Book review : A Deadly Affair by Carla Simpson

A Deadly Affair
Angus Brodie & Mikaela Forsythe book 1
by Carla Simpson
GENRE : #Victorian era cozy mystery

My rating: ★★★★☆
Actually 3,8 stars rounded up to 4.

Victorian mystery with a hint of romance and humor.
I liked it, but I wasn't crazy about it. Since it doesn't particularly stand out from numerous other "historical mystery-romance" series, whether set in the Victorian era, the Regency period, or the 1920s, I can't rate it higher than a 3.8, rounded up to 4.

________ PLOT IN SHORT________ London, 1889. Mikaela Forsythe's sister is missing, and her sister's maid has been found murdered. While the police prove inefficient (if not disinterested) in looking for clues, Mikaela promises herself to find her sister alive and bring the culprits to justice.

Directed by her aunt to hire private detective (and former police inspector) Angus Brodie, Mikaela refuses to be sidelined during the investigation. Intelligent, stubborn, cunning, and skilled in self-defense, she will give Brodie a hard time trying to keep her safe.

During the investigations in the darkest places, frequented by shady individuals, clues will emerge that lead to something much bigger: a possible conspiracy? And against whom? It will be up to this unlikely couple, and their faithful friends, to find out and act accordingly.

___________________ * * *_____________________

MY OPINION

--> I'm giving 4 full stars mainly for the characters (both main and secondary), the subtle romantic vein, and the pleasantly humorous style of the story.
However, the mystery itself is worth only 2.5 stars: it's neither compelling nor original, and the resolution is unsatisfying.

Maybe if I had read it a few years ago, before reading so many other similar series, I would have appreciated it more; I might have even found it great.

Having read it after already enjoying so many similar books, I couldn't feel as involved as I would have liked.
However, for those who love light mysteries, it is, as a whole, a pleasant read, useful for escaping daily worries and reviving your good mood, thanks to the witty dialogues and some kisses that will delight the most romantic readers.

______ MAIN CHARACTERS_____ They are adorable, even if they follow the usual clichés:

SHE is an extraordinary woman whose intelligence, curiosity, and desire for action are supported by wealth. This has allowed her to have an education, to travel far and wide, and to live adventures without caring about conventions – something that an intelligent and enterprising, but poor, woman could not have done. (Hmm... maybe I'm a little tired of "super-mega-brilliant-and-rich" heroines. It would be interesting and nice to read more often about quick-witted working-class women who can't resist the urge to investigate!).
Oh, I almost forgot: like all "brave and canny" female protagonists, she is obviously also stubborn. If the male character tells her "not to do" something, it's guaranteed that she will do it – something a bit unbearable for me, but obviously hilarious and effective in the dynamics of the stories.

HE, as always in this kind of reading, is the professional. In this book, he works independently as a detective, but he has the experience he acquired as a police inspector. As always, he has good instincts, he is capable and charming, he is introverted with a tormented past and, naturally, at the beginning, he doesn't give much credit to the "pushy woman."
But then, fascinated by her smartness and resourcefulness, he has to change his mind.
Irony, respect for women, right ideals, honesty, and courage complete the figure of the hero of the story, and I cannot deny that he fascinates me too.

So, in conclusion, the protagonists are amusing and even though their actions and reactions are predictable, their lively and ironic dialogues not only made me smile a lot while reading but also encouraged me to turn the pages to see how their bickering and mutual attraction progressed.

The "good" SIDE CHARACTERS are quite original, also nice, ironic and ready to do their best to help our two favorites.
The author manages to express the nature and mentality of each of them in a lively and fun way.

----> THE ONLY FLAW AMONG THE CHARACTERS: the villains, who usually have an equally important role in mysteries, here are portrayed in a few scenes, have few lines in the whole book and are completely ignored by the author.
I think this has taken away a lot of suspense and pathos from the story.
I hope that in the next books both the mystery and the villains will be more impressive.

___ A BLOOMING ROMANCE ___ Throughout the story, I had the impression that the author focused more on the relationship between the two characters and their interaction with their friends who work with them (including the cute dog) than on creating an intricate and compelling mystery.

Throughout the narrative, the bickering feels like a veiled courtship.
Despite coming from different backgrounds, the two characters are similar in some respects (cleverness, stubbornness, sense of justice, pride and desire to assert their autonomy)and clearly feel an attraction to each other.

To confirm this, book #1 in the series gives us a beautiful first kiss, something that usually happens in the subsequent volumes of a mystery-romance series.
"Clean" kiss, but unexpected and pleasant to read, which, together with another final surprise, invites readers to follow the development of the relationship in the next books.

_____ THE MYSTERY_____ As I said previously, this is, in my opinion, the weakest part of the book.
I didn't find it well-thought-out; I didn't encounter any major twists, and even the explanation of the mystery left much to be desired.
----> Perhaps this gap could have been filled with an interesting historical element (as in the fantastic "Lady Emily" series by Tasha Alexander), but unfortunately, apart from knowing that we are in the Victorian era and that Jack the Ripper was active, there are no historical connections. The fact that the monarchs are mentioned and their offspring make a brief appearance is not enough to make the whole thing historically relevant.

Anyway, a nice, light read to spend your leisure time.
----> Clean language, no sex scenes and no gruesome descriptions make the book suitable for all ages.

Thanks for reading my opinion, and please be lenient with my English; it's not my first language.

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Book review : Mrs. Holloway's Christmas Pudding by Jennifer Ashley

Mrs. Holloway's Christmas Pudding
A Below Stairs Mystery Novella #6.7
by Jennifer Ashley
GENRE: #Christmas-cozy-mystery #historical-mystery

My rating: ★★★★☆
Actually 3.8 rounded up to 4 stars

A short and very enjoyable Christmas mystery novella.

This short story is part of a mystery series ( indeed book #6.7 ) set in England at the end of 19th century, but it's perfectly readable as a standalone.

The peculiarity of the series is that the main character is not part of the rich and noble society, but is the cook in an aristocratic house, which is why the title of the series is:
" A Below Stairs Mystery Series".

___PLOT__ December 1882
When Cook Kat Holloway is blamed when a dinner guest mysteriously takes ill after eating one of her meals, she sets out to prove she had nothing to do with the gentleman’s sickness.

Helped by her closest friends, she investigates the patient's family and acquaintances, thus discovering that there are many who have a valid motive to kill.

In the meantime, Kat must also manage to prepare an impeccable Christmas meal and who knows what Christmas Day will hold for her together with her daughter and Daniel who cares so much about her...

________ ******** ________

Even though I hadn't read the previous books (which were mostly longer novels), I still managed to enjoy the story and understand the role of each character. The author was in fact very good at describing their personality and what binds them to the protagonist.

As I already said, the story is short and can be read in a couple of afternoons, but it is intriguing enough to make you want to read all the other books and find out more about the various CHARACTERS:
- Kat, a skilled cook, single mother with a great love for her daughter who is raised by another family.
- Daniel, her friend and lover, skilled in disguises and undercover operations and her young son James, affectionate and kind, skilled and cunning like his father.
- The terrible, grumpy and overbearing landlady and Lady Cinthia, her niece, modern, friend of Kat and kind to the servants, loves dressing as a man and is reckless.
- The rest of the staff under the stairs and other friends who never fail to help Kat in the investigation.

