Words for Wednesday: No Angel and Something Dangerous

I finished King Rat but will wait to talk about it after we discuss it at book club.  I must say it did not go where I thought it would go and though it felt a bit long at times, it was a good read and definitely opened me up to a side of the war I hadn't thought about before.

Last Sunday I started Something Dangerous by Penny Vincenzi.  This was a book that I had picked up by chance at a second hadn't bookstore only to find out it is the sequel to one of my favorite books, No Angel. 



The first book follows Celia Beckanham and her marriage to Oliver Lytton from the early 1900's through to the 1920's.  Though Celia comes from a well to do family she isn't deterred by the fact that Oliver's family are from the working class.  They own a publishing house which Celia soon joins, much to the horror of her blue-blooded family.  Balancing children and work, Celia slowly becomes a woman in her own and develops opinions about the world that she wouldn't have if she had married rich and become a house wife.  With the start of WWI most of the men go off to war leaving Celia and her sister-in-law, LM, to run the business.  Due to the struggles of trying to publish in a time of thrift, the women take chances with publishing different types of material, and the men return to find a very different publishing house.

Added to all of this are numerous side stories of affairs and family secrets.  We also get to watch the children of the family grow up, as well as the adopted child Barty that Celia rescues (or steals, depending on which characters you identify with) from poverty.  The book is long but I remember reading it quickly and feeling a bit disappointed when it finally ended.

So I am thrilled to have found Something Dangerous which picks up in 1928 with the Lytton children having grown up and with Celia and Oliver coming into their twilight years.  I have just started but am already hooked.  According to the bio from the book, Penny Vincenzi used to write for magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan before becoming an author, and I find that she is able to strike a fine balance between a romance novel and a historical one.   I feel like her female characters are strong and overcome the obstacles that women faced before feminism became popular.  At the same time they make mistakes and sacrifices, which makes them rateable and real.

I recommend both books and am looking forward to tracking down the third, Into Temptation.