When comes the wind that billows our words' sails?

Miss Wonderful
by Loretta Chase

This historical romance was glorious. Alistair Carsington is a scandalous dandy and hero of Waterloo left with a damaged leg and PTSD. In order to prove himself to his demanding father, he agrees to help his friend Lord Gordmor plan a canal in Derbyshire. However, Alistair finds himself facing stiff opposition from Mirabel Oldridge, a smart, practical spinster who has been managing her father's vast estate for years, ever since he descended into an obsession with botany. As they face off, they find that not only are they enormously attracted to each other, they find each other both admirable and fascinating. True love ensues.
I enjoyed this romance immensely. Both Alistair and Mirabel were terrific characters that I loved and rooted for. Alistair is very earnest and determined - he has lot of courage and heart. He's not selfish and wants to do right by those around him. His struggles with PTSD made him achingly vulnerable. Mirabel is smart, stubborn, and very capable. She works so hard and has sacrificed so much, and yet all of that weight on her shoulders is invisible to just about everyone, including her. I liked the way Alistair comes to really see her, and how rooted in that his love for her is. I also love how he fights for her.

Forbidden
by Beverly Jenkins

This historical romance is set in 1870s Nevada among the Black community of Virginia City. Eddy Carmichael is a cook who has dreams of opening her own restaurant in California. However, in the course of her travels, she is swindled and left in the desert without money or water. When she is on the verge of collapse, Virginia City saloon owner and businessman Rhine Fontaine, traveling home from San Francisco, finds her and saves her life. After she recovers, Eddy becomes the cook in a boarding house and starts building the foundations of a future business. She and Rhine are deeply attracted to each other, but Rhine grew up enslaved and is now passing as white. This of course makes things very complicated, but love does prevail.
I really liked this romance, as it was very sweet. Rhine and Eddy are both very good people who it is easy to root for. Eddy is plain-spoken and has a strong sense of herself and what she wants out of life, and these are the very things that cause Rhine to fall in love with her. Jenkins deals very well with the realities, good and bad, of post-Civil War life for Black people.

Home
by Nnedi Okorafor

This is the second book in the Binti trilogy and it involves transitions in both the plot and the characters. Binti travels home from university for a visit, with Okwu accompanying her as something of an ambassador for the Meduse. Binti plans to go on the pilgrimage that is a rite of passage for young women of her people. However, she finds herself on a much different pilgrimage and undergoing a much different transformation than the intended.
I really enjoyed the way this story explores themes of self-discovery, growth, and change. Binti must accept different parts of herself, changes to that self, and aspects of her heritage and identity. I liked that Okorafor shows her having complex feelings about all of this. I also liked Binti's complex relationship with her various family members - it's not always smooth or good, even though they do all love each other. The book does end on a bit of a cliff-hanger, with no real resolution to any of what's going on, so it is very much a middle book.

Quiver
by Rachel Spangler

This sapphic romance has both the second chance and enemies to lovers tropes. Kylie Manchester is a good actress with a waning career. After grossly exaggerating her skill with mounted archery at an audition, she returns to her rural Vermont hometown in the hopes that her ex Fletcher will train her to the level necessary to get the role. Fletcher is a world-class mounted archer and now runs a school for horse archery. Kylie and Fletcher were deeply in love throughout their youth, but they had a very painful breakup when they were in their early 20s. Twelve years have not healed the wounds, but Fletcher reluctantly agrees to train Kylie. Tensions flare and boil over, leading them both to realize that they must resolve the past in order to work together.
I very much enjoyed this one. The character growth, both as individuals and as a pair, was really good and so well done. I love that their new relationship grew in fits and starts - the bumpiness and hurt was very real and poignant, even if occasionally frustrating. I could have wished for a little more swoony emotion, but that's a small quibble given how well-drawn the characters and their development was. Plus, mounted archery is just really cool and badass.

Eidolon
by Grace Draven

This romantasy is the sequel to Radiance, and takes place shortly after that book ends. Ildiko and Brishen's happily ever after and the world's survival are threatened after Brishen's evil mother unleashes a ravening demonic horde into the world. Presumed to be the last surviving member of the royal family of Bast-Haradis, Brishen must find a way to save his kingdom and Ildiko. Brishen soon discovers that he must perform a dire and risky act of magic to save his kingdom, and that he may have to sacrifice his marriage in order to take up the kingship he has unexpectedly inherited. This of course puts strain on his relationship with Ildiko, as they navigate the impossible choices of love, duty, and sacrifice.
Eidolon is more of a straight fantasy novel than a romance, although the fate of Ildiko and Brishen's love and relationship are very central to the story. The stakes were very high and the potential costs devastating. I really enjoyed the way Draven took a standard fantasy story about saving the world from a great evil and centered the emotions and relationships of the people involved. While the romantic relationship is the primary one, family bonds and close friendships among the whole cast were also important. She did a great job of showing how a profound crisis can stress a relationship and how Ildiko and Brishen coped with that.

