Reading: The Ironmaster's Tale

I was very much in the mood for comfort reading, so picked up The Ironmaster's Tale, the first volume of L.A. Hall's Clorinda Cathcart's Circle, a series of standalone books focusing on minor (and not so minor) characters from the Comfortable Courtesan series. The Ironmaster's Tale is told from the point of view of Josiah Ferraby, and covers, more or less, the events of the first two Comfortable Courtesan novels.

Because its events take place at the start of the series, The Ironmaster's Tale could be enjoyed by readers who haven't read the Comfortable Courtesan books first, though I found that there was a certain extra something in following already-familiar events and characters finding their places that wouldn't have been there if this was my first introduction to them. Like all of the series, it's the perfect thing to read if you're feeling a bit fragile; it's full of people being kind and generous and loving to each other, problems being amicably resolved and felicity being generally maximised. Unlike the very episodic structure of at least the first Comfortable Courtesan book, which reflects its origins as a blog series, The Ironmaster's Tale is very much a novel, telling the story of the development of Josiah's relationship with Clorinda and its wider consequences in his life. I really enjoyed seeing events from a different perspective, and particularly liked the way the third-person narrative enables Hall to include physical descriptions of many characters who are not described in Clorinda's narrative. It's an absolutely delightful read and definitely helped me to get through a rather tough few days.