The final part of the story is reserved not only for the solution of the case but also for a sweet and convivial Christmas atmosphere, thus giving the reader that touch of goodness and magic that each of us seeks when approaching a story set at Christmas.

Thanks for reading my opinion and please be lenient with my English as it is not my native language.

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Book review : Ghostly Lover by Mary Lancaster

Ghostly Lover
Crime and Passion Book #4.5
by Mary Lancaster
GENRE : #historical-mystery-romance
#Halloween-read
My rating: ★★★☆☆


Real rating : 2.5 rounded up to 3.

A short story, included in the Passion & Crime series (of which I really liked books #1 and #2 and  I will soon also read #3 + the short Christmas story) written by the author exclusively for Halloween.

The protagonist couple is the common thread throughout the series, Griz and Dragan in fact met in book #1 and after falling in love and getting married they continue to be present as a couple of amateur detectives.

In this short story they will have to shed light on a suicide that they suspect to be a murder and put a ghost to rest.

--PLOT IN SHORT---
Late 1800s, England.
  Dragan finds himself a guest with an aristocratic friend, whose stately home is built right next to an old ruined castle (belonging to the friend's family), which is said to be haunted by a female ghost.

The reason why Dragan was invited is to shed light on the death of his friend's girlfriend, but the only suspects are the family and the servants.

Unable to unravel the mystery on his own, Dragan invites his wife Grizelda to join him and she also brings their recently born child with her.

To complicate matters, the presence of the ghost in love with Dragan.

---------*******----------
The premises for a good Halloween story are all there but for many reasons the story didn't engage me and I didn't like the Dragan and Griz couple as much as in past books.

Since it is a short story I will be concise and essential in my personal opinion on the story:

1) I usually like the Dragan and Griz couple both as a romantic couple and as characters considered individually: both do not like conventions, they are in love and used to sharing everything but without being nauseatingly saccharine or ridiculous.

Unfortunately in this story the writer has transformed Griz into a clingy, petulant, jealous wife and in my opinion also rude in her manners and in asking investigative questions.
I didn't like it at all.

2) The plot is weak and this is obviously also due to the fact that it is a short story and not a novel, so there is no time to delve into situations, characters and investigations.

But the problem isn't just this, there are many things that don't make sense at all:

- Dragan is called to investigate and then once on site, the whole family is hostile to him and everyone insists that it was a suicide or an accident (BUT THEN WHY DID YOU CALL HIM?????)

- There is no investigation except a couple of questions asked rudely by Griz.

- The ghost seems to be included in the story only to make a connection with the Halloween holiday but seems to have nothing to do with everything else in the plot.
The ghost is seen at the beginning of the story, then at the end and is sent away in the blink of an eye in a very simple, easy and ridiculous way for a story.

The motivation for the murder doesn't make much sense, the motive and the culprit are ridiculous.

It's all very hasty, full of contradictions and not at all engaging.
All the supporting characters are unlikable and don't even seem to be part of the story itself.
They are extras who are given dialogue without content and without meaning.

The only reason why I gave 2.5 rounded to 3 stars (which for me means passable but not among those I would reread or recommend) is that I like the Dragan and Griz couple in the novels and the novels in the series are well written and very satisfying underneath all points of view (mystery, romance, ending).
If I had read this story without first reading the other books, my actual rating would have been 2 stars.

I 100% recommend the novels in the series, but don't waste your time with this short story.

Thanks for reading my opinion and please forgive my English since it's not my language.

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Book review : A Cold Highland Wind by Tasha Alexander

A Cold Highland Wind
Lady Emily Mysteries book 17
by Tasha Alexander
GENRE : #historical-cozy-mystery

My rating: ★★★★☆
Actually 3,8 stars rounded up to 4.

An old castle in Scotland, an ancient Celtic festival and a murder!
In parallel, a story dating back 200 years earlier, when people were afraid of witches and every woman was at risk of being accused of witchcraft!

Since the month of October is the month of Halloween and I'm too weak to read anything horror, this seemed like the right read to get into the right spirit, while remaining in my comfort zone.

___PLOT___ Lady Emily, her husband Colin Hargreaves and their three children are on holiday at Cairnfarn Castle in Scotland, guests of Jeremy, Duke of Bainbridge, Emily's dear childhood friend.The atmosphere is cheerful and lively, also thanks to a folklore event of Celtic origin that is being celebrated. Music, dancing, rum punch...everything is going well until Jeremy's gamekeeper is found dead and horribly disfigured.

In the same village approximately 200 years earlier, ancient rituals, phrases that could seem like magic formulas and people foreign to the village were not welcome and the risk of being accused of witchcraft was around every corner or rather behind every slothful and manipulative person.

____********_______********____


EMILY and COLIN _ the 2 MAIN CHARACTERS __ 
Reading a book in this series every now and then is like meeting up with a couple of my old friends.
I like them both either considered separately or as a couple.

COLIN: handsome and charming, intelligent and always loving and with great consideration for his wife, but also always responsible, thoughtful and realistic.

EMILY: always loving and admired towards her husband, but also independent in her choices and stubborn in pursuing her goals, beautiful and sweet with her husband, but sometimes a little too reckless and not inclined to follow his judicious advice.

Parents of 2 biological children and one of their wards, always careful in raising them, leaving them free to follow their passions but not without a certain discipline. Despite having been married for a decade, this couple does not lack romance and sentimental outpourings.

I love the fact that although the series is titled Lady Emily, in reality, the investigation is the work of both of them and there is great chemistry between them.

In the first books of the series, they acted separately and Lady Emily was always in the foreground and her husband was more of a secondary character, as time passed and the series grew, I can say that both are protagonists and I like this a lot.

__ ALREADY KNOWN SIDE CHARACTERS __ 

Bainbridge's two quirky aunts add a humorous touch to the story.
They are two spinster sisters, very old but with a lively brain and an adventurous spirit, they know everything about everyone and don't mince their words.

Jeremy is a loving nephew, a loyal friend and a duke who, despite self-deprecatingly calling himself useless, actually cares for the people of the village and does his duty with great sensitivity.

I like all these characters because together with Emily and Colin's 3 children, they help create a "cozy" atmosphere and bring more than a smile to the reader's face.

__ SETTING AND OTHER CHARACTERS ___ 
I haven't read all the books in the Lady Emily series, but I've read 11 of them including this one and I have to say that unlike the others, the setting here is barely intuitive.

There are usually detailed descriptions of both the location where the story takes place and historically important buildings and monuments, as well as the atmosphere.
Here, apart from the wind from the moors, you can't really breathe the air of the Highlands and the small Scottish village... nothing evocative or suggestive in my opinion and  this is one of the two things that lowered my rating for the book .

____MYSTERY___

----> In 1905 : Halfway through the book I thought I was so clever and had guessed the truth, but it wasn't like that and above all the culprit was really really unexpected!!I had a lot of fun making conjectures and hypotheses and until the end I was on tenterhooks, I couldn't wait to find out who the murderer was and several times I was tempted to go and peek at the back of the book, but I resisted!

Well done Tasha Alexander, the solution to the mystery was truly something I never expected.
A little more disappointing and hasty was the solution to a parallel mystery, also in 1905, connected to the murder.

----> In 1676: Up to 70% of the book, the protagonist of the story, set in the 18th century, kept me in suspense: her first-person narrative is full of suspense, the characters around her are ambiguous in their speeches, mysterious in their arguments and I really feared that the story would end in a dramatic way.

