Musing Mondays July 8, 2013

Musing Mondays (http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/) asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits. • 
Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
 • Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
 •Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
 • Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Today I just want to ramble.  My rambling subject came about when I recently purchased two books by Grace Burrowes.  One was Lady Eve's Indiscretion and the other was Beckman.  Lady Eve's Indiscretion is #4 of The Dukes Daughters and #7 of Windham series and is part of the first published series written by Burrowes.  Beckman is part of the Lonely Lords series, was written before the Windham books but published after the Windham series became as popular as it is.  According to something I read Burrowes mentioned that she had another series that she had written prior to the Windham books.   Sourcebook looked it over and decided to publish. 

With that backgound here is my ramble.  There is a big difference in the writing between the two books.  Lady Eve moves very smoothly with everything coming just when it is needed.  I have read every book in the Windham series and the same is true for all.  Beckman kept jumping around.  The book did not proceed as smoothly as Lady Eve.  Both had a great story but Lady Eve's story  had all the information I needed to follow it and Beckman's left me guessing part of the time.  Everything eventually showed up but it was not nearly as well plotted as Lady Eve.  I have also read all the Lonely Lords books and I found all of them lacking that final polish that would have made them a much better book.  

So question one for comment.  Have you seen the writing difference between stories written at different times in an authors life.

There is another ramble that comes from reading both the Lonely Lords and the Windham books.  This is something I also noticed as I was reading the early books by Mary Balogh.  Things show up in some of the early books that are polished up and presented much better in later writing.  One case that caught my attention was Lady Ophelia in a Windham book.  This is how she was presented in Lady Louisa's Christmas Knight.

"His second, more sanguine source of comfort, was the Lady Ophelia, whose acquaintance Carrington had made shortly after mustering out.  She, of the kind eyes and patient silences, has provided him much wise counsel and companionship, and that she consistently had litters of at least ten piglets both spring and autumn could only endear her to him further."

I though about her when there was a pig in Beckman who was mentioned several times and praised for having 12 piglets at a time.  She was much better drawn when she became Lady Ophelia.

Leave a comment if you have noticed similar things in your reading.