This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Dark Victory Series: Galaxy’s Edge #12 Author: Jason Anspach & Nick Cole Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: Space Opera Pages: 294 Words: 103K
Well, until I see body parts spattered all over, or the the complete wreckage of a ship, never trust that someone is dead until then. Those are wise words to live by. And I lived by them. And the authors lived by them, because the princess was NOT dead like was implied in the previous book. Instead, she gets picked up by slavers and taken to a slaver planet to be sold. Hurray! Because you know Keel/Ford/Wraith/NeoRechs (my goodness, just how many identities are the authors going to give this guy? He needs to find himself) is going to come kicking down the door to rescue her. And he does. With the help of Blackleaf and the ultra-kajillionaire. And the Savages make a real comeback!
We’re talking Savage Wars 2.0 right around the corner. It’s going to be brutal.
Ravi, now fully revealed as an Ancient One, does what he can to oppose the Ancient Evil that is trying to destroy our galaxy. Like many of the literary Mentors of the Light, he doesn’t appear to be doing a lot. But you know he’s set stuff in motion and letting it play out. Evil Red Yoda (Urmo is his name) trains up another Champion of Evil and lets him loose. Little Girl Jedi finds her mother and it turns out she is a Savage, one who is able to manipulate the same forces as Ravi, and her daughter. Things are really starting to escalate.
I fully enjoyed this. And that is all I want from these Galaxy Edge books, just to sit down, read and have a killing blast of a time.
★★★★☆
From Galaxysedge.fandom.com
Galaxy’s Edge Season Two continues as a divided galaxy is navigated by heroes forced to chart their own dangerous courses.Wraith, seeking to acquire intel on the mysterious Kill Team Ice, finds himself teamed up with an unlikely Nether Ops ally. Zora and Garret, in pursuit of a lost friend, will have their loyalty to Captain Keel tested. And the strain on Nilo and Black Leaf continues to grow, with unexpected intensity.For all of them, the path forward is a crooked one, weaving through House of Reason loyalists, Bronze Guild bounty hunters, brutal slavers, Legion operators, and the mysteries now emerging from the empty and foreboding space beyond galaxy’s edge. And each step along that path only seems to reveal a new, darker truth about what’s coming for them.
Having read Persuasion last week, I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to watch a new-to-me movie version. I have previously watched the 1995 version, but it really felt like that version just touched on the highlights of the story without getting into the nitty gritty details. It was enjoyable but not something I’d ever want to watch again. So I cruised on over to Amazon and perused their free offerings of Austen’s works. Thankfully, this 2008 BBC production was available, so I sat back and enjoyed.
First, this went off the story in a couple of places, mainly the ending. In this, Wentworth somehow buys the Elliott home estate and gives it to Anne as a wedding present. That never happened in the book. There were also a couple of smaller issues throughout the movie but they weren’t enough to really take notice of.
What really stood out to me was the emotional side of things. There was one scene where Anne is reading a letter from her brother-in-law stating that Wentworth is sure to be married. She’s just sobbing and you can feel her pain, the knowledge that she will never have the chance to be with Wentworth ripping her heart completely apart. You’d have to be a stone, or never experienced that level of heartbreak, to not be moved by it. That scene alone made this a great movie.
I really enjoyed watching this for free. I don’t think I’d go out and buy it, but if you can see it for free, go for it! Of course, read the book first. ALWAYS read the book first.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series: THGttG #1 Author: Douglas Adams Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 184 Words: 50K
I first read these in the late 90’s and laughed my head off. I can still remember how my stomach and sides hurt from laughing so much. It was gloriously ridiculous and in the midst of all the stresses of going through Bibleschool (and all of the attendant growing up I had to do), it was exactly what I needed. When I read the series again in ‘09, I had just gotten married, life was good (but hard due to the recession of ‘08 being in full swing) and I didn’t need any silliness in my life. Hence my “feelingometer” swung over to the “This is Stupid” side of things and I was not impressed at all. Quite the change. Which brings us to the present.
I am now fully mature, wise, sagacious, totally even keeled emotionally and generally in control of every aspect of my life. HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA! ~wipes tears from eyes~ Ahhh, good one Bookstooge, good one.
I definitely enjoyed this more than my time in ‘09 and yet at the same time, I found this very disturbing.