So the writer achieved her aim here too (to create an atmosphere of uncertainty, anxiety and deep emotion... but then without revealing the details everything was resolved in a way that was perhaps a little too easy, I don't know how to explain... .
I was expecting something more impressive and  this is the second thing that lowered my rating for the book.
Anyway, I was happy with the happy ending for the characters in this story.

__ HISTORICAL PART  ___ 
Unlike the other books I read in the series, here there are no historical notions or real-life historical characters except for the fact that the character of the mystery set in 1676 is inspired by two real-life black women, about whom the writer talks to us briefly in his notes at the end of the book.

Another historical reference is the witch hunt and the witch hunters who, in order to prove the fake, invented and falsified the evidence, you will also find a brief mention of this in the author's notes.

*****
This is one of the few series that I usually read in no particular order, each book in the series can be read as a standalone, but if you read them starting from the first one you will be able to enjoy better Emily's personal story (her engagement , marriage, children and all the recurring characters who contribute to creating a cheerful and pleasant atmosphere).

Thanks for reading my opinion and as always I ask you to be lenient with my English since it's not my native language.



If you want to know more about OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES, you can read some reviews here :

BOOK #2 : A Poisoned Season

BOOK #3 : A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander

BOOK #4: Tears of Pearl

BOOK #5: Dangerous to Know

BOOK #13.5 : Upon the Midnight Clear ( Christmas novella )

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Book review : Letters to a Lover by Mary Lancaster

Letters to a Lover
Crime and Passion Book #2
by Mary Lancaster
GENRE : #historical-mystery-romance

My rating: ★★★★★

5 FULL STARS WELL DESERVED!! :-D

A wonderful light read!!!,
I loved it from the very first page to the last one.

Amazing read for those looking for a light read with a well-balanced mix of: well-constructed and intelligently developed mystery, romance with the right amount of kisses and clean, but exciting and well-distributed lovemaking scenes throughout the story.

___ SETTING ____  Victorian setting in the mid-19th century.
Even though the story is devoid of historical details, the author fully conveys the atmosphere of the time, through events of social and private life and through the characters and their way of thinking and acting, without being too frivolous as in some saccharine romances, nor too dark like in some mystery series.


____ PLOT ___ 1852, Victorian London.
Eric and Azalea, Viscount and Viscountess of Trench have been married for 8 years, theirs was a great love full of passion, but the marriage faltered three years ago, following her postpartum depression and an unbridled recovery of social life to react to such depression.
One day, after being caught by Eric spilling tea on the head of an insistent suitor, Azalia receives a blackmail letter: either she pays a large sum of money or her letter to a lover will be published.
Azalia still loves Eric deeply and does not remember writing letters or having lovers, however she suffers from memory lapses and cannot trust herself, so she decides to get help from her sister Grizelda and her Hungarian husband Dragan, who had already investigated in the past in a murder case.
Eric also still loves his wife very much, but he can't help but suspect that she has a lover and when he decides to follow her, he discovers the whole blackmail mess.
The blackmailer is much more dangerous than he seems at first and while all four of them try to capture him, adventure, mystery, courtship and loving passion are ineluctably intertwined.

____ _______ ______

__ READABLE AS A STANDALONE , but it's surely more enjoyable if you first read #book 1 in the “ Crime and Passion” series, since the co-protagonists of this book are the protagonists of that first book and you will also have the opportunity to have an introduction to Azalea and her family.


__ THE MAIN CHARACTERS ___ they are Azalia and Eric and I liked them very much.

Superficially observed (as in the first book and in the first chapter of this story) they may seem haughty and superficial nobles, but as we discover their thoughts and get to know their deepest feelings, the more we realize how good people they actually are, but unfortunately caged in a world of rules and behaviors dictated by aristocratic society.

We discover an Azalia who is much more unsure of herself beyond her own wealth and beauty and very much in need of the love and support that only a loving husband can give.
We see how she rediscovers, in the happiness of her sister's marriage, how beautiful and more satisfying spontaneity is, letting oneself be guided by feelings and not by the rules imposed by society.
Azalia, daughter of a Duke, grew up in a somewhat spoiled way and never paid too much attention to considering the internal wounds of others, but thanks to her problems and the desire to win back her husband, we see her mature deeply and open her heart not only to Eric but also to other people around her.

We discover a generous Eric, not only with his wife, always being compliant, but also towards less fortunate people, a sweet Eric, but also passionate and hot, who fights to find, together with his wife, that complicity that two happy spouses should have.

The kisses that Azalia and Eric exchange are initially tender and then fiery, because after having almost lost each other they find themselves in the same conditions as two lovers at the beginning of a story, when love burns, but there are a thousand uncertainties and yet they are advantaged by the fact that they know each other well and when passion finds its outlet in making love, they know how to complete each other in a perfect way.

In addition to the romance and character aspect of each of them, I also appreciated the fact that the couple actively participates in the investigation.
In fact, even if Griz and Dragan are the couple who dedicate themselves to amateur investigation in this series, in the plot of this book the protagonist couple does not hesitate to act personally in the plans designed to circumvent and capture the criminal.
Kisses and sex scenes (I repeat: clean but equally sensual) alternate pleasantly with action scenes, with chases, punches and stabbings.


___ CO-PROTAGON CHARACTERS __ Griz and Dragan are the official investigators of the series, main characters in book #1 (Mysterious Lover).

Both introverted and different from the rest of the aristocracy (Griz because she is shy and loves books and culture rather than parties. Dragan because he comes from a country torn apart by revolution and war, in which he worked generously as a doctor) they are now married and they perpetuate their extravagance by not caring about the label and living their love spontaneously by pursuing their own passions and hobbies, respecting others but without the fear of other people's judgement.

A beautiful couple therefore, who gave us beautiful romantic moments in the first book (but only kisses) and wit in investigating and courage in throwing themselves into dangerous situations.
They are only in the background in this book, but always pleasant to follow.
I really liked the chemistry that was created with the Azalea-Eric couple.


__ SPECIAL CHARACTERS ___ family members, acquaintances, business partners and villains.
They only serve to create the atmosphere, but although they intervene in an occasional and brief manner, they intersect perfectly and pleasantly in the story, creating funny or tense scenes depending on the moment.


____ MYSTERY  ___ I didn't even try to speculate because I just had no idea who the villain could be.
When I finally had the intuition about that, it was towards the end, when the protagonists also reached that conclusion thanks to the answers they received following their questions.
The mystery apparently starts in a simple way: with a blackmail letter, but it thickens and becomes more and more intriguing as the story progresses.
There are small action scenes, other scenes of suspense and from blackmail there is a risk of moving on to crime.


__ ROMANCE __  Although the two characters have already been married for 8 years and have distanced themselves from each other for the last 3 years, we can perceive, from the beginning, the invisible thread of the deep feeling that binds them.
The story begins with an unpleasant event which turns out to be a good opportunity to interact together and find each other, first through polite courtship and then by revealing one's fears and insecurities with an open heart, to give way to warm, well-measured kisses and finally to passion which rekindles and brings new energy and happiness.

