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dangermousieJust finished this door-stopper of a book and so much fun! I really must read more Jilly Cooper - no doubt it's very trashy but the amount of fun I had was insane. In short:
1. STD tests for everyone! I have never seen that much sleeping around in a single novel before. And not just for AIDS as some of them did, but for every STD under the sun. The cast of characters is like one giant petri dish. Take the example of Cameron - she ends up with Patrick, but not before sleeping with (b) Rupert (her future brother-in-law if she and Patrick marry) (b) Declan - Patrick's father (!!!!) (c) Tony, whose son is Patrick's sister's bf. My God. Someone should do a study on patterns on disease with these people.
2. Speaking of Cameron, she was the one character I could not stand. Not because she'd be awful to deal with in RL (because this goes for the majority of the characters) but because she wasn't fun to read about when bitchy - screaming and combative clinginess is not fun. But mainly, I confess, because she was a bitch to Taggy - Taggy is, by far, my favorite character and any time anyone was horrid to her, I wanted to slaughter them (is it possible to be protective of a fictional character?) I probably would have overlooked it if it was due to jealousy but Cameron was being a massive bitch to her before she's even thought of hooking up with Rupert. I get the sense the author liked Cameron a lot more than I did. Oh well.
3. Yup, Taggy is still my favorite character. By far. Also, if someone told me before I read this, that I would be obsessed about a 19-yr-old dyslexic cook and a 30-something ultimate-male-slut patrician politician, I would have thought they were insane. But here we are. Rupert/Taggy totally hit all my fictional kinks (minus having a sex scene - booo, every other permutation of people had a sex scene, why not the OTP?!). All the angst was beyond delicious. (Or as my daughter says 'deeeeeelicious'). I am a sucker for the whole "I am unworthy/too old/too around the block" stuff. And their personalities and needs and flaws and strengths really compliment each other. Plus, he won't care she can barely read as about the only thing he ever bothers to read is sports magazines :)
4. Adultery. See point 1. I tried to figure out if anyone hasn't committed adultery in this one and I think the only exceptions were people who weren't married :)
5. Reading about all the scrumptuous meals made me hungry.
6. I will never understand Declan and Maud's marriage but if all that drama and cheating works for them, good.
7. I want to read more about Billy Lloyd-Foxe and his swingerish wife. They are awesome. I believe he's one of the mains in Riders which I shall acquire forthwith (it also features Rupert as an utter cad in his wild young days, so that's a bonus).
8. Does the author have a thing for age differences? In addition to Taggy/Rupert, there is Patrick/Cameron (he's 21, she's almost 30), and Rupert's ex-wife who's in a happy mariage with a man 30 yrs her senior. Oddddddddddddddddddd.
In conclusion: I want to find a hot and loaded British aristocrat to buy me Faberge eggs and puppies and protect me from things. But not before a STD test panel results are out :)
1. STD tests for everyone! I have never seen that much sleeping around in a single novel before. And not just for AIDS as some of them did, but for every STD under the sun. The cast of characters is like one giant petri dish. Take the example of Cameron - she ends up with Patrick, but not before sleeping with (b) Rupert (her future brother-in-law if she and Patrick marry) (b) Declan - Patrick's father (!!!!) (c) Tony, whose son is Patrick's sister's bf. My God. Someone should do a study on patterns on disease with these people.
2. Speaking of Cameron, she was the one character I could not stand. Not because she'd be awful to deal with in RL (because this goes for the majority of the characters) but because she wasn't fun to read about when bitchy - screaming and combative clinginess is not fun. But mainly, I confess, because she was a bitch to Taggy - Taggy is, by far, my favorite character and any time anyone was horrid to her, I wanted to slaughter them (is it possible to be protective of a fictional character?) I probably would have overlooked it if it was due to jealousy but Cameron was being a massive bitch to her before she's even thought of hooking up with Rupert. I get the sense the author liked Cameron a lot more than I did. Oh well.
3. Yup, Taggy is still my favorite character. By far. Also, if someone told me before I read this, that I would be obsessed about a 19-yr-old dyslexic cook and a 30-something ultimate-male-slut patrician politician, I would have thought they were insane. But here we are. Rupert/Taggy totally hit all my fictional kinks (minus having a sex scene - booo, every other permutation of people had a sex scene, why not the OTP?!). All the angst was beyond delicious. (Or as my daughter says 'deeeeeelicious'). I am a sucker for the whole "I am unworthy/too old/too around the block" stuff. And their personalities and needs and flaws and strengths really compliment each other. Plus, he won't care she can barely read as about the only thing he ever bothers to read is sports magazines :)
4. Adultery. See point 1. I tried to figure out if anyone hasn't committed adultery in this one and I think the only exceptions were people who weren't married :)
5. Reading about all the scrumptuous meals made me hungry.
6. I will never understand Declan and Maud's marriage but if all that drama and cheating works for them, good.
7. I want to read more about Billy Lloyd-Foxe and his swingerish wife. They are awesome. I believe he's one of the mains in Riders which I shall acquire forthwith (it also features Rupert as an utter cad in his wild young days, so that's a bonus).
8. Does the author have a thing for age differences? In addition to Taggy/Rupert, there is Patrick/Cameron (he's 21, she's almost 30), and Rupert's ex-wife who's in a happy mariage with a man 30 yrs her senior. Oddddddddddddddddddd.
In conclusion: I want to find a hot and loaded British aristocrat to buy me Faberge eggs and puppies and protect me from things. But not before a STD test panel results are out :)
