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Faery Magic

An anthology published by Zebra in 1998, Faery Magic has shorts written by MJP, Jo Beverley, Barbara Samuel & Karen Harbaugh. The MJP features a lonely faery who turns all stalkerish-er, sorry. Falls in love with a mortal maid & manipulates her into owing him a favor. Fortunately, there is an Indian fairy who protects the maid for reasons revealed at the end. The JB ties faery & human well being to the land via a certain family. The faeries have no compulsion against manipulating two young humans to acheive their ends. The human side of the story is a couple who grew up together & then were separated due to the War only to be reunited in London during the season. The BS story is a unique combination of Rapunzel & Beauty & the Beast. This one is my second favorite. The Karen Harbaugh story's hero is Galen, a bad boy rake of a fairy who finally pisses off his Queen. Her punishment? He must remain between Worlds alone until he repents & reforms his outlook & behavior. Ok, so Galen is a little hardheaded & it takes nearly 300 (!!!!) years before he changes. Moira, his beloved, is desperate to save her cousin from a wasting sickness & goes to Galen's tree to beg his help. Using her grandmother's charms & Galen's true name (which compels him to assist her), they work together to save Blanche. This one is my favorite.

Duchess in Love

Written by Eloisa James, first in a connected trio (I think). Due to external manipulation, Ambrogina & Camden are forced into marriage when they are 11 & 18 respectively. Camden runs away to Greece as soon as the ceremony is over. Cut to 12 years later. Gina, lonely, has fallen in love with a man who most resembles that which she thinks she wants- sturdy, family oriented respectability, a man who is everything a proper English gentleman ought to be. Thus Gina has written to Cam begging him to return to England & annul their marriage. Such as it has been. Cam has avoided his duties all these years & is slow to realize just how heavy the burdens have been on Gina. However, having grown up with her Cam knows her quite well despite the intervening years & he immediately sees that the man Gina chose is wrong for her.

Stir in a crowded, bed hoppping lengthy houseparty, a mysterious tutor (really, what woman needs to know about Machiavelli anyway?!), a scheming lawyer & his clark & lust all 'round & there you have DIL. I really like James' depiction of the friendship among a few of the women. Another strong point is her treatment of a relationship that soured & how the three adults involved attempted to resolve their problems, only to have it all end in tragedy. Even so, DIL reminded me quite a lot of the laugh out loud, mind boggling twists & turns in PG Wodehouse's houseparty-set books. Which didn't surprise me given James' background as a scholar. As is always the case, love wins in the end & all's well that ends well (eventually).