Chasing Cassandra
by Lisa Kleypas

This historical romance is the penultimate in the Ravenel series. After seeing her sister married, Cassandra Ravenel feels lonely and out of sorts. A surprising encounter with business magnate tom Severin creates an undeniable spark between them. However, Casssandra is unsure that he can give her the quiet, domestic life she wants, and Tom is convinced that love is not for him. Yet, they cannot stop thinking about and wanting each other. When Cassandra finds herself the victim of a cruel scandal, Tom proposes marriage and she accepts his marriage proposal, hoping that her desire to be loved will be fulfilled. And this is a romance novel, so it ultimately is.
This one started out a little iffy for me. It took me quite a while to warm up to Tom, as he starts out as a ruthless businessman who has trouble dealing with people and admitting his feelings and thus keeps himself emotionally locked down. He was very much not the kind of hero that appeals to me. His attraction to and developing feelings for Cassandra break down his walls, but, thankfully, he was already doing some of that work himself before they became involved. I did grow to like the way he cared deeply and fiercely for her, even before he recognized or admitted it. I also liked the way he always listened to Cassandra and considered her viewpoint. Cassandra was very likeable, as a woman who knows what she wants and won't settle for less. Their differences truly complemented each other.

Up All Night with a Good Duke
by Amy Rose Bennett

This solid historical romance centers around Artemis Jones, a gothic novelist and former schoolteacher returned to London to help her sister and her best friend with their first Seasons. She herself has no intention of getting married, but plans to look for a patron who can help her open an school for young women. On her arrival at Paddington Station, she literally runs into Dominic, Lord Dartmoor, a man with a teenaged daughter and a swirl of dark rumors surrounding him. Artemis and Dominic meet a few more times and end up in an engagement of convenience. Naturally, their attraction to each other ignites into something more and they must each decide if their love is compatible with their individual dreams.
I enjoyed this romance. Dominic is a fundamentally good man whose love for Artemis is unwavering and accepting of all that she is. His relationship with his daughter Celeste is sweet and realistic. His ability to truly appreciate Artemis for all of her qualities is delightful. Artemis is a headstrong, smart, and strong person . I liked the way she overcame her reservations about marrying Dominic, and I especially liked the way neither of them were pushy or overly demanding of the other. Their relationship really worked.

Radiance
by Grace Draven

This romantasy novel was very sweet. Ildiko is a human woman, niece to the Queen of Gaur. As part of a political alliance, she is married off to Brishen, the younger son of the Kai king and queen. The Kai are an elder race, nocturnal, clawed, and fanged (think Dark Elves without the obligatory evil alignment). Humans and Kai generally find each other unnerving and unattractive, the political advantage takes precedence over the personal reservations for Ildiko and Brishen. Luckily, they are both accepting of their roles as minor members of their respective royal families, and strive to make the best of their union. Even more luckily, Ildiko and Brishen find they truly like each other and slowly fall in love.
I really enjoyed this slow burn friends to lovers romance. Ildiko and Brishen are both good people who want to do right by each other and their marriage. Ildkio is brave and very savvy in her approach to living among the Kai. It doesn't take her long to see Brishen for the good and caring person he is. Brishen is considerate towards her and quickly comes to admire her indomitable nature. They form a great partnership that fosters a deep love. It was really interesting and in some ways refreshing to read a romance where physical attraction was not a very big or important part of the love story. I liked seeing physical attraction develop from the feelings rather than the physical attraction being a key catalyst for the feelings.

Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer
by Bruce Holsinger

This fascinating and intellectually intricate (in a good way) book covers the embodiment of music in the middle ages: the way music was conceived of emanating from bodies and affecting those bodies. Holsinger draws on a wide range of sources: early church writings, the mystical revelations of Hildegard von Bingen and other medieval nuns, translations re-writings of Ovidian myths, and the literature of Chaucer and others. He weaves a web of interconnection among them, tracing various threads through time, geography, and cultural milieu. It's deft and compelling and paints a vivid and dynamic picture of medieval musical culture that was fairly eye-opening. I especially loved his investigation of the music body as a site for the expression of deviance, sexual or otherwise.

Ferdydurke
by Witold Gombrowicz

This satirical 1937 novel concerns a 30 year old man who is forced into the state of an adolescent schoolboy. He has various encounters and adventures in this state of immaturity which are often a bit surreal and absurdist. Through this narrative, Gombrowicz satirizes the serious, intellectual, and perhaps overly mature literary and artistic culture of his day.
There is a lot of insight to the highbrow cultural scene and a scathing critique of it. I do wish that some of the narrator's rambling ruminations had been a bit shorter so that there could have been a bit more plot.