A clean romance with 3 or 4 scenes of hot kisses at least 2 of lovemaking scenes that are never vulgar, with clean descriptions but which equally evoke warmth and deep passion and therefore exciting for the reader and which do not seem too fake and saccharine as in some books, but they are entirely plausible in reality.
----> I appreciated the fact that kisses and lovemaking scenes are well distributed throughout the story.
I mean I don't like it too much when nothing happens for half the book, then finally there's a romantic scene and then nothing more until the last page.
----> In this story you will have to wait for about a couple of chapters but then you will have the suspense of romance on the razor's edge throughout all the time and all the satisfaction of seeing things transform for the better as every reader desires.

CONCLUDING:
---> The book is well focused on the mystery, as a mystery should be (where the romantic part is usually too tepid or non-existent) and yet it is also well focused on the love story between the two protagonists, as it should be a romantic book (in which there are no mysteries to solve or if there are they are barely outlined and usually predictable and unsatisfactory).

---> The characters are not trivial at all, but they could reflect exactly the same problems of today's couples and despite the differences in time they could reflect the same feelings of people today.

---> 3 IMPORTANT POINTS WELL DEVELOPED THEREFORE WITH AN ADEQUATE AND EQUALLY WELL DEVELOPED ENDING!!
This is what in my opinion makes the book perfect to read for those who love this genre.
According to my tastes the rating is 5 full stars well deserved.

It goes without saying that I will continue reading the other books in the series (actually 1 novel and a couple of short stories, one for Christmas and one for All Saints Day)

Thanks for reading my opinion and please forgive my English, since it's not my language.

READ ALSO "Crime & Passion" BOOK #1:
#1 Mysterious Lover review

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Book review : Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung

Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman
by E.W. Hornung
Classic short stories collection
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book about 3 years ago and have reread the stories in it over the last 2 days.

I have always been fascinated by stories of gentleman thieves, but except for having seen an old black and white film with David Niven and Olivia De Havilland from 1939, I had never heard of Raffle.
I found this book by chance and since it was super discounted I grabbed it immediately. Wow, how lucky, it was a nice breath of joy.

It has been a great read, each story very quick to read, light and ironic.
The main character, a gentleman thief, not only is fascinating but could also be a magnificent character in a contemporary adventure book or in a TV series suitable for the whole family.
So if work keeps you too busy and you don't have too much time to focus on a longer and more challenging read, this little book will relieve all your stress.

The set is Victorian-era London. The two characters ( yes , actually we have a couple of main characters) Raffle and Bunny love a comfortable and luxurious life but they don't like working that much, so their choice is theft.
The couple is the usual cliché: one very intelligent and full of charm, the other a little clumsier and less skilled, but always a very good friend and a good supporting shoulder for the first one.
As I said, it's the usual cliché of books and films of all time, but they know the same way how to steal your heart.

I liked all the stories, only the last one left me a little sad... but I can't tell you anything otherwise I would ruin your enjoyment of reading.

A nice curiosity is that the author, EW Hornung, was the brother-in-law of none other than Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes and his trusted Dr. Watson).

Thank you for reading my opinion and if you found any errors in my text, please forgive me, English is not my native language.

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Book review : The Paid Companion by Amanda Quick

The Paid Companion
by Amanda Quick
My rating: 4,8 rounded up to 5 stars.
I loved it!
(Here on the left the new paperback cover, below the old one)

A historical mystery-romance where both the mystery-investigative part and the romantic and sensual part are equally well developed and both have the same weight in the story.

___THE PLOT IN SHORT__ The story begins with Elenor's sudden change of fortune: the greedy and hateful step-father has lost everything due to a bad investment and while he died of a stroke, his stepdaughter finds herself thrown out of the house by creditors , with only her clothes in an old trunk of her actress grandmother.
The only chance of survival is to roll up your sleeves and find a job through an agency.

The rich Arthur, Earl of St. Merrin, fresh from a year of gossip about the escape of his girlfriend with another man, has decided to find a fake girlfriend, turning to an agency that employs desperate women looking for a job as a companion. In fact, at the moment he is not interested in falling in love, because his goal is to find his uncle's killer.

Elenor will prove to be much more than a banal cover for his investigations, with her intelligence, in fact, she will help St. Merrin in unraveling a tangled mess of secret identities and harmful obsessions.
_______________________

Like many romances, the "historical" setting is purely superficial.
In fact there is no historical part with historical references and events, the reader only knows, thanks to some elements, that we are probably in the Regency era, but after the defeat of Napoleon or in the Victorian era, before the advent of electricity..
I consider it a "point against" because I love historical references, however the narration was so compelling in the two themes it focused on (the love story and the solution to a mystery, as well as the capture of a killer), that I turned one page after another with great enthusiasm.

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised, I didn't expect it.

__MYSTERY and LOVE STORY __ I use to read many historical mystery-romances, but they are usually focused more on investigations, while in the background a certain complicity and attraction develops in a "very light way" between the 2 main characters or, in the case of a romance, the development of a feeling of love and passion is in close-up, while a "weak" mystery manages to give a little suspense to the whole story.
This is not the case, indeed this author managed to enthuse the reader on both fronts: investigative and romantic.
It's truly well-crafted and suspenseful mystery and the love story offers just as many twists, with funny scenes alternating with sensual moments.


It's my first book by Amanda Quick and if you need a light but engaging read, I recommend it.

___ THE CHARACTERS ___ I liked both main characters, because the author managed to balance the emotional traits that characterized them well.
Perhaps a woman who always thinks of the good of others seems a little far-fetched, but this is the only thing that is a little over-emphasized.
Other characteristics such as stubbornness and decision, willpower and resilience, anger and playfulness in speeches, feelings of altruism and passion, intelligence and business sense, are never too intense or too forced either in Arthur or in Elenor and this is important because otherwise they might have been unpleasant.

Then there are Bennet and Margaret, two positive secondary characters who support our heroes and add lightness and joy to the story.

A swirl of other minor characters, whose attitudes serve to describe what life was like for both high society and poor workers in the 19th century.

The whole story is made more interesting also thanks to the fact that the killer is not the only "bad guy" in the story. In fact, even if in a more subtle way, over the course of events, a couple of really mean characters will contribute to complicating things.

Nothing of what happens is taken for granted and during the narration there are various small mysteries that are revealed.
This makes the reading lively and encourages the reader to go on to read the next chapter.

The language is fluent and is clean, but there are at least 3 sex scenes, described in detail, but not vulgar, nothing that an adult doesn't already know.

Happy ending guaranteed in all respects:
no villain goes unpunished and every good person gets his reward.

---> I put both the NEW PAPERBACK COVER and the OLD PAPERBACK COVER.
???? Which one do you like best???
In my opinion neither of the two does justice to the story... the first makes you imagine something boring, the second leads you to imagine something too frivolous.

ONE CURIOSITY OF MINE: How much weight do book covers have on your read choices?

I admit that the cover is the first thing that attracts me, I value it highly and it affects my enthusiasm in selecting a reading. If, by chance, I hadn't read the enthusiastic reviews of this mystery-romance, I would never have chosen it because the covers didn't entice me (for the two reasons I wrote above).

Thank for reading my review and please forgive my English, it's not my native language.

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Book review : Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander

Dangerous to Know
by Tasha Alexander
Lady Emily Ashton Mysteries book #5
GENRE : #historical-cozy-mystery

My rating: ★★★★☆
Actually 3,7 stars rounded up to 4.

Another mystery very hard to solve, this time set in wonderful Normandy ( France ).

