Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories #1)

January 5, 2017 Book Reviews 12 ★★★★½

Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories #1)Shades of Milk and Honey Series: Glamourist Histories #1
on August 3, 2010
Pages: 304
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four-half-stars
Also in this series: Shades of Milk and Honey, Without a Summer

Shades of Milk and Honey is an intimate portrait of Jane Ellsworth, a woman ahead of her time in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality. But despite the prevalence of magic in everyday life, other aspects of Dorchester’s society are not that different: Jane and her sister Melody’s lives still revolve around vying for the attentions of eligible men.

Jane resists this fate, and rightly so: while her skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face, and therefore wins the lion’s share of the attention. At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Jane has resigned herself to being invisible forever. But when her family’s honor is threatened, she finds that she must push her skills to the limit in order to set things right--and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

This debut novel from an award-winning talent scratches a literary itch you never knew you had. Like wandering onto a secret picnic attended by Pride and Prejudice and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Shades of Milk and Honey is precisely the sort of tale we would expect from Jane Austen…if only she had been a fantasy writer.

Review

Shades of Milk and Honey is fantasy as Jane Austen would have written it. That’s hardly an original comparison; pretty much everyone who has read the book has said the same thing. But it’s not just a fantasy set in the Regency era. Stephanie Burgis’s delightful Kat, Incorrigible series fits that description, but her books owe as much to Georgette Heyer and possibly Joan Aiken’s alternate-history children’s books as to Austen. Mary Robinette Kowal’s novel, on the other hand, feels quintessentially Austenesque in every way: in plot, pacing, language, attention to manners, the interactions between its characters, and particularly in its magic system, which is perfectly constructed to suit the upper-class sensibilities of the period.

Glamour is the bending and weaving of light and sometimes sound; it is an art form practiced within the home by gentlewomen and publicly by talented (male) artists. In exactly the same way as the music or painting of the day, glamour is a desirable, even necessary “accomplishment” for a gentlewoman, but is not accounted as Art unless produced by a male artist. And like the music and painting of the period, glamour’s primary function is the entertainment of the upper classes… though there are some applications which might lend themselves, in the right (or wrong) hands, to more serious endeavors — something I suspect may be explored in later books.

Jane Ellsworth, our heroine, is a plain woman attempting to resign herself to spinsterhood. She is, however, a very talented glamourist. This brings her into contact with, and initially into almost a competition with, Mr. Vincent, a gruff and secretive glamourist of significant talent who has been commissioned by nearby landowner. Though an artist by trade, Vincent clearly enjoys some social standing, but his sometimes curt manner toward Jane baffles her.

Jane is drawn to another man, Mr Dunkirk, but her beautiful, flirtatious, and jealous sister Melody seems determined to attach Mr Dunkirk herself… until her attentions are engaged by another man, whose name Melody refuses to reveal. To protect her sister and her family’s honor, Jane stretches her glamour skills to the utmost, and nearly precipitates a disaster.

Like Austen’s books, Shades of Milk and Honey isn’t a fast-paced adventure, but a delightful, insightful novel of manners and a very subtle romance. It’s a little gem, and the start of a series I am quite eager to continue.

 

four-half-stars

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • The Backlist Reader (TBR) Challenge 2016

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12 Responses to “Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories #1)”

  2. Lark

    I liked this book, too. And I thought her second book, Glamour in the Glass, was almost as good as the first. I hope she writes a third! 🙂
    Lark recently posted…Bookish Bingo!My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      There are five books in the series that I know of: Shades of Milk and Honey, Glamour in Glass, Without a Summer, Valour and Vanity, and Of Noble Family. I don’t know if there will be any more. In 2016, she came out with a fantasy set in WWI (Ghost Talkers), so she might be done with the Glamourist Histories.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It really is! I think I’m going to give it to my mom; she isn’t a fantasy fan generally, but this blends fantasy with historical fiction so well that I really think she would enjoy it.

  5. Stephanie

    I like this series a lot though I’ve only read the fist two. I did prefer book 2 to this one – Kowal seemed to me to find her voice a little bit more, write a little more smoothly if that makes sense? It does depart a little from Austen’s more staid action but it still has that same Austenesque quality. Glad you found a new series to love!
    Stephanie recently posted…Confessions of a Book Series Addict | 2017 EditionMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      You’re at least the third person to tell me that the books get better as the series goes on! Given that I really enjoyed the first one, that is very good to know. Thanks for stopping by, fellow series addict! 😉