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annathepiperSo here I am having skipped the Masquerade at Worldcon, though I am sitting within audible range of the auditorium where it's being held. I started with the intention of waiting for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird to get done with her work on the daily newsletter, but she has apparently had more work to do than she had expected, because she's still over there working. This isn't the part that makes me go argh, though. What makes me go "argh" is that I've just finished Kristen Britain's First Rider's Call, the sequel to Green Rider that I've been awaiting for some time, and I really, really want to go find Ms. Britain now and tell her that she is a wicked, cruel author.
One of the big reasons I liked Green Rider so much was because of the glimmers of potential romantic interest between her heroine, Karigan G'ladheon, and Karigan's sovreign, Zachary Hillander. She set it up with the subtle, light touch that I particularly like, just enough signs of deeper feelings to make you hope they will go somewhere even while the actual main plot is going on. It didn't hurt in the slightest that Zachary was quite swoonalicious, all noble and stern as a king, but with a warm humanity in his scenes where he is just a man.
This trend continues in First Rider's Call. I liked the overall plot better than the first one, I will happily say, just because she did a lot of really nifty expanding upon the backstory of what in the first novel had come across as a fairly typical 'evil sorceror was defeated ages ago' kind of history. And she tied that in very nicely with Karigan's own history as well.
But what really kept me reading was the interaction between Karigan and Zachary. Having re-read the first book to prepare for this one, I was struck at how well their interactions in the new book followed up on the ones in the first. In the first story Karigan is emotionally barely past the schoolgirl stage, not comprehending the nature of her reactions to her king. But in the new book she's had some time to gain maturity... and Zachary's affection for her has had time to mature as well.
Every single scene between them beautifully sets up the budding love between them. And in every single scene, I continue to find Zachary a wonderful character.
Right up until the point where he decides that he has to make a marriage alliance with the noble Lady Estora... and even though he tells Karigan he loves her, he's going to marry Estora anyway. He tries to give her a special gift, calling it a queen's gift from a king, but she refuses it--knowing that he is marrying Estora and staunchly refusing to give in to the temptation to be Zachary's paramour, though he never asks anything of the sort (which would have been unworthy of the character anyway, so I am glad he didn't).
This was the second to the last scene in the entire book, and it was NOT A HAPPY ENDING! Argh! ARGH, I say! Cruel Ms. Britain, to make string her sucker-for-a-good-romance reader (read: me) along for an ENTIRE BOOK and then go NO SMOOCHIES FOR YOU!
Granted, okay, fine, it makes perfect sense for the situation that she has set up. Karigan IS a commoner and Zachary is her king. Moreover, she is specifically in the king's service and it would be an Extremely Bad Idea for her to become illicitly involved with him. But I DON'T CARE. If you're going to go and have the plucky young heroine go and fall in love with the king, she should damn well get to smooch him!
I have two grains of hope: Estora seems to have clued in that Karigan and Zachary have fallen for one another, so I am hoping she will perhaps intervene somehow, especially since she has been set up to feel entrapped by her noble station to begin with. And there are also Zachary's final words about the brush and mirror... a queen's gift from a king, which he tells Karigan will be waiting for her if she ever wishes to accept them.
I'm really really hoping Zachary's dropping a huge stone hint that he'd marry her in a heartbeat if she'd have him.
But I can't know till the third book. Argh! ARGH!
solarbird to get done with her work on the daily newsletter, but she has apparently had more work to do than she had expected, because she's still over there working. This isn't the part that makes me go argh, though. What makes me go "argh" is that I've just finished Kristen Britain's First Rider's Call, the sequel to Green Rider that I've been awaiting for some time, and I really, really want to go find Ms. Britain now and tell her that she is a wicked, cruel author.One of the big reasons I liked Green Rider so much was because of the glimmers of potential romantic interest between her heroine, Karigan G'ladheon, and Karigan's sovreign, Zachary Hillander. She set it up with the subtle, light touch that I particularly like, just enough signs of deeper feelings to make you hope they will go somewhere even while the actual main plot is going on. It didn't hurt in the slightest that Zachary was quite swoonalicious, all noble and stern as a king, but with a warm humanity in his scenes where he is just a man.
This trend continues in First Rider's Call. I liked the overall plot better than the first one, I will happily say, just because she did a lot of really nifty expanding upon the backstory of what in the first novel had come across as a fairly typical 'evil sorceror was defeated ages ago' kind of history. And she tied that in very nicely with Karigan's own history as well.
But what really kept me reading was the interaction between Karigan and Zachary. Having re-read the first book to prepare for this one, I was struck at how well their interactions in the new book followed up on the ones in the first. In the first story Karigan is emotionally barely past the schoolgirl stage, not comprehending the nature of her reactions to her king. But in the new book she's had some time to gain maturity... and Zachary's affection for her has had time to mature as well.
Every single scene between them beautifully sets up the budding love between them. And in every single scene, I continue to find Zachary a wonderful character.
Right up until the point where he decides that he has to make a marriage alliance with the noble Lady Estora... and even though he tells Karigan he loves her, he's going to marry Estora anyway. He tries to give her a special gift, calling it a queen's gift from a king, but she refuses it--knowing that he is marrying Estora and staunchly refusing to give in to the temptation to be Zachary's paramour, though he never asks anything of the sort (which would have been unworthy of the character anyway, so I am glad he didn't).
This was the second to the last scene in the entire book, and it was NOT A HAPPY ENDING! Argh! ARGH, I say! Cruel Ms. Britain, to make string her sucker-for-a-good-romance reader (read: me) along for an ENTIRE BOOK and then go NO SMOOCHIES FOR YOU!
Granted, okay, fine, it makes perfect sense for the situation that she has set up. Karigan IS a commoner and Zachary is her king. Moreover, she is specifically in the king's service and it would be an Extremely Bad Idea for her to become illicitly involved with him. But I DON'T CARE. If you're going to go and have the plucky young heroine go and fall in love with the king, she should damn well get to smooch him!
I have two grains of hope: Estora seems to have clued in that Karigan and Zachary have fallen for one another, so I am hoping she will perhaps intervene somehow, especially since she has been set up to feel entrapped by her noble station to begin with. And there are also Zachary's final words about the brush and mirror... a queen's gift from a king, which he tells Karigan will be waiting for her if she ever wishes to accept them.
I'm really really hoping Zachary's dropping a huge stone hint that he'd marry her in a heartbeat if she'd have him.
But I can't know till the third book. Argh! ARGH!