Review of Valour And Vanity: (The Glamourist Histories #4)

I just finished reading Valour And Vanity: (The Glamourist Histories #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal.📚

Jane and Vincent finally travel to Murano to further experiment with encasing Glamour into glass. On the way to their destination, they get robbed by pirates, and thus they arrive penniless in Murano. Luckily there is a kind soul on board as well, and he offers them to use his house. He is a banker from Murano. Happy to not be on the street, they accept his offer. But soon after, the gentleman disappears, and instead, the Vincents get a visit from the local police and realize that they were the center of an elaborate plot to steal the secret of the Verre Obscurci from them.

This book is back to being a page-turner! It looks like I like these books better when the setting is more just Jane and Vincent together, and we get less social drama. In this story, we have fast packed action nearly from the beginning—a good heist story combined with some research action; what else could I wish for!

I think the two main characters and their contacts in the English state are a bit naive. We already know that the technics invented by these two are helpful for the military. I’m surprised that they are still allowed to travel alone. And second, they have not learned to be more careful about what they tell regarding their inventions.

• /review
• /alternate-history
• /master-student
• /heist
• /glass-blowing
• /glamourist-histories
• /book-4