Shades of Milk and Honey

Shades of Milk and Honey (2010) Mary Robinette Kowal

Oddly, Shades of Milk and Honey is in some ways a parallel to Under Heaven, only set in an alternate England instead of an alternate China.

I also wish I had not read this immediately following Under Heaven–I should have read a thriller or a detective story or a hack and slash fantasy or anything, really, other than another alternate historical fantasy. Because it is very very difficult to judge Shades of Milk and Honey on its own merits, with Under Heaven so fresh in my mind.

Jane is an old maid; plain and yet skilled in the gentle arts of painting and piano and a natural talent at glamour–the ability to shape images to cover what is real until the image becomes part of what is real.

The story is an old fashioned romance, but with subtle magic thrown in, and I loved how the existence of magic seemed to fit so flawlessly into the world of Regency England.

And yet…

I loved the originality and I loved the setting and I would pick up another book by Kowel in a heart beat, and yet the story wasn’t everything I could have wished. Good–very good–but not great. As I said, I most likely would have appreciated it more had I read it following something completely different.
Rating: 7.5/10

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