Shana Abé

Another five star read, what goes on here? I loved this fictionalised account of Madeleine Astor, the young bride and widow of John Jacob Astor, and mother of his 'Titanic baby', born four months after she survived the tragedy and her husband did not. At first, I thought, 'Well, there's not much of a story there, apart from the Titanic', but how wrong I was.

Madeleine Force was an eighteen year old socialite, while Colonel Astor was nearly thirty years her senior, with a recent divorce to show more add to the scandal. The press hounded them, like modern day royals and celebrities - 'chipping away at any thought she might have had of privacy, of control of her own face or figure or destiny' - and they were engaged and married within a year of meeting (once Madeleine had turned eighteen). The Titanic was part of their honeymoon tour and Madeleine was five months pregnant. The novel covers Madeleine's sheltered youth in Bar Harbor, Maine, her first meeting with Jack at a society gathering and the sweet but sporadic courtship that followed, the private wedding ceremony and the start of Madeleine's married life in the draughty New York Astor mansion, snubbed by the 'Four Hundred'. Along with the 'unsinkable' Molly Brown - and I didn't know the two famous Titanic names were friends! - the Astors travel to Egypt, beautifully pictured by the author, and then onto the final, fateful voyage.

I found the narrative a little confusing at first - Madeleine recalls her memories of Jack and the Titanic in letters to her newborn son 'Jakey', and then the story switches to standard third person, which seemed an odd choice - but fell in love with the writing and the characters from the first chapters. Madeleine is lost in the shadow of her elder sister Katherine until she captivates the famous Colonel Astor, and I was both convinced by her love for him, and his for her eventually, while not entirely trusting his motives. I'm not one to be thrown by generation gap romances in novels, but (barely) eighteen and nearly fifty? I could easily understand his son Vincent's attitude towards his new 'stepmother'! The way Astor courted the press without respecting her wishes also put me off, reminding me of Prince Harry's memoirs - 'I have learned that you do not have to speak to the press at all. You owe them nothing', the widowed Mrs Astor finally realises. The Colonel also abandons his new bride to the gaudiness and rigidity of his New York mansion, like a scene out of Rebecca, but I had to laugh at Madeleine's judgement of his mother's horrendous decoration: Gold-leafed sconces, pilasters, cherubs, medallions. Gold-leafed tables and chairs, cabinets and commodes. There were still rooms in this hulking home that Madeleine had barely explored, but it seemed to her that Lina Astor had not spared her hand at gilding every lily she’d ever seen'. The only difference between the social strata in America is money, apparently, which does not buy taste!

Madeleine's story and Shana Abe's writing really made me emotional, from Jack's poor dog Kitty getting lost in Egypt and then staying with her master to the end, to Madeleine's deep and beautifully rendered grief. The final night on board the Titanic was also incredibly powerful, which isn't always the case (I'm going to watch A Night To Remember again, which is the best film about the infamous ship!) Madeleine's realisation that the lifeboats are surrounded by icebergs and her words to her son about his father's smile ('Oh, I hope you have his smile. I hope I get to see his smile again, through you') were two particularly poignant moments that really got to me.

Madeleine Astor went onto to marry again, twice, and had two more sons before dying relatively young in 1940. Her son with Colonel Astor, Jakey, contested the will of his elder half-brother, Vincent, claiming that he was an alcoholic when he died in 1959 and that his wife had forced him into cutting Jakey from the Astor fortune, but he only received a settlement. Would Madeleine and Jack have had a long and happy marriage had they not honeymooned on the Titanic? Did he really love his child bride, or was she a passing fancy, as Vincent claimed? I would love to believe in the romance of this novel, but reality was probably a lot less magical! show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.
allthingsuf.com

Shana Abe has an unmistakeable lilt, a mystery and music to her writing that transcends individual stories and knits together the whole. Like Robin McKinley, Abe lets time and distance deepen the mysteries between her books, she employs the realistic vagaries of history to make each new story a haunting new landscape. Though there are hints of the drakon, notes from Rue, THE SWEETEST DARK is unmistakably a new and unknown present show more tense. New readers, unaware of the threads leading back to the Drakon series, will discover this world afresh through Lora’s eyes.

And though Lora is one of the deserving poor, this orphan is no Mary Sue. Intelligent, passionate and isolated, Lora is neither a martyr nor a mean girl. I loved rediscovering Abe’s draconic magic through Lora’s experiences, I loved placing the reality of transformation in the “modern” time period of the early 20th century. And though the love story in THE SWEETEST DARK isn’t clean and simple, Abe gives nuance and depth to the messy passions of Lora, Mandy, and Jesse. Rather than villain versus hero, poor little rich boy versus a noble servant, both men are well developed characters shaped as much by their human passions as the magic of this world. Abe never divorces her characters’ humanity from their actions, which means even the most charismatic person could become the villain, the force of darkness that breaks my heart. She writes heroes and bad boys in a way that both enthralls and terrifies me, and I can’t wait to see where Lora’s next book takes me.

