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As I promised a few people who read the Lady Julia books, here's my review of the latest one that came out this week:

I have an odd relationship with this series of books because I absolutely adore the first and second books, and can genuinely enjoy the third if I skip some parts. My problem is that upon any tiny amount of reflection, the fourth book is a train wreck. This disappointed me on many levels, not the least of which was an awesome series turning mediocre at best. I think I was mostly annoyed because the main characters get married between the third and fourth book and this resolved sexual tension may have a lot to do with why the fourth book isn't as good. It's like writers think that in order to keep a book or relationship interesting, once the couple is together they have to compensate with completely ridiculous melodrama and character assassination. I resent stories about established relationships that resort to people refusing to talk to each other, stupid rash actions, or pregnancy drama to keep it 'interesting'. I also was pretty pissed that in the fourth book the main character, who I had previously loved and rooted for, even with all of her flaws (because of her flaws!) became someone I didn't even like and wasn't sure why anyone else in the book would like her either. It's a bit dangerous, just how thin the line between realistic human foibles and failings, and rendering someone unsympathetic and unlikeable is.

So you can imagine that I approached the fifth book with some misgivings. The initial improvements in the fifth book were mostly that the characters have moved back to more familiar settings (avoiding the uncomfortably exoticized elements of the last book), and many familiar beloved characters reappeared. That being said, things seem to still be status quo between Julia and Brisbane (Julia doing stupid, rash things and Brisbane getting pissed about it, and then them having interesting little 'interludes' to prove they still like love each other). For almost the entire first half of the book, I continually asked myself how Brisbane could like her enough not to kill her, let alone love her with the wild passion he keeps swearing to. (And even Brisbane, whom I love with an embarrassing amount of fangirlishness, even he teeters on the edge of becoming a wannabe Heathcliffe, wild gypsy caricature. That I will never forgive.) Luckily for this book, and the series as a whole (hopefully), something very bizarre happens about halfway through the book: Julia and Brisbane start acting like adults and talking to each other. I even began to believe their attraction again (though, Brisbane's constant need to profess his love makes me wonder if the author began to doubt it as well.) So, after a really dangerous stumble, the book does redeem itself on the power of the second half (that and a great scene between Julia and her siblings that reminded me how much I love the Marches). Not much can be said for the typically tangled and somewhat ridiculous murder-mystery plot. But lets be honest, I don't read these books for the mystery. These characters are all still some of my most beloved ones to visit.

Final verdict? If you can forgive the first half, it may just be worth trudging through the fourth book to read the fifth. And I'm cautiously optimistic for the sixth.