I love to read the "Lady Emily mystery series", because it leads me through the most beautiful places in Europe and through the history, art and real-life historical figures of its charming regions, cities and towns, in the late Victorian era and later in the series in the early 1900s.

__ PLOT IN BRIEF __ 1892. After a disastrous honeymoon in Constantinople, where Lady Emily risked her life and lost the child she was carrying, she is now convalescing, accompanied by her husband Colin, at her mother-in-law's residence in Normandy .
Here Emily not only meets characters of the caliber of Monet and Maurice Leblanc, but she meets the fascinating thief Sebastian and comes across a terrible murder and perhaps even a ghost.

___THINGS I LOVED ___

As you may have guessed from the plot, there's a lot of stuff in this installment #5.

The mystery begins immediately with the gruesome discovery of a corpse, in which the killer's modus operandi brings to mind London's famous Jack the Ripper.
The discoveries regarding the victim's past, however, lead to different paths and Lady Emily, still very sad and sensitive for the loss of the child, finds herself facing other difficult issues: mental disorders and the shame that family members often felt when someone he was affected by it in his family.
The etiquette of good society and the terrible pressure that women underwent at that time in not being able to show their feelings and suffering, the lack of freedom in expressing themselves and the absurd submission that was imposed on wives by their husbands... and despite Emily's modernity and the declared equality of the 2 spouses within the marriage declared by Colin, we will see that this couple in love will also have big problems in this regard.

In addition to the murder, from the beginning of the story, we meet the supporting characters, among which the famous Claude Monet, impressionist painter who had just married his lover of many years Alice Hoschedé and the writer Maurice Leblanc, father of Arsène Lupin and who was then still a young journalist.

Tasha Alexander, the author, allows us to have tea with the famous painter in his beautiful home in Giverny, and it is fantastic to find ourselves immersed in the beautiful gardens that Monet loved so much. We breathe in the enchanting atmosphere of the village of Giverny with its half-timbered houses and rolling hills.
No less enchanting is the atmosphere of the medieval towns of Rouen, in which Lady Emily recalls that Joan of Arc was burned.
Not much is said about personal life of Maurice Leblanc, but is good to watch him to take part from time to time in this investigation.
The author also makes the reader understand that Leblanc was inspired by the friendly and charming gentleman thief Sebastian Capet (fiction obviously, in fact Sebastian is a fictional character) to write the his future novels starring the legendary Arsène Lupin.

As I already said, each historical mystery in the Lady Emily series is a journey through history and different places, interesting to visit and that will make you want to travel right away!
The descriptions range from landscapes to city streets, from historical events to the traditional gastronomy of the place, from habits and customs to the fashion of the time and place.
This does not prevent the author from creating complicated puzzles in each book in which it is really difficult to guess the culprit.

__LITTLE THINGS I LIKED A LITTLE LESS ___

Perhaps the thing that made me lower my rating for the book was the prolonged argument between Emily and her husband Colin. Not because the discussion itself bothered me, on the contrary, I liked seeing the couple with problems of misunderstanding, more similar to reality than a perfect sappy relationship that doesn't exist in any couple in the world...

What bothered me was Colin's unexpected arrogance and his alternation: imposition and "I love you", imposition and prohibitions and then again "you know I love you"... Wow, it really made me nervous and it made me even more angry with Emily, who, despite being dissatisfied, was trying to submit to this... true at the time it was like that, but it really made me nervous and even if they finally made peace... I wasn't satisfied with the motivation.
I like Emily's independent spirit and wish she had done more to be respected.

Another thing that had a negative impact on my rating was the presence of what was believed to be a ghost... Tasha Alexander often includes fake ghosts in her short stories (I have read all those published in the series) and it is a topic which I don't like very much and if it can fascinate me once, if it is repeated in several books of the same series, it tires me.

___ SOMETHING I WOULD LIKE MORE IN THE SERIES ___

The only topic I would like to see more often and I could never get bored is actually a side character: Sebastian, the thief with refined taste... I love him!
He is charming, gallant, always ready with a joke and unpredictable, even if he may look predictable.
He appears for the first time in book #3 (A Fatal Waltz, set in Vienna), where it is impossible not to fall in love with him. He reappears here and will reappear in book #12 ( Death in St. Petersburg ), which I read last year and I highly recommend it, it's a great read.
I already know that Sebastian will not appear in more books than those named by me ( among those already published), but I hope to have the pleasure of his presence in future books in the series.

I've read many books in this series out of chronological order and although the stories are connected to each other by Lady Emily's personal life, they all are readable as a standalone.

Clean language, no sex or kissing scenes, no violence, no gruesome descriptions.
Therefore a historical mystery also suitable for the youngest and those who love cozies.
If you choose to read the book, I hope you will enjoy it the same as me.

Thank you for reading my review and please forgive my bad English, because it is not my native language.

If you want to know more about PREVIOUS BOOKS, you can read my reviews here :

BOOK #2 : A Poisoned Season

BOOK #3 : A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander

BOOK #4: Tears of Pearl

BOOK #13.5 : Upon the Midnight Clear ( Christmas novella ) BOOK #17 : A Cold Highland Wind




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Book review : Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander

Tears of Pearl
by Tasha Alexander
Lady Emily Ashton Mysteries book #4

My rating: ★★★☆☆
Actually 3,4 stars rounded to 3.

A very intricate mystery.

___ THE PLOT IN SHORT____ Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves, diplomats of the British Empire, are finally married and can't wait to enjoy a relaxing and magnificent honeymoon in an exotic place. Their choice falls on the wonderful Constantinople.
Of course as always, plans don't go as planned and on their first night in the city, a harem girl is found murdered, strangled in the courtyard of the Sultan’s lavish Topkapi Palace.

An Englishman who works at the embassy in Constantinople is present and recognizes the girl as his daughter, kidnapped twenty years earlier.
Emily and Colin promise the heartbroken man that they will find the girl's killer.
As a woman, Emily has access to the forbidden world of the harem and soon discovers that its mysterious, sheltered walls offer no protection from a ruthless killer.

As the death toll grows, Emily must rely on her sharp wits, putting her life at great risk and possibly with very serious consequences.

***************

The author is very good at deluding the reader that one can predict things, actually it is not.
More and more characters are entering the scene with each chapter and any hypothesis formulated by the reader in the end turns out to be unfounded.
You can't figure out how things went until the penultimate chapter.

Lady Emily's Adventures often take place outside her motherland (England) and I like this very much, even here the places, the most important buildings, uses and customs are described very well, so well that it seems to be there.

In each book (this is the fourth in the series, but I have already read others in no particular order) are mentioned some of her past adventures and several characters who are part of her life, some of whom are often involved in his investigations or appear in the book even sporadically maybe writing a letter or making a courtesy call, which makes Lady Emily's life and her character seem really real.

I'm giving this Lady Emily mystery 3 stars only for 2 reasons:

1)__the complicated mystery is enthralling, but when things get too long and never come to a solution it gets maddening and I get tired of reading the book...I've read the last few chapters quickly because for my taste it seemed to always go in circles without reaching the finish line and I was tired.

2)_ When I was little I was fascinated by the story of Aladdin's lamp and by Alibaba and the 40 thieves, by women dressed in colorful veils and by sultans with golden turbans.
Becoming an adult and seeing too many negative things on the TV news, those countries have lost their charm in my eyes and even if in the book the author tries to highlight the positive sides of that country and society, the middle east is not the place I would like to travel.
So the setting is well described and I don't doubt it was and still is fascinating, but it doesn't suit me and because of this the book didn't fully capture me as the other books I've read in this series did.

