The Black Moon

I just love these characters so much at this point. Graham has a real gift for creating a huge cast of incredibly human characters, for exploring all the ways they clash against each other. His stories contain a good balance of joy and sorrow, of things going right and things going wrong. It makes for compelling reading, as I'm never entirely sure what's going to happen. Basically, it's the best that slice-of-life storytelling has to offer.

This book introduces two of Demelza's brothers. One of them, Drake, falls in love with Elizabeth's cousin Morwenna, who is her son's governess. The relationship between the two of them is incredibly sweet, and I was rooting for them so hard. I'm still rooting for them. But because of the feud between the two families, not to mention their different class standings, the relationship is doomed from the start, and the whole story is just one of heartbreak. Even though Morwenna ends the book married to someone else, I'm still hoping these two find a way to get together sometime in the future.

But my real love is for Caroline, who has grown on me slowly. She's probably my favorite character in the entire series, and she holds the rare distinction of also being a person I'd like to be friends with in real life. (So often the things that make a character compelling are the very things that would encourage me to keep my distance.) Her relationship with Dwight is great, and they provide a great balance for each other.

I'm also just so happy that things are finally looking up for Ross and Demelza. I just want them to be happy.

I'm about halfway through this series now, and I'm honestly excited that there's so much left to read. Hanging out with these characters in Cornwall has become one of my favorite forms of escapism lately.

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