Shades of Milk and Honey

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal

The fantasy novel you've always wished Jane Austen had written

Shades of Milk and Honey is exactly what we could expect from Jane Austen if she had been a fantasy writer:Pride and Prejudice meets Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is an intimate portrait of a woman, Jane, and her quest for love in a world where the manipulation of glamour is considered an essential skill for a lady of quality.

Jane and her sister Melody vie for the attentions of eligible men, and while Jane's skill with glamour is remarkable, it is her sister who is fair of face. When Jane realizes that one of Melody's suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right-and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.

Great if you love speculative fiction and Austen

I was a little worried that I wouldn't like this book, but overall I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a complete Austen fangirl, but I love her writing enough that I would have been entirely put off if the characters, setting, etc, had seemed fake or over the top. The characters were familiar, but this was mostly a positive and only occasionally distracting. I liked the addition of glamour to the world, which was a relief as that could have easily ruined everything if not done well.

The author's reading was great, although the accent was a little distracting occasionally. I could tell when she'd had a break and started again, but she soon settled into the voices and I would forgot about it until the next time. Overall it gets better as you go along.

I listened to this recording all in one day, with only a couple of breaks. It was exactly what I needed that day, as I pottered around the house doing odd jobs and a bit of drawing. To begin with it was a nice backdrop to my other activities, but by the end it had drawn me in so I was sitting by the computer with my stomach in a knot, wanting a good outcome for my favourite characters.

Overall the author has taken on a concept which would have been very easy to do wrong, and has delivered an entertaining read/listen. I'm looking forward to her next book in this series being released on Audible, and hope she will be reading it herself.

OK Story, Not Ok Narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Given it to a stronger editor. This book basically felt like a really good second draft. Lots of interesting ideas, but a very underdeveloped romance and characters that never really clicked.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Just given it more time in the oven, really. It needed a lot more story editing. The romance not being fleshed out is a big one I mentioned above. It never felt like it built properly. They just kind of...didn't like each other, then were in love. OK? I guess?

The author also didn't do great at researching the regency period, in ways that were occasionally obvious and drew you out of the book. For example, declaring someone was experiencing "not simple melancholia, but depression!" This ignores the fact that melancholia WAS depression at this time; not some separate, lesser disorder. In fact, it's extremely unlikely the term depression would have been used to refer to a mood disorder at all in the early 1800s, let alone by a lay-person. Nit-picky? Yeah, totally. But blunders in historical accuracy like that are exactly the kind of thing that pull you out of a text, and should be caught before publication.

What didn’t you like about Mary Robinette Kowal’s performance?

The accent was forced. The voices were often poorly distinguishable or kind of annoying, particularly the baby doll voices given to young women. She did a poor job of conveying emotion and nuance. A few times, at critical moments, she mixed up voices for characters in a way that made things confusing.

Do you think Shades of Milk and Honey needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I might be interested to see what happens next; but if I decide to I will absolutely (barring a change in narrator) be reading the physical book rather than listening to the audiobook.

Any additional comments?

Despite my kvetching, it's not a terrible book. A lot of the writing is solid enough, and the idea of glamour is intriguing. It's entertaining enough that I don't totally begrudge the credit spent on it. But I do still really recommend anyone interested in reading the book buy a physical copy rather than listening.

You become more invested as story goes on

I’ll be honest it took me a little while to warm up to the story but once I got into it I could not stop listening

Delightful

That was wonderfully adorable and fluffy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

The light touch of magic. The main character. Her eccentric family. The awful antagonists.

Very good. 7/10

Not for me

This was not what I thought it would be at all. At first I thought glamour was some sort of Regency art form I wasn’t aware of and looked it up. Then discovered it is just some made up form magic. Although everyone seems to be enthralled with it, it’s strange thrown into a Regency novel, as if magic were an everyday art form all young ladies should be pursuing.
Just too weird for me and off putting. I tried to keep going, but the stranger it got, and I felt I couldn’t waste my time with it.