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Carregando... Coronets and Steel (2010)de Sherwood Smith
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Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. Magical. Incredible. I loved every word, every sentence. The concept of doubles and mistaken identity may have been a little cliched, but I don't care. The characters are so real I wept and laughed along with them. Kim is an engaging narrator/POV character/protagonist. I love a strong female lead, and she is definitely that. A ballerina/fencer who loves old movies and Beatles music, she appeals to me in so many ways. She never allows anyone to rule her, even the handsome Prince she meets in her travels. :) Alec is a fascinating mystery; Tony is a handsome dangerous contradiction; Ruli is more than she seems; and Sisi... well, I don't want to say too much. Is it fantasy? Sort of. Not really. But it will appeal to fans of fantasy. Highly recommended. See my review at http://www.myshelf.com/scifi_fantasy/11/coronetsandsteel.htm Aurelia Kim Murray hunts for her grandmother's past, hoping to find some clue to breaking her grandmother's depression. While searching Europe for clues, she feels like she's being watched. A strange encounter at the ballet proves to her that in fact, she is. And thus Kim gets swept up into an adventure of mistaken identity, supernatural happenings, and all the balls and swashbuckling her romantic heart could desire. Although I liked the twists on the Ruritania tale, this story didn't do it for me. First off, it was hard to shake the feeling that Kim was constantly missing or forgetting to follow up on obvious clues. sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha
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California girl Kim Murray is unsatisfied with grad school and restless in life, studying ballet and fencing because they remind her of older, more romantic times. Her secretive, aristocratic grandmother, who speaks only French and refuses to share stories about their mysterious family, inspires Kim to seek her roots in Europe, where she is swept up in an adventure of fantastic deceptions and passionate intrigue. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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I like Smith’s Sartorias-deles series (starting with the Inda tetralogy) and was recommended this series. I recently re-read Prisoner of Zenda 💔and I really enjoyed Smith’s Crown & Court. I was in the mood for a fantasy with a (clean) romance so this is my first pick for the year.
Aurelia (named after her grandmother) Kim Murray - known as Kim - from Los Angeles has made a trip to Europe on a tight budget to try to solve the family mystery of where her mum and grandmother originally came from. While there she is kidnapped, having been mistaken for a missing duchess (also named Aurelia, though she prefers to be called Ruli) and consequently finds answers to her questions - which just lead to more questions. So she travels to the tiny, oft-overlooked kingdom of Dobrenica (where the missing Ruli hails from) to look for more answers and inadvertently becomes embroiled in their politics which leads to more adventures.
This is a modern day Ruritanian romance, but with a touch of fantasy, very much based on Prisoner of Zenda which book Smith mentions several times in her story, down to the nickname of the missing royalty: Ruli instead of Rudy. There were a couple of spots where I thought Kim jumped to a conclusion too fast, or maybe we just weren’t on the same wavelength, but that was a passing niggle.
While it may not be quite as rollicking as Prisoner of Zenda it still has plenty of swash and buckle, especially for a contemporary novel; Kim is an accomplished dancer and fencer (she has had to abandon her university team's fencing competition for her trip). The ending felt a bit abrupt but it is the first in trilogy and - because I had read the synopsises of the next two books - I was anticipating the twist.
So, if you haven’t read the synopses for the other books yet, then don’t.
I am looking forward to reading the sequels. (I just hope there's no Rupert of Hentzau plot waiting for me, though Tony (the character based on Rupert) is still lurking in the wings.)
(January 2024)
4.5 stars ( )