( As I always write : I'm Italian and my English is not the best, I hope I was able to explain what I meant. )




If you want to know more about PREVIOUS BOOKS, you can read my reviews here :

BOOK #2 : A Poisoned Season

BOOK #3 : A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander

book #5 : Dangerous to know

BOOK #13.5 : Upon the Midnight Clear ( Christmas novella )




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Book review : The Earl's Christmas Consultant by Bianca Blythe

The Earl's Christmas Consultant
by Bianca Blythe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice clean romance.

___THE PLOT___
Flora works as a duchess's maid, passing herself off as French. Once discovered by a friend of the duke, who is actually an old acquaintance of Flora, but he does not immediately recognize her, she decides to leave and find work elsewhere.
Through the employment agency she is hired as a Christmas consultant and by chance her new employer is precisely the former friend who had discovered that she is not French.
There's much more at stake than this, because Flora is actually on the run from a cruel murderer...

___ MY OPINION___
Light and unpretentious romance, suitable for those looking for a quick read (say a day or two), pure entertainment, without drama and with a guaranteed happy ending.

The side characters have very few lines, the whole story revolves around the dialogues and thoughts of the two protagonists. Said it this way it may seem boring, yet I gave 4 stars, because although it is not an unforgettable book, it kept me good and cheerful company for every page I read.

The story is also suitable for young adults as it is a clean romance. In fact the two characters spend the nights in bed together, but there is no description or even hot kisses. (so if you're looking for a love story hoping for this, don't read it because you'll be disappointed)

( Sorry for any errors in my review, English is not my mother tongue. Thanks for reading anyway :-) )

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Book review : A Tale of Two Hearts by Michelle Griep

A Tale of Two Hearts
Once Upon a Dickens Christmas #2
by Michelle Griep
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An engaging Christmas tale by Michelle Griep !

This is the second short novel in a series of three and I read the first one last year, it was also very good ! Each story is readable as a standalone.

____ THE PLOT___ London, 1853: Mina Scott, is the daughter of an innkeeper and dreams of living a life with more adventures like in the books she loves to read so much and dreams of becoming the wife of William Barlow, a regular guest at the inn, with whom she has become infatuated.

William is the son of a gentleman, but due to a dissolute past full of fun and zero responsibilities, he now finds himself working as an employee and longs to become his uncle's heir, also to be able to have the means to care for his very ill mother.
To achieve this goal he needs a wife immediately and must be able to unmask his wicked cousin's evil plans.

___MY OPINION ___ This is a second chance sweet tale.
The story is sweetly romantic in a clean way, so I don't recommend it to those looking purely for a Christmas love story, with passionate kisses or something more extreme, you won't find it here (nor obviously did I expect to find it).

On the Goodread page you will see that it is tagged as Christian fiction, but unlike other Christian fiction that, by chance, I happened to read, fortunately here there you'll not find mental prayers to God every 3 pages. The meaning of Christianity is given by the moral of the story:
forgiveness, the ability to give others another chance and the ability to appreciate what we have, without envy and without considering "the neighbor's grass always greener than ours".

Values that should apply to every good person of any religion (and therefore there is no need to read Christian fiction to be a good believer in God or a good person... sometimes I am shocked by the bigotry I read in some reviews of Christian fiction).

The second chance is given to many characters in the story :

1) to Mina who will be able to understand how much value family ties have and how lucky she is in her simple life.

2) to William who has already had a second chance in the past, but now he will have a second chance to find true love and show mercy towards those who they are hostile to him.

3) to William's uncle who opens his heart to his nephew WARNING SPOILER ___ he will also find the happiness of female company and a marriage to live his old age with love. SPOILER END

4) to Mina's elderly friend, who in her youth had lost her true love WARNING SPOILER ___ and will finally be able get married and be happy. ___ SPOILER END

5) WARNING SPOILER ___ second chance also to the wicked characters ___ SPOILER END .

__ANOTHER THING APPRECIATED __ The quotes from Dickens' novels at the beginning of each chapter and the interesting historical notes at the end of the novel.
I was already aware of many of the notions reported, but I nevertheless appreciated them and a couple of them were totally new to me (read the story to discover them).

___ THE FLAW __ The book involved me from beginning to end, but in reality I only rate it 4 stars instead of a full 5, because while at the beginning of the story, the reader can find a nice humor that makes the read cheerful and pleasant, from about 40 % of the story this humor disappears.

A quality that I love about this author (and in authors in general) is precisely the sense of humor, the ironic and funny jokes, which are fundamental to me both in whodunits and in romances.
Here not only after a while the story has lost this precious element (precious to me ), but the author wanted even to reinsert it at the exactly wrong moment:
WARNING SPOILER ___ after I waited for the declaration of love and the consequent kiss, throughout the book, I read a scene, which should be very romantic, with 3 people, where the third person makes jokes that should make the reader laugh .
William declares himself under the incitement of the third person and even kisses Mina at the sarcastic suggestion of the third person. A very quick and flat kiss that gave me no emotion or thrill.

---> As I already said, I wasn't expecting hot scenes, but I've read many clean romances where with a simple kiss, the writer gave me butterflies in my stomach! ___ SPOILER END
In this the author miserably failed and made me angry. So only 4 stars.

FINAL NOTE : I'm from Italy, so you will probably have found some form/grammar errors in my text, but I hope I have still managed to convey my thoughts to you in the right way.
:-) Christmas has just passed, so I count on your forgiveness and I wish you a Happy New Year!

READ ALSO my REVIEW about BOOK #1:
12 Days at Bleakly Manor by Michelle Griep


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Book review : A Christmas Carol Murder by Heather Redmond

A Christmas Carol Murder
A Dickens of a Crime book #3
by Heather Redmond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very nice Dickensian mystery.

The author of this book (installment #3 in a series named "A Dickens of a Crime", but readable as a standalone) introduces us to a young, friendly and affable Charles Dickens, not yet a writer (but with a book almost ready to be published), journalist and sketch artist, full of energy and enthusiasm.

The plot of the book cleverly mixes fact and fiction, borrowing characters from his own very famous Christmas story: A Christmas Carol, but changing the names slightly, as if those were the people who inspired him to tell his Christmas tale .
The concept, as I expressed it, may seem convoluted, but if you read the book you will understand what I mean.

__ THE PLOT ___ London, December 1835: Charles and Kate, two of their brothers and a couple of friends are singing Christmas carols to raise money for charity for poor children living on the streets.
Suddenly a man's body, with chains wrapped around it, falls from a window.
The group is involved in the suspicious death as witnesses, but above all, after the magistrate declares the death as accidental, Charles, as a good journalist, decides to see clearly and discover the truth.
Together with the investigation into the murder, we follow the personal events that enter the life of our young Dickens, who finds himself in such an ambiguous and complicated situation that it could ruin his engagement and planned wedding with Kate.

___MY OPINION ___
I have to admit that the murder mystery was interesting to uncover, but not as completely engaging and intriguing as I expected this book to be and this is why I didn't give 5 stars.

