{"id":5659,"date":"2016-02-23T18:28:25","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T23:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5659"},"modified":"2024-01-21T10:43:43","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T15:43:43","slug":"mortal-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5659","title":{"rendered":"Mortal Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mortal Arts<\/a><\/em> (2013) Anna Lee Huber<\/p>\n

\"Mortal-Arts\"<\/a>Set in Scotland in October 1830<\/p>\n

The sequel to The Anatomist\u2019s Wife<\/a><\/em> finds Lady Darby returning to Edinburgh with her sister, brother-in-law, and their family when they receive an urgent summons from Phillip’s Aunt to join them at Dalmay house where her daughter has just become engaged to Michael Dalmay–a childhood friend of Alana and Kiera.<\/p>\n

This is a story about PTSD–except that it wasn’t considered such in the 1830s. Instead, men who were unable to deal with society after their return from war were hidden away–sometimes even in lunatic asylums.<\/p>\n

Our nation was eager to welcome home conquering heroes, not broken men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is disturbing to Kiera not only because of her friendship with the former solider, but also because she had been threatened with such a situation.<\/p>\n

(T)he realization of what I had narrowly escaped in not being confined to an asylum as my accusers had wished made me grow cold\u2014 but I still couldn\u2019t help wondering if I would be forever grappling with memories I couldn\u2019t forget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am really enjoying this series–the history is fascinating and the characters aren’t really outside of time as sometimes happens in historicals, and there are plenty of reminders of just how different life was two centuries ago–mostly to your detriment if you were a woman.<\/p>\n

Plus, there are some lovely phrases and other bits.<\/p>\n

She thrived on conflict. The bigger the reaction she got out of you, the more it pleased her. And the more likely she was to continue goading you. The swiftest way to beat her at her own game was to refuse to engage, be it with anger or discomfiture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s something I need a reminder of myself right now.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Berkley <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mortal Arts (2013) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in October 1830 The sequel to The Anatomist\u2019s Wife finds Lady Darby returning to Edinburgh with her sister, brother-in-law, and their family when they receive an urgent summons from Phillip’s Aunt to join them at Dalmay house where her daughter has just become engaged to Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,48,33,207,8],"tags":[114,729,115,212,560],"class_list":["post-5659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-female","category-historical","category-mental-health-rep","category-mystery","tag-anna-lee-huber","tag-industrial-revolution","tag-lady-darby","tag-ptsd","tag-romantic-era"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1th","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24709,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/24709","url_meta":{"origin":5659,"position":0},"title":"A Tarnished Canvas","author":"Michelle","date":"July 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A Tarnished Canvas (2025) Anna Lee Huber (Lady Darby #13) Set in Edinburgh in 1833 Kiera and Sebastian are getting ready to celebrate Emma's first birthday, with Kiera's sister, Alanna doing much of the planning while Kiera finishes up the series of paintings she has been working on. 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Alana and her sister and family are setting up in Edinburgh, because Alana is pregnant again, and the local doctor is a quack, and they want her to have access to better care. Their journey--slow as it is with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Mortal-Arts-e1514331200176.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5873,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5873","url_meta":{"origin":5659,"position":2},"title":"A Pressing Engagement","author":"Michelle","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Pressing Engagement (2016) Anna Lee Huber Set in Edinburgh, Scotland in April 1831 This short story is Lady Darby's wedding to Sebastian Gage. Except it isn't really a short story, as much as it would truly be an excerpt from either the end of the previous book or the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"a_pressing_engagement","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/a_pressing_engagement.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5653,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5653","url_meta":{"origin":5659,"position":3},"title":"The Anatomist’s Wife","author":"Michelle","date":"February 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Anatomist's Wife (2012) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in August 1830 Lady Darby has spent the last year and a half hiding in Scotland with her sister and brother-in-law, after the death of her husband and the scandal that arose following that. 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But the Hogmanay Ball is interrupted (at the worst possible moment (of course)) with news of the murder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A-Grave-Matter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/A-Grave-Matter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19978,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/19978","url_meta":{"origin":5659,"position":5},"title":"A Perilous Perspective","author":"Michelle","date":"May 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A Perilous Perspective (2022) Anna Lee Huber (Lady Darby Mystery) Set in Scotland in 1832 The tenth Lady Darby book finds Kiera and Sebastian are in Scotland for the wedding of her friend Charlotte to her cousin Rye. Trouble comes with Kiera realizes that several of Lord Barbreck's paintings are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Perilous Perspective","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/A-Perilous-Perspective.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/A-Perilous-Perspective.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/A-Perilous-Perspective.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/A-Perilous-Perspective.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}