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annathepiperMore comfort reading, since this cold is still hanging in there and still kicking my ass--and because I was in the mood for more Barbara Michaels re-reading anyway. Shattered Silk is the second of a set of three Michaels novels that, had they been written by a later author, would have been called a trilogy on the grounds that they share common characters. In this book, the POV character is the sister of the younger female lead Sarah in Ammie Come Home, and there are notable mentions of Ruth and Pat from the same novel, as well as a brief and colorful cameo by Pat's mother.
It is also, for me, the strangest one of the three to read. Nothing supernatural happens in it, which is unusual for a Barbara Michaels novel; moreover, the heroine, Karen, is an unusual one for Michaels. Karen's been dumped by her sleazeball husband, and as a result spends a good chunk of the book poised between understandable but nevertheless kind of grating self-pity... and a welcome yet sometimes too pat development of a spine. The book does get points, though, for the development of that spine being driven by the heroine's own insights and efforts rather than the actions of the male leads (of which there are two). Points as well for the main antagonists not being criminals or great evil masterminds--just desperate to hide a long-buried secret. All in all, two and a half stars.
It is also, for me, the strangest one of the three to read. Nothing supernatural happens in it, which is unusual for a Barbara Michaels novel; moreover, the heroine, Karen, is an unusual one for Michaels. Karen's been dumped by her sleazeball husband, and as a result spends a good chunk of the book poised between understandable but nevertheless kind of grating self-pity... and a welcome yet sometimes too pat development of a spine. The book does get points, though, for the development of that spine being driven by the heroine's own insights and efforts rather than the actions of the male leads (of which there are two). Points as well for the main antagonists not being criminals or great evil masterminds--just desperate to hide a long-buried secret. All in all, two and a half stars.
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Date: 2008-03-09 04:38 pm (UTC)(I'm the other way around: used to read Elizabeth Peters regularly, but never made the bridge across to Barbara Michaels. Not quite sure why...)
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Date: 2008-03-09 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-09 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-09 06:20 pm (UTC)I have heard rumors of a new Vicky Bliss myself but have yet to see this novel materialize. I've been keeping an eye out, though!
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Date: 2008-03-09 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-10 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-10 02:05 am (UTC)Yeah, I think I'm in a mood to keep re-reading, now that I've gotten started again. I just blew through Stitches in Time today, to finish off the Georgetown triumverate!
All of my copies of her books are in pretty good shape, I think, so I won't have to replace them for a while. They've gone and re-released them all again in new covers, I noticed. But really, what I'm going to be way more interested in is the new Vicky Bliss book coming out this summer. ;)
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Date: 2008-03-11 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-11 01:39 pm (UTC)