I accidentally blew through MC Beaton‘s entire Poor Relation series in the last two days. Three days. Since Monday, anyway.
It should be no secret by now that I like Beaton (aka Marion Chesney)’s writing, but the truth is that I like her Regencies even more than her Agatha Raisin or Hamish Macbeth books (though I’ve only read one of the Hamish books, I think. I need to read more of them.). They’re just delightful stories, quick-paced, clever, funny, and with characters I care about. This particular series is about several of the genteel poor of Regency-era England who, in a momentary fit of humanity, band together to open a hotel which they call The Poor Relation, that being their status according to their more wealthy relatives. Their expectation is that their relatives will be horrified that they’ve turned to *work*, and will buy them out. This is, of course, not what happens, and the series follows the six original Poor Relations over the course of a few years.
They’re just charming. They lack the mildly twitch-making “seize and kiss” thing of her slightly earlier Regencies (these are from the mid-90s), which is a great improvement, and while there are recognizeable archetypes that she works with, she works with them *well*, and so I don’t mind their re-appearance.
That’s basically what I’ve been doing with the last 3 days. Also working on converting the ElectriCity script to Scrivener. :)