Most of that is due to Adam’s philosophy of Hedonistic Nihilism. It boils down to taking as much pleasure from your existence because you’re going to die and then that’s that. It is a horrible, horrible way to go through life and while Adams covers things up with lots of humor and silliness, that dark thought is there through the whole book. As a Christian, what Adams assumes is completely antithetical to my entire world view. After thinking about it for a bit, I realized it wasn’t so much that the inclusion of such a philosophy bothered me, but that Adams seemed to truly enjoy rubbing the readers’ faces into it. Time after time he has a character expound on just how insignificant and pointless life is. That kind of thinking is how you break someone down psychologically. It is, simply put, evil. With Resurrection Sunday just past, it’s very apropos to speak the truth to the lie of what Adams spouts here: Humans, as individuals, have value and are valuable because they are created in the image of God and Jesus Himself died and then rose from the dead for each person in existence. If God Himself thinks we are valuable enough to make that kind of sacrifice for, well, you won’t hear me deny it or claim otherwise.
Storywise, this is just plain bonkers. Things happen. Quickly. Outrageously. Continuously. Arthur, the main character, goes from finding out his house is going to be bulldozed for a bypass to having the Earth blownup, to getting thrown out an airlock by aliens, to meeting the two-headed President of the Universe to finding out that two mice want his brain for Scyenze. And it all ends with everyone going for a bite to eat at a restaurant. Crazy man, just plain craaaaaaazy.
If you want a short, madcap adventure, this is the series for you. Chaos and silliness abound on every page.
★★★✬☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
The novel opens with an introduction describing the human race as a primitive and deeply unhappy species, while also introducing an electronic encyclopedia called the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which provides information on every planet in the galaxy. Earthman and Englishman Arthur Dent awakens in his home in the West Country to discover that the local planning council is trying to demolish his house to build a bypass, and lies down in front of the bulldozer to stop it. His friend Ford Prefect convinces the lead bureaucrat to lie down in Arthur’s stead so that he can take Arthur to the local pub. The construction crew begin demolishing the house anyway, but are interrupted by the sudden arrival of a fleet of spaceships. The Vogons, the callous race of civil servants running the fleet, announce that they have come to demolish Earth to make way for a hyperspace expressway, and promptly destroy the planet. Ford and Arthur survive by hitching a ride on the spaceship, much to Arthur’s amazement. Ford reveals to Arthur he is an alien researcher for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who has been posing as an out-of-work actor from Guildford for 15 years, and this was why they were able to hitch a ride on the alien ship. They are quickly discovered by the Vogons, who torture them by forcing them to listen to their poetry and then toss them out of an airlock.
Meanwhile Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford’s “semi-cousin” and the President of the Galaxy, steals the spaceship Heart of Gold at its unveiling with his human companion, Trillian. The Heart of Gold is equipped with an “Infinite Improbability Drive” that allows it to travel instantaneously to any point in space by simultaneously passing through every point in the universe at once. However, the Infinite Improbability Drive has a side effect of causing impossible coincidences to occur in the physical universe. One of these improbable events occurs when Arthur and Ford are rescued by the Heart of Gold as it travels using the Infinite Improbability Drive. Zaphod takes his passengers — Arthur, Ford, a depressed robot named Marvin, and Trillian — to a legendary planet named Magrathea. Its inhabitants were said to have specialized in custom-building planets for others and to have vanished after becoming so rich that the rest of the galaxy became poor. Although Ford initially doubts that the planet is Magrathea, the planet’s computers send them warning messages to leave before firing two nuclear missiles at the Heart of Gold. Arthur inadvertently saves them by activating the Infinite Improbability Drive improperly, which also opens an underground passage. As the ship lands, Trillian’s pet mice Frankie and Benjy escape.
