Reading: Felicities Maximized

[white_hart]

Felicities Maximized is the last of the Comfortable Courtesan series (although since its publication last year, L.A. Hall has also published two volumes of 'Clorinda's Circle', supplementary stories set post-canon and/or focusing on other points of view - I reviewed A Man of Independent Mind here - and a third is due out later this month). At the start of the book, we find Clorinda in Naples where she is trying to put the unpleasant events that ended Invited Everywhere behind her; the novel covers her sojourn in Italy, journey home and a round of parties, balls and visits which results in all of the current loose ends in her circle being neatly tied up (including a very Shakespearean ending for one of her antagonists). It's as delightful and full of kindness and diversity as the rest of the series; I have bought hard copies of all of them, because I know that they will be comfort reads I'll return to again and again.