However, on the whole, the Dickensian atmosphere of London made up of poor dirty and barefoot children, food stalls and taverns, rich and greedy people, scoundrels and actresses of dubious morality, the enthusiasm of the young Dickens, the disinterested affection of his friends and his brother, the small moments of family life... it's all described so well, that the story kept me good company page after page until the end, without ever getting tired.

I really liked seeing this mix of real characters with fictional characters taken from Dickens' own story and placed in this book as if they had been real.

I also liked the strong feeling that unites Charles and Kate. Dickens's strong desire to have not only Kate's love, but also her trust...however, I couldn't stop thinking for a moment that then he, in reality, later in the marriage, betrayed that trust, having a lover for many years and my knowledge of reality has prevented me a little from enjoying the romantic side of the protagonist.

Up to three quarters of the book it is not possible to find out who the murderer could be, then thanks to some attitudes and jokes one comes to guess, but an unexpected surprise still remains and at the end there's also an action scene that made things more compelling.
It would have been nice if there had been more action scenes spread throughout the story.

The conclusion to the book is satisfying, so for me, overall, the 4 stars are well earned.

Thanks for reading my review and forgive my bad English, it is not my native language. :-)
Merry Christmas everybody !


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Book review : Mysterious Lover by Mary Lancaster

Mysterious Lover
Crime and Passion Book 1
by Mary Lancaster
My rating: 4.8 of 5 stars

It has been a very enjoyable mystery-romance read !
I would re-read it in my future and that I would recommend it to a friend with my same book genre's tastes.

I was undecided whether to read a mystery with a gothic flavor or a beautiful love story that would involve me and make me dream, when I saw the series title: "Crime and Passion" I thought it was the right mix I was looking for and the cherries on the cake was a character different from the usual duke or bow street runner: a Hungarian soldier and doctor, political refugee, after the Hungarian revolution of 1848 (and the cover with him wearing his uniform also charmed me)... intriguing !! :-D

It turned out to be the right choice.

__THE PLOT ___ We are in London in 1851. The story opens almost immediately with an inexplicable murder: the maid of a rich family, murdered near the opera house, while she should have been at home doing her job. Next to her is a precious dagger and the 2 main characters of the story meet themselves, for the first time, at the crime scene:
Lady Grizelda, daughter of the maid's employer and the first to discover the body and Dragan Tizsa, a soldier in the Hungarian revolution, now a political refugee in England, employed as an assistant doctor.
The first thought of both is that the other is the culprit, but logic says otherwise. Unfortunately in the past (and perhaps even nowadays) the less well-off classes are those immediately accused by the law, while the rich... you know how it is!
Now each of the 2 characters has a personal reason to find the culprit.

___ THE CHARACTERS and WHY I LOVED THEM TWO __
I liked the characters straight away due to the fact that neither of them is the usual "winner" in society, but neither of them isolates themselves from the world or gives up, both do their best to live with dignity and to give dignity to the less fortunate.

It is true that Lady Grizelda is the rich daughter of a very important duke in the high society circle, but despite her privileged situation, she is a girl who usually remains in the shadow of her more charming sisters and brothers.
Griz, 24 years old, does not stand out for her beauty and wears glasses, which was considered a disadvantage in frivolous aristocratic society, especially during the events of the season, in finding a husband. However, this does not affect her vitality and her spirit, in fact she doesn't feel like an outcast at all, on the contrary she is dynamic, intelligent and really enterprising.
She doesn't cry over the fact of remaining a spinster, she decide to be a spinster for the rest of her life by embracing its advantages: independence (of course thanks also to the allowance of a rich family), dedicating herself to reading and knowledge and above all giving herself the opportunity to look at the world with different eyes from those of her former society: without social class barriers and helping those who were less fortunate than her.

Dragan on the contrary, possesses the beauty that everyone notices at first glance, but he is a political refugee, he has lost everything: homeland, family, friends and the possibility of completing his studies at university and creating a future for himself.
He has never been rich, although belonging to a noble family of lesser rank, but he does not use his beauty to take rich women into his bed, on the contrary he works as a doctor's assistant and has no illusions about a love life and wedding, because he does not earn enough to create and support a family.
However, he fights for his ideals, for freedom of thought, for everyone's right to vote and to help other refugees.

---> The attraction that immediately arises between them is not just an aesthetic fact, it is an affinity that they feel as together they ask questions around, look for clues, get into dangerous situations and get each other out of trouble during the adventure of an escape at breakneck speed.

___ A GOOD BALANCE BETWEEN MYSTERY AND ROMANCE__ the mystery is well thought and if at the beginning it took me a few chapters to feel taken by the investigations and the romance, after the first 20% of the book, I was completely immersed in reading and I savored any new discovery about the circumstances that led to the murder and the alleged perpetrators.

The possible hypotheses are numerous and all plausible. Suspicions fall on different people from time to time, which always left me in suspense while reading and wanting to guess myself who the murderer was and why.

The real culprit will truly be a surprise, a twist that I would never have imagined and which gave a touch of originality to the story !

As for the love story, it grows slowly but steadily and although there are no hot scenes, the agitation of the soul, the thought focused on the desire for the other and on the desire to spend more time together, the acceleration of the heartbeat, the excitement that comes from the birth of a feeling that brings new life into the lives of both , the sudden kisses that defy the rules of social classes, managed to excite me and make me feel the butterflies in the hero and heroine's stomachs.

The only one small and not too explicit sex scene is in the final part of the book, so even if the series is called "crime and passion" I would define it as a cozy mystery-clean romance ( well cozy and clean except that very short sex scene ), so nothing bloody or shocking and no hot sex scenes between lovers.
That is my favorite genre and I really liked it, but of course those who are seeking for stronger emotions will have to look elsewhere.

___ IS THERE ALSO A HISTORICAL PART? __ As I have already said, we are in 1851 and the book mentions the Hungarian revolution. Apart from this, there are no historical notions included in the novel, which I usually appreciate a lot.

However, the author manages to make the reader feel the atmosphere of the time.
The mean alleys, the flower sellers in Covent Garden, the prostitutes and their brazen and derisive way of speaking, the well-furnished living rooms and the parade of guests with bows and smiles, the false flattery of the world of the rich, the dedication of the servants and the desire to be able to rise in rank by moving from the class that serves to the one that is served... these are all well-described details that help the reader to enter perfectly into the setting of that time.

The series offers, so far, 3 other books and a Christmas novella.
Each book finds Dragan and Griz as detectives ( ___WARNING : SPOILER__[ who became husband and wife ]___SPOILER END, but focuses the romantic story on another couple (friends or relatives of Dragan and Griz).

I will DEFINITELY read the other books in the series and I really hope that the writer continues this saga by adding new adventures and refocusing the love interest on the couple Griz and Dragan. :-)

__ A FINAL NOTE ABOUT MY REVIEW : I'm from Italy and English is not my mother tongue, I tried my best but please forgive me for any grammar or form errors in my text )

READ ALSO "Crime & Passion" BOOK #2:
#2 Letters to a Lover review

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Book review : A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander

A Fatal Waltz
Lady Emily Mysteries #3
by Tasha Alexander
My rating: ★★★★★
Actually 4.5 of 5 stars

Another great mystery in this lovely Victorian setting series !

A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander starts a little slow but after two chapters it will involve you completely.

Indeed after the characters introduction and the arrival in Vienna, the glittering capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it gets straight to the heart of the intrigue.
I found myself totally immersed in the the nineteenth century's Vienna, thanks to the amazing descriptions of places, fabulous buildings, joyful and at the same time problematic events of that era.