On Magrathea, Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian venture down to the planet’s interior while leaving Arthur and Marvin outside. In the tunnels, Zaphod reveals that his actions are not a result of his own decisions, but instead motivated by neural programming that he was seemingly involved in but has no memory of. As Zaphod explains how he discovered this, the trio are trapped and knocked out with sleeping gas. On the surface, Arthur is met by a resident of Magrathea, a man named Slartibartfast, who explains that the Magratheans have been in stasis to wait out an economic recession. They have temporarily reawakened to reconstruct a second version of Earth commissioned by mice, who were in fact the most intelligent species on Earth. Slartibartfast brings Arthur to Magrathea’s planet construction facility, and shows Arthur that in the distant past, a race of “hyperintelligent, pan-dimensional beings” created a supercomputer named Deep Thought to determine the answer to the “Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Deep Thought eventually found the answer to be 42, an answer that made no sense because the Ultimate Question itself was not known. Because determining the Ultimate Question was too difficult even for Deep Thought, an even more advanced supercomputer was constructed for this purpose. This computer was the planet Earth, which was constructed by the Magratheans, and was five minutes away from finishing its task and figuring out the Ultimate Question when the Vogons destroyed it. The hyperintelligent superbeings participated in the program as mice, performing experiments on humans while pretending to be experimented on.
Slartibartfast takes Arthur to see his friends, who are at a feast hosted by Trillian’s pet mice. The mice reject as unnecessary the idea of building a new Earth to start the process over, deciding that Arthur’s brain likely contains the Ultimate Question. They offer to buy Arthur’s brain, leading to a fight when he declines. The group manages to escape when the planet’s security system goes off unexpectedly, but immediately run into the culprits: police in pursuit of Zaphod. The police corner Zaphod, Arthur, Ford and Trillian, and the situation seems desperate as they are trapped behind a computer bank that is about to explode from the officers’ weapons firing. However, the police officers suddenly die when their life-support systems short-circuit. Suspicious, Ford discovers on the surface that Marvin became bored and explained his view of the universe to the police officers’ spaceship, causing it to commit suicide. The five leave Magrathea and decide to go to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Last month I reached 60,000 Comments. I obviously blogged about it 😉 Not ONLY because I’m vain and egotistical and love attention, but because celebrating blogging milestones is a good way to keep the joy of blogging going. Seven years ago I celebrated the original Milestone. And today, despite my best efforts at pruning and cutting off spam accounts and business accounts and general no-good-scumbag accounts, I still reached 500.
I want to apologize to you all for this egregious error on my part. I tried really hard to prevent this from happening, I really did. I was rude to people in the comments. I wrote complete and utter nonsensical posts that didn’t even make sense to me. I posted “book reviews” for a solid month with nothing but the data about the book itself. I even proselytize on Christmas and Resurrection Sunday. And despite that all, 501 of you are stupid enough to keep on following me. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you all. Well, we all have our crosses to bear and I guess this is mine. But don’t think I’m going to like it or bear it gracefully.
On a serious note, I mentioned finding joy in blogging. That is deliberate on my part. WordPress.com has sucked the joy from blogging and to combat that, I have to look for the good in blogging. It doesn’t happen naturally, easily or miraculously. I know I focus on a lot of bad things that WP does, but I also want to try to focus on the good things of blogging. I want to encourage you to look for those little things too. Don’t get bogged down in the bad and quit. Anybody can quit. Gritting your teeth and soldiering on will only take you so far before the burden crushes you beneath its weight. So find the joy. Find the happiness in blogging. Be deliberately thankful for what you do have and don’t focus on what you don’t.
I have survived 5 or 6 platform changes since ’05 (Blogspot. Devilreads. Leafmarks, Booklikes. Librarything. WordPress). I have done that by being thankful for what I had at each platform at the time I was using it. I enjoyed the people I was with too. I’d love to be able to give you a checklist of Thankfulness, but that is going to differ from blogger to blogger because all of our needs are as different as we are. So figure out what your needs are and what you have to be thankful for.
I’d also like to say that sharing milestones isn’t egotistical. It gives other people encouragement and it gives them something to celebrate. Don’t take that away from others by hiding what you have accomplished under the guise of false humility. Be happy with that special post you just wrote, say you are happy about it and LET me be happy with you.
Ok, that’s enough of that. I’ll ruin my crusty curmudgeonly image if I say one more positive thing. So get off my blog lawn, you kids!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Conan the Indomitable Series: Conan the Barbarian #17 Author: Steve Perry Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Fantasy Pages: 191 Words: 63K
Conan falls into a hole in the ground and gets in the middle of a fight between a witch and a wizard. It was purely and completely idiotic and ridiculous. But it worked because there was so much fighting. Conan was killing monsters left, right, up, down, forwards and backwards. Any direction he could swing a sword, he could kill a monster.
