Books #33 and 34: Cinders and Sapphires and Diamonds and Deceit by Leila Rasheed

One of my friends wrote about this book on her book blog, and she said it was basically a book version of Downton Abbey--she called it "frothy, drama-laden, and fun," and I thought I could definitely use some books that had those qualities in my life right now. I have been in the mood for easy reading, and these definitely qualified! I totally agree that it is very similar to Downton Abbey, particularly the first book. (The second book loses its focus on the servants as much, and looks more at the wealthy people who they're working for.) They were published in 2013 and 2014, so I almost think they were ripping off of Downton. Some of the plotlines are extremely reminiscent of Downton (like the valet who is gay and in love with his master... sounds semi-familiar). However, it is definitely fun and both books were interesting enough to keep my attention. (I read both in the same day, actually. They were really fast reads.) I really liked Ada and Rose, the two main characters, who you're rooting for and following their romances, and I enjoyed Rose's transformation from maid to lady during the second book (although it really seemed far too easy to me).

However, the storyline here is definitely soap opera-ish--there's blackmail, sudden deaths, catfighting, sudden marriages, revelations of a maid becoming a lady, obsessive romance, people getting thrown in prison, etc. I feel like the books both may have been stronger if the author had taken out some of the crazy side stories and focused on strengthening the main characters' interactions and romances, etc. She added so many characters and plots that it was a little confusing to keep track of everyone at the beginning. Some of the side plots became a little far-fetched to me. Both books actually ended with a dramatic death, which seemed a little heavy-handed. The romance in both books also is pretty formulaic, where the man and woman fall in love after a two-minute conversation and basically stay in love forever after that (now, come on). I also think that the prejudices and moral systems that the characters exhibit seems far too twenty-first century to be true pre-WWI Britain. For example, one of the characters is homosexual, and he tells his stepsister about it, and she has about a half-page tussle in her mind about whether it's right or wrong and decides, "How could it be wrong for him to just love someone?" and leaves it at that. Now, come on. How heavy-handed can you be? And really, how realistic is that for that time period? There are also several Indian characters (one of them is the Ada's love interest) and it seems odd that there isn't any racism exhibited towards them at all. Not that I think that's okay, but it seems like it was probably pretty common in 1912 and there doesn't seem to be ANY racism, even from the mean, closed-minded characters we don't like. And Ada talks about dying to be independent and going to Oxford, and I just felt that the way she talked about it seemed pretty modern to me.

Overall, I enjoyed these books. I'd probably read the sequels if there are any, but I might forget about this series too.