected to die in servitude. It’s a sad, dark world inspired by Charles Dickens’ work.

 

Oh, and the book is well written and fascinating so I can really recommend it to anyone who likes this type of fantasy story.

An interesting mix of historical detail about middle-class Victorian/Edwardian housekeeping, and practical tips for cleaning today. It was a little heavier on the historical detail than I was anticipating from the description, but it was certainly well-researched and engaging.

Farm Fatale: A Comedy of Country Manors ... I really wanted to love this book, but it was a did not finish for me.

Farm Fatale: A Comedy of Country Manors ... I really wanted to love this book, but it was a did not finish for me.

After some discussion with my wife, it appeared that I'd never read a whole chick-lit novel from cover to cover. I asked if she could lend me one, and she said that Bad Manors was about as good as it got - that's why it hadn't already been donated to the Oxfam shop.

A couple of days later, she discovered me engrossed. "Don't you find it rather boring?" she asked, puzzled. I assured her that it was interesting to read an unapologetic wish-fulfilment fantasy presented from the female point of view. So this is what women want! I suppose I had heard most of it before in one form or another, but it was fascinating to see it all written down in explicit detail. Here are some of the fantasies I was particularly struck by:

- People will notice that you are working your butt off, and appreciate it. The heroine is a hypercompetent workaholic control freak, but no one at work ever thanks her! In the end, of course, her brilliance is universally recognized. OK, I knew that one - I'm not totally stupid.

- Despite the fact that you're never able to spend any time with them, your children will grow up to be beautiful, witty and incredibly intelligent. A more subtle fantasy. Evidently, there are only 24 hours in the day, and Cat, the main character, spends most of them working or sleeping. But, miraculously, her daughter is sensible, emotionally well-balanced and does brilliantly in school. The au pair is a perfect surrogate mother, and people just spontaneously volunteer to give her free riding lessons, etc...

- You'll manage not to have sex with the person you obviously shouldn't have got involved with, so that your virtue will be more or less intact when Mr. Right comes along. This part of the plot required massive suspension of disbelief, but after I figured out what was happening it was quite funny.

- The above-mentioned Mr. Right will be handsome, kind, intelligent and moral, but will somehow still be available at the age of about 35, and will not even have any romantic past worth mentioning. Also required considerable suspension of disbelief, but what the hell.

- My personal favourite: your guy will turn down blatant sexual advances from attractive women, even when he's sure he can get away with it and it costs him personally. I just loved the scene where the hot blonde flight attendant is flirting with Toby, and he hands her back the card with her phone number, saying that she must have dropped it. She's so annoyed that she "accidentally" pours a drink over him and manages to ruin his expensive new coat.

The book was worth reading for this episode alone! For a moment, I felt that I, too, was a driven young career woman, juggling home and job, and wondering if the too-charming, too-hunky man I'd somehow started dating was being faithful to me...