Perry does his usual “completely incompetent magic user” thing but with two, it’s really twice as bad. I couldn’t understand why either of them wanted to rule a bunch of monsters and blind apes and vampire bats. And yep, they’re both close to 500 years old.
Thankfully, this was the last Conan story by Perry, so I’ll be moving on to some authors who just wrote a single Conan story. Usually that doesn’t bode well, but after the utter camp that Perry has turned Conan into, I’m ready for anything else, even if it’s bad. This book has fit in perfectly with the books from yesterday and the day before and it’s a piece of garbage even if I am giving it 3stars. Sword swinging and monster killing is worth a lot.
I’m still pretty crabby and I wondered if my giving this 3stars was overcompensating for being so grouchy. Maybe this is REALLY a 2star book but because I was feeling so mean about that I over corrected and ended up giving it 3stars instead. I DON’T THINK SO!!! The Great and Powerful Bookstooge is never wrong, NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Conan and his companion, Elashi, find themselves pursued by pirates under the leadership of a hermaphroditic amalgamation of two lovers, who believe Conan’s sword can separate the couple back into their original state. The two men soon discover a subterranean world, where a beautiful sorceress named Chuntha and Katamay Rey, an evil necromancer, struggle for control over various intelligent creatures. The bizarre cave-dwellers include blind white apes, vampire bats, web-spinning plants, one-eyed monsters, burrowing lizards, mole-like beasts, and giant earthworms. The local balance of power is threatened by Conan’s arrival and various complications ensue, including a revolt by the enslaved creatures, before Conan can win his way back to the surface. One of the worms and a cyclops are featured sympathetically in a subplot.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Phule’s Paradise Series: Phule’s Company #2 Author: Robert Asprin Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 205 Words: 80K
Unfortunately, this felt exactly like the Myth Adventure series. In that Asprin has a great idea for a first book and then completely hits a brick wall in terms of imagination for the rest of the series. The humor and originality was gone. Phule is run ragged and exhausted and that’s how the writing and story felt too.
It was ok to pass some time but it wasn’t anywhere near as interesting or engaging as the first book. Which is too bad because that was a lot of fun and I thought the idea had lots of potential. Oh well, should have known Asprin had hit his limits with the first book. Man, am I in a grouchy mood this week. I’m really giving all these books a hard time. Whatever, if they can’t handle it, they shouldn’t have been written in the first place…
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia.org
The book begins when Phule and his “Omega Mob” receive orders to report to the space station Lorelei, a resort space station home of many casinos. The “Omega Mob” is contracted to defend the Fat Chance Casino from take over by organized crime. Phule splits 50 of the troops from the company, giving them permission to operate under cover in order to gain intelligence on the crime syndicate. He supplements the lost legionnaires with actors and trains the whole unit, actors and legionnaires, in casino security. Upon their arrival they learn that the crime boss, Maxine, has partial ownership in the casino and plans to bankrupt the casino in order to gain a controlling interest. With this intelligence, Phule is able to thwart all of the schemes developed by Maxine thanks to his prior knowledge.
In retaliation, Maxine’s thugs attack two of the actors. However, upon noticing the thug’s leader’s possession of the company’s distinctive wrist communicators, Chocolate Harry, the company’s supply sergeant, retrieves the communicators and beats up the leader. Frustrated with all the failed actions, Maxine resorts to her backup plan: kidnap Phule and ransom him. The resourceful Omega Mob foils the kidnapping, rescuing Phule and forcing Maxine to hand over her share of the casino to the company.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: World of the Starwolves Series: Starwolf #3 Author: Edmond Hamilton Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: SF Pages: 158 Words: 48K
And we are back to the level of the first book. Not a bad book, but not nearly as imaginative and exciting as the second. Chane’s reunion with the Starwolves isn’t sad, happy or even melancholy. It’s just bland. Hamilton can’t infuse either his characters or the situation with any sort of believable emotion. It takes more than just “macho talking” to infuse a book with manly feelings.
