What really irks me is that Amelia is a great narrator, wonderfully intelligent and powerful, but the author keeps putting her and Vanity into situations where they a) behave like brainless sex objects; b) are forced into wearing some exploitative costume for reasons only thinly justified by the plot; c) get tied up, manhandled and/or (I am still facepalming over this one) spanked. And yet, of course, they remain virginal (and in some ways almost laughably naive) throughout.

I can put up with a billion and one of Colin's crass comments (they are at least in character for his personality and the fact that he's a teenaged boy, and he actually made me laugh out loud once in Book II), but not that kind of nonsense. I would really like to get through Book III without grinding my teeth, but I fear it isn't going to happen...