Valour and Vanity
Ratings7
Average rating4.1
Acclaimed fantasist Mary Robinette Kowal has enchanted many fans with her beloved novels featuring a Regency setting in which magic--known here as glamour--is real. In *Valour and Vanity*, master glamourists Jane and Vincent find themselves in the sort of magical adventure that might result if Jane Austen wrote *Ocean's Eleven*.
After Melody's wedding, the Ellsworths and Vincents accompany the young couple on their tour of the continent. Jane and Vincent plan to separate from the party and travel to Murano to study with glassblowers there, but their ship is set upon by Barbary corsairs. It is their good fortune that they are not enslaved, but they lose everything to the pirates and arrive in Murano destitute.
Jane and Vincent are helped by a kind local they meet en route, but Vincent is determined to become self-reliant and get their money back and hatches a plan to do so. But when so many things are not what they seem, even the best laid plans conceal a few pitfalls. The ensuing adventure is a combination of the best parts of magical fantasy and heist novels, set against a glorious Regency backdrop.
This description comes from the publisher. *Valour and Vanity* is the fourth book in the Glamourist Histories, the first of which is *Shades of Milk and Honey*.
Series
Series
5 primary booksGlamourist Histories
Glamourist Histories is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2010 with contributions by Mary Robinette Kowal.
Reviews
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Pros: gut-wrenching scenes, interesting situation, fun characters
Cons: they're helped a surprising amount
Vincent and Jane head to Murano to try to make their verre obscurcie with a local glassmaker. But their ship is waylaid by pirates and things go downhill from there.
This is the fourth book of the Glamourist Histories, and is a great continuation. The couple fall upon bad circumstances and must work hard to regain their former standing. As with the other books there's a personal mystery that glamour is used to solve.
There were some gut-wrenching scenes in the book as the characters deal with what's happened.
Despite the grimness of their situation both the protagonists and some of the people they encounter have fun personalities and mostly upbeat attitudes.
I did question the intricacy of some of the plots Vincent and Jane come up with to return their property, especially considering the number of people who offer to help them.
This is a fun series and a great book.
This felt long to me. I stopped it many times and finally jumped chapters in a couple of places to get to the action again. I think perhaps heist narratives aren't for me, or at least, reading about more than one heist in a single story isn't for me, because otherwise the story was well-written.
