Tag: Sleuthing Heroine

Review: Manda Collins’s A SPINSTER’S GUIDE TO DANGER AND DUKES (Lady’s Guide #3)

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Spinster's_Guide_Danger_DukesCollins’s light-hearted, pleasant historical romance/mystery was read in one sitting…not because it inspired “can’t put this down”, though a fun read. Rather because my home-city experienced a devastating ice storm, which I drove through on Wednesday, and then went into the dark and cold for two days while power was out. The Kindle held out long enough for me to read Collins’s Spinster’s Guide in one sitting on Thursday and then sit on my review till the power came back. I have been thinking about how our reading is as much about the when and how we read a book as much as the book itself and how blogs, waning as they are, recount and reflect those circumstances. So, there you have how I read Spinster’s Guide in the dark and cold. 

Onwards to Collins’s third Lady’s Guide romance-mystery and its lovable characters, especially hero Joshua Fielding, Duke of Langham and heroine Poppy Delamere. To start, the publisher’s blurb to set us up with premise and details:

England, 1867: Miss Poppy Delamare is living a lie. To escape an odious betrothal, she fled to London where she’s been hiding as the unassuming secretary Flora Deaver. However, when her beloved sister is accused of murder, Poppy cannot leave her to the wolves. Only a most unexpected—and unwelcome—collision interrupts her journey home… 

Despite a rather dismal first meeting, Joshua Fielding, the Duke of Langham, has no intention of abandoning a lady in need. But he’s not above asking a favor. A fake betrothal will give Poppy and her sister the power of the dukedom and protect Langham from the society misses intent on becoming his duchess.

Yet the longer the ruse goes on, the more Poppy and Langham realize how false their first impressions were—and the less pretend their engagement feels. But before Langham can propose in truth, their search reveals a tangled web of lies and betrayals. With time running out, can Poppy and Langham find the real culprit—before Poppy becomes the next victim? (more…)

Review: Darcie Wilde’s THE SECRET OF THE LOST PEARLS (Rosalind Thorne Mystery #6)

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Secret_Lost_Pearls“A spinster woman in reduced circumstances was likely to be underestimated in any well-to-do household.”

Given the name of this blog, this phrase, from Wilde’s The Secret of the Lost Pearls, struck me. Wilde’s sixth of a series is dedicated not to Austen’s heroines, but her spinsters…with a nice dash of romance to give a nice little twist. After reading Wilde’s Lost Pearls, I am sorry I didn’t read the series from the start: it is well-written and offers an engaging, easily-liked heroine, hero, and best friend. It doesn’t have the ensemble “feel” of Penrose’s Wrexford and Sloane series, but that is not a discredit. Set in a similar era, Wilde, in a way, does a better job of integrating historical detail, without Penrose’s penchant for long, ponderous, historically-dense paragraphs. Maybe this makes Wilde somewhat “lighter”? I’m not sure, she makes up in characterization, however, what she may lack in historical detail. I certainly enjoyed Wilde’s latest more than Penrose’s. Enough speculation, here is the publisher’s blurb for premise et. al.:

Rosalind Thorne may not have a grand fortune of her own, but she possesses virtues almost as prized by the haut ton: discretion, and a web of connections that enable her to discover just about anything about anyone. Known as a “most useful woman,” Rosalind helps society ladies in need—for a modest fee, of course—and her client roster is steadily increasing.

Mrs. Gerald Douglas, née Bethany Hodgeson, presents Rosalind with a particularly delicate predicament. A valuable pearl necklace has gone missing, and Bethany’s husband believes the thief is Nora, Bethany’s disgraced sister. Nora made a scandalous elopement at age sixteen and returned three years later, telling the family that her husband was dead.

But as Rosalind begins her investigations, under cover of helping the daughters of the house prepare for their first London season, she realizes that the family harbors even more secrets than scandals. The intrigue swirling around the Douglases includes fraud, forgery, blackmail, and soon, murder. And it will fall to Rosalind, aided by charming Bow Street officer Adam Harkness, to untangle the shocking truth and discover who is a thief—and who is a killer.   (more…)