I’ll admit, in the past I lost the thread of Abe’s Drakon series, confused from book to book about where the fate of this secretive race was going. THE SWEETEST DARK wipes the slate clean, however, and focuses in on Lora in a way that has me recommitted to this world. Abe loses none of her poetry in this series, but this more focused YA series promises to draw me into the series more effectively than ever before. I finished THE SWEETEST DARK already anxious for book two, thank goodness I only have to wait until August to enjoy THE DEEPEST NIGHT.

Sexual Content: References to sex. show less

Wow… on so many levels!! Wow!!!

This is an adult book. I didn’t realize when I started it, but learned quickly as the dragons materialize into human form… um… very naked. One smokin’ hot naked guy hunting down an alpha female, a hot smokin’ naked girl… creeping down through a tight space in a bell tower… results in some very hot moments. *blush* In, um, detail.

Besides that… because of that… or in spite of that… I couldn’t put this book down. Shana Abe’s writing is show more so fantastically fluid. Her world of dragons has just enough instinct infused with glorious humanity to be beautiful, sensual, uninhibited.

Everything happens quickly. Christoff is attracted to Rue on many levels. The dragon in him is fierce and protective, territorial. I got the impression that he had mountains of self-control forcing himself to respect her.

And she… she has so many opinions and plans. She loves her freedom and fights against the dragon system. Clarissa Rue is so smart and impetuous. I really love her, love being her. She’s brave and quick-witted.

Her nickname may be “Little Mouse” but the most endearing part about that is how it doesn’t fit her outward appearance. There’s a hidden inner part of her soul that he sees and calls out as “mouse” and that vulnerability is reflected again in him. He is a little mouse to her in the same way.

As an introduction into the world of dragons and their love of stones… and their fear of discovery, this is a great story. I felt like I learned so much so quickly and then the story ended… and I was far from ready to be done with Shana Abe’s world. I immediately procured book 2 and dived right back in, “adult” and all.

My Rating: 4.75 - I love Rue... I love Christoff... I love the world - they all get 5's for me!! The romance is HOT and completely logical. I don't really read adult romance so I have no scale to base this on, but for supporting scene construction, etc, I want to give the romance at least a 4.5. (I dock it a .5 for a tiny bit of predictability.) There's insta-love, which I don't mind if there's enough support to the situation. In this case, it's Alpha meets Alpha = BANG! Since their characters are so amazing and compatible in a fiesty way, I loved how it worked out, but there was more insta than I wanted to swallow... which might have been Rue fighting it (go girl!), so I'm not dockin' much for that. I really enjoyed this book!! :-D

The cover - I'm not into this cover. In fact, I was really surprised when I first saw it at how quiet it is and it took me longer to read this book because The Sweetest Dark is so beautiful and this cover tells me nothing about what's inside. The biggest draw for me was the title... I have a thing for thieves (after The Thief, who wouldn't?!) and I love Abe's writing style, so I read this despite the cover. show less

This novel is subtitled A Novel of the Titanic, but although of course Titanic's shadow hangs over all of the story, the couple only board the ship around two thirds into it. Until then, we follow Madeleine Force as she lives in New York and Bar Harbour as a young, pretty woman, who comes from a family that is rich, but not nearly as rich as others - the Vanderbilts, the Guggenheims or the Astors. She meets John Jacob Astor IV and he starts courting her, and we see his world through her show more eyes. It is a world of unbelievable luxury, but also of duty and many traps and pitfalls. Madeleine is not accepted by The Four Hundred even after the marriage, so a trip to Europe seems like an escape, and when this escape comes to its inevitable end, she boards Titanic with negative feelings, even without knowing what will happen to the ship and those on board.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Lauren Ezzo. The novel is well written, and the audiobook is narrated extremely well, too. I felt like I was really listening to Madeleine telling her story. I became totally fascinated with it, and when I was not listening, I looked up pictures of the people mentioned, and googled facts and researched my questions. Despite her wealth, Madeleine is depicted in such a relatable way that I could only feel for her, and despite the age gap of 29 years, her love for Jack Astor is shown in a credible way. I learned a lot about US society after the turn of the century, and about the Astor family, and it all came to life as I experienced it through Madeleine's eyes. show less