Shades of Milk and Honey

by Mary Robinette Kowal

There are some books you never expect to steal your heart; the first time I tried to read Pride and Prejudice, I found it a terrible bore. Perhaps I was too young, for the second time I picked it up, it latched onto me. Shades of Milk and Honey latched on from the first chapter and didn’t let me go.

The sisters Ellsworth are two sides of a coin: one beautiful and one not, one skilled in glamour and one not. While Melody basks in the attention of young men, Jane is seemingly content to better learn the craft of glamour, weaving art throughout their world. At twenty-eight, Jane knows her own chances at marrying are slim, but she begins to envy the path Melody is on.

Enter one Captain Livingston, young and dashing and home from the war; mix in the rakish Mr. Dunkirk; swirl with the surly Mr. Vincent. You have a pot that fairly seethes with intrigues and secrets, all tightly-wrapped of course, being that this is the proper Regency era where one was expected to mind one’s manners. Still, if you put a lid on a seething pot, what happens? Yes, Reader, it overflows.

Jane’s journey is one to enjoy, and what a delight to see women forming friendships and not sniping at one another. Yes, the relationship of Jane and Melody has its moments, but in the end they are sisters–Rossetti said it best: “there is no friend like a sister / In calm or stormy weather.” I’ve read “complaints” that the book is “light” and “airy,” but I don’t see how this could possibly be a failing. Sometimes, you don’t want a 1000-page doorstop of a book, do you? Sometimes, light and airy and magical is precisely what your brain calls for.

You can tell Kowal enjoyed writing this; the pages fairly seem to glow with happiness–Shades of Milk and Honey has a glamour all its own.