This Starwolf trilogy was ok, but it certainly wasn’t a grand slam in terms of showcasing Hamilton’s talents. If he HAS talents that is. The Jury is still out on that particular question. I do have one of those megapacks and I’m debating whether to dive into it or to leave Hamilton alone. He wasn’t bad but he wasn’t that good either. ★★★☆☆
From Bookstooge.blog
Captain Dilullo has retired but has found that you can’t go back home. Chane is bored as well and enlists all the Mercs to raid a hidden planet where a galaxy’s worth of wealth is hidden away by evil geniuses. They fail and are taken hostage by another criminal as the price of their failure. Chane manages to escape to the world of the Starwolves and finagles them into raiding the hidden planet. He succeeds and gets the most valuable piece of the treasure for himself. This buys the Mercs’ freedom and sets them all up for financial freedom. The book ends with Dilullo and Chane both realizing that you can’t go backwards to where you came from.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Persuasion Series: ———- Author: Jane Austen Rating: 5 of 5 Stars Genre: Classic Pages: 193 Words: 85K
This is my 4th read of this novel since 2003. Suffice to say that I really enjoy it.
It is shorter than Pride and Prejudice as well as Sense and Sensibilityand is significantly shorter than Emma (which comes in around the 340page mark). Unfortunately, it “feels” shorter too. While I am a big fan of a short novel, sometimes it isn’t the best. I think the interactions between Anne (with an “E”, hahahaha) and Wentworth could have been longer and more drawn out. Or even more of them. It’s not that they didn’t meet and interact, it just felt rushed. Which ties into the shortness of the novel. But that is my only complaint.
I have always liked this novel because of the age of the protagonists. Anne is 26/27 and Wentworth is 30something? (an OLD man if you listen to Marianne Dashwood 😉 ). Mrs B was younger than Anne when we got married. The calm and collected way that Anne and Freddie (I am not typing Frederick more than once!) went about reconnecting was enjoyable to me. There was very little drama and they proceeded pretty calmly and rationally and allowed their minds to be in control instead of their emotions. They allowed their emotions to influence them, but the emotions weren’t in control. I really, really like that aspect. I see too much of people giving their emotions sway over their lives and then bad things usually happen, either to them or the people around them. So seeing a maturity in the romance is just refreshing.
Despite having read this four times (now), I never can remember which Austen novel it is where a young girl gets head strong and jumps and gives herself a concussion. It is this novel. The scene has always made a strong impression on me but for some reason I simply cannot keep it attached to Persuasion. I’m always convinced it is one of Austen’s other novels and I keep waiting for that scene in other books and am always disappointed it isn’t there; but that only enhances my enjoyment of it when I DO read it here 🙂
I did notice that I no problem getting into the story or the manner and style of writing. Reading S&S last year was a bit of a chore as my mind had to switch mental gears for the 1800’s literary style. But now that I’ve got three of Austen’s novels under my belt (the three mentioned at the start of this review), my mental gears are all well oiled and I sailed through this with nary a hiccup or stickage. That’s always a good feeling and it is how this book made me feel, ie, good.
★★★★★
From Wikipedia.org
Summary – Click to Open
The story begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to Frederick Wentworth: having just turned nineteen years old, Anne fell in love and had accepted a proposal of marriage from Wentworth, then a young and undistinguished naval officer. Wentworth was considered clever, confident and ambitious, but his low social status and lack of wealth made Anne’s friends and family view him as an unsuitable partner. Anne’s father, Sir Walter Elliot, and her older sister, Elizabeth, maintained that Wentworth was no match for a woman of Kellynch Hall, the family estate. Furthermore, Lady Russell, a distant relative whom Anne considers to be a second mother to her after her own died, also saw the relationship as imprudent for one so young and persuaded Anne to break off the engagement. Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Lady Russell are the only family members who knew about the short engagement, as Anne’s younger sister Mary was away at school.
Several years later, the Elliot family are in financial trouble on account of their lavish spending, so they decide to rent out Kellynch Hall and settle in a cheaper home in Bath until their finances improve. Sir Walter, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s new companion, Mrs Clay, look forward to the move. Anne, on the other hand, doubts she will enjoy Bath, but cannot go against her family. Mary is now married to Charles Musgrove of Uppercross Hall, the heir to a respected local squire. Anne visits Mary and her family, where she is well-loved. As the Napoleonic Wars are over, Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia (Frederick’s sister) have become the new tenants of Kellynch Hall. Captain Wentworth, now wealthy from his service in the war, visits his sister and meets the Uppercross family, where he crosses paths with Anne.
The Musgroves, including Mary, Charles, and Charles’s sisters Henrietta and Louisa, welcome the Crofts and Captain Wentworth, who makes it known that he is ready to marry. Henrietta is engaged to her cousin, clergyman Charles Hayter, who is absent when Wentworth is introduced to their social circle. Both the Crofts and Musgroves enjoy speculating about which sister Captain Wentworth might marry. Once Hayter returns, Henrietta turns her affections to him again. Anne still loves Wentworth, so each meeting with him requires preparation for her own strong emotions. She overhears a conversation in which Louisa tells Wentworth that before marrying Mary, Charles Musgrove first proposed to Anne, who turned him down. This news startles Wentworth, and Anne realises that he has not yet forgiven her for letting herself be persuaded to end their engagement years ago.
Anne and the young adults of the Uppercross family accompany Captain Wentworth on a visit to see two of his fellow officers, Captains Harville and Benwick, in the coastal town of Lyme Regis. Captain Benwick is in mourning over the death of his fiancée, Captain Harville’s sister Fanny, and he appreciates Anne’s sympathy and understanding, helped by their mutual admiration for the Romantic poets. Anne attracts the attention of Mr William Elliot, her cousin and a wealthy widower who is heir to Kellynch Hall despite having broken ties with her father years earlier. On the last morning of the visit, Louisa sustains a serious concussion after jumping from the Cobb seawall expecting to be caught by Wentworth. Anne coolly organises the others to summon assistance. Wentworth is impressed with Anne’s quick thinking and cool-headedness, but feels guilty about his actions encouraging Louisa’s attraction to him. This causes him to re-examine his feelings for Anne. Louisa, due to her delicate condition, is forced to recover at the Harvilles’ home in Lyme for months. Captain Benwick, who was a guest as well, helps in Louisa’s recovery by attending and reading to her.
Following Louisa’s accident, Anne joins her father and sister in Bath, with Lady Russell also in the city, while Louisa stays at the Harvilles’ in Lyme Regis for her recovery. Captain Wentworth visits his older brother Edward in Shropshire. Anne finds that her father and sister are flattered by the attentions of their cousin William Elliot, thinking that if he marries Elizabeth, the family fortunes will be restored. William flatters Anne and offhandedly mentions that he was “fascinated” with the name of his future wife already being an “Elliot” who would rightfully take over for her late mother. Although Anne wants to like William, the attention and his manners, she finds his character opaque and difficult to judge.
Admiral Croft and his wife arrive in Bath with the news that Louisa is engaged to Captain Benwick. Wentworth travels to Bath, where his jealousy is piqued by seeing William trying to court Anne. Captain Wentworth and Anne renew their acquaintance. Anne visits Mrs Smith, an old school friend, who is now a widow living in Bath under straitened circumstances. From her, Anne discovers that beneath William’s charming veneer, he is a cold, calculating opportunist who led Mrs Smith’s late husband into debt. As executor to her husband’s will, William has done nothing to improve Mrs Smith’s situation. Although Mrs Smith believes that William is genuinely attracted to Anne, she feels that his primary aim is to prevent Mrs Clay from marrying Sir Walter, as a new marriage might mean a son for Sir Walter, displacing William as heir to Kellynch Hall.
The Musgroves visit Bath to purchase wedding clothes for Louisa and Henrietta, both soon to marry. Captains Wentworth and Harville encounter them and Anne at the Musgroves’ hotel in Bath, where Wentworth overhears Anne and Harville discussing the relative faithfulness of men and women in love. Deeply moved by what Anne says about women not giving up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost, Wentworth writes her a note declaring his feelings for her. Outside the hotel, Anne and Wentworth reconcile, affirm their love for each other, and renew their engagement. Lady Russell admits she was wrong about Wentworth and endorses the engagement. William leaves Bath; Mrs Clay soon follows him and becomes his mistress, making it more likely that he will inherit Kellynch Hall as the danger of her marrying Sir Walter has passed. Once Anne and Wentworth have married, Wentworth helps Mrs Smith recover the remaining assets that William had kept from her. Anne settles into her new life as the wife of a Navy captain.