This book made me want to listen to the Strauss waltz, making research on the web about period pictures and lithographs and to read even more about the different historical facts about Vienna happened at that time .

_____ THE PLOT _____ This is the 3rd installment in the series "Lady Emily Mysteries" , but well readable as a standalone.
This time Emily reluctantly agrees to attend a party at the sprawling English country estate of Lord Fortescue, a man she finds as odious as he is powerful.

In an already unbearable context, Emily finds among the guests Kristiana von Lange, an Austrian countess who was once linked romantically with Emily's fiancé, the debonair Colin Hargreaves.
What Emily believes will be an awful evening turns worse when Fortescue is found murdered and Robert Brandon, the husband of Emily's best friend Ivy, is arrested for the crime.

Determined to right this terrible wrong and clear Robert's name, Emily begins to dig for answers, a quest that will lead her from London's glittering ballrooms to the salons of the court of Vienna and also to the capital's sordid backstreets. Not until she engages a notorious anarchist in a game of wits does the shocking truth begin to emerge.

____ INTRICATE MYSTERY WELL DESIGNAD BY THE AUTHOR ____
This was an easy, fun read with glimpses of deeper stuff below the surface.
The mystery is compelling as it is not a simple murder but as often happens in this series, politics and espionage are expertly mixed with events that touch Emily's personal life and affections.

In my opinion, this is also the charm of the detective stories in this series: while we are entertained by the mystery, the author manages to introduce in a captivating way historical and political facts that actually happened and which entice us to find out even more.

Following the investigations, it comes naturally to me to formulate my suppositions, but I can never guess the killer's motivations and therefore the killer himself until the very end. So if you are a puzzle lover you will find your entertainment here.

___ A LITTLE ROMANTIC SUSPENSE ___ There is nothing better than an ex-love to make things more complicated even in the most beautiful and supportive relationship.
As a woman, while reading I couldn't help but detest Countess Von Lange, who like all ex-great loves, tortured Emily by reminding her how much power she had over Colin's emotional side and threatening her every time to take her beloved back. I felt close to Emily and I was jealous with her, I suffered with her and I felt a great satisfaction when... oops, no... you have to read the book!

______ THE CHARM OF THE HISTORICAL PART ____ In this book Sissi's lovers will be delighted by the appearance on the scene of the famous historical character, represented at a moment in life when beauty had already faded, partly due to time, partly due to personal pains, but her elegance and charm were always present.

Another historical figure present in the book is the famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, whose painting "The Kiss" is known throughout the world, even to those who know nothing about painting.

As it is written at the back of the book, in the author's notes, Vienna at that time was a city ahead of its time, a sophisticated place, the scene of great cultural, political and intellectual ferment. The city of Strauss' waltzes, with its austere and glittering beauty, was an obligatory stop on the Grand Tour, the journey that most of the young European aristocrats made.

Sisi, young empress and after the mourning for her son
The famous painting by G. Klimt "The Kiss"

At those times the ballrooms held up to two thousand people, who drank almond milk, lemonade and hundreds of bottles of champagne.
The Ringstrasse, with its dreamlike atmosphere, enchanted all who traveled it.

However, in all this splendor and innovation (like the facade of the Court Theater illuminated by four thousand electric lights), Vienna, like any great capital, also had a dark side:

_ anti-Semitism and poverty were rampant and the suicide rate was the highest in the entire continent. and often, in the morning, the city's many night owls started the day with the impressive account of yet another suicide.

In that wonderfully complicated city, Lady Emily for the first time in her life, has the opportunity to meet and make friends with people who do not belong to her social class and are not members of her servants.
In Victorian era rich people and aristocrats lived in their own gilded world and did not see the poverty and disease of the lower classes with their own eyes, they only knew those terrible living conditions of the poorer only through reading.
When Emily arrives in this beautiful snow-covered city, she can't help but fall in love with its beauties: the Ringstrasse, the balls, the museums, the opera, the cafés... However, facing the difficulties of some people who lived in extremely disadvantaged conditions, she cannot remain insensitive and begins to develop a social conscience and this is another theme that I really liked, i.e. opening our eyes to realities different from ours (also valid for today's society).

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Un valzer fatale by Tasha Alexander

Un altro grande mistero in questa adorabile serie di ambientazione vittoriana!

A Fatal Waltz di Tasha Alexander inizia un po' lentamente ma dopo i primi due capitoli vi coinvolgerà completamente.

Infatti, dopo l'introduzione dei personaggi e l'arrivo a Vienna, la scintillante capitale dell'Impero austro-ungarico, si arriva dritti al cuore dell'intrigo.
Mi sono trovata totalmente immerso nella Vienna dell'Ottocento, grazie alle straordinarie descrizioni di luoghi, favolosi edifici, eventi gioiosi e allo stesso tempo problematici di quell'epoca.

Questo libro mi ha fatto venire voglia di ascoltare il valzer di Strauss, di fare ricerche sul web per leggere ancora di più riguardo ai diversi fatti storici accaduti a Vienna in quel periodo e poter vedere foto, quadri e litografie dei personaggi dell'epoca e di com'era la città allora.

_____ LA TRAMA _____ Questo è il terzo capitolo della serie "Lady Emily Mysteries", ma è ben leggibile come libro autonomo.
Questa volta Emily accetta con riluttanza di partecipare a una festa nella vasta tenuta di campagna inglese di Lord Fortescue, un uomo tanto odioso quanto potente e che non perde mai occasione di punzecchiare Emily ( l'antipatia è infatti reciproca ).

In un contesto già insopportabile, Emily trova tra gli ospiti Kristiana von Lange, una contessa austriaca un tempo legata sentimentalmente al suo fidanzato, l'affascinante spia Colin Hargreaves.
Quella che Emily crede sarà una serata terribilmente noiosa, peggiora quando Fortescue viene trovato assassinato e Robert Brandon, il marito della migliore amica di Emily, Ivy, viene arrestato per il crimine.

Determinata a correggere questo terribile torto e a riabilitare il nome di Robert, Emily inizia a cercare risposte, una ricerca che la porterà dalle scintillanti sale da ballo di Londra ai salotti della corte di Vienna e alle sordide stradine secondarie dei quartieri malfamati. Solo quando ingaggia un noto anarchico in un gioco d'ingegno la scioccante verità comincia a emergere.

______ UN MISTERO INTRICATO BEN PROGETTATO DALL'AUTRICE _____ Questa è stata una lettura facile e divertente con scorci di "qualcosa di più profondo" sotto la superficie.
Il mistero è avvincente in quanto non si tratta di un semplice omicidio ma come spesso accade in questa serie, politica e spionaggio sono sapientemente mescolati con eventi che toccano la vita personale e gli affetti di Emily. Questo a mio avviso è anche il fascino dei gialli di questa serie: mentre veniamo intrattenuti dal mistero, l'autrice riesce ad introdurre in maniera accattivante fatti storici e politici realmente accaduti e che ci invogliano a saperne ancora di più.

Ogni volta che leggo un giallo, seguendo le indagini, mi viene spontaneo formulare delle supposizioni, ma nei libri di Tasha Alexander non riesco mai a intuire fino all'ultimo le motivazioni dell'assassino e quindi l'assassino stesso, perciò ti dico: se sei un amante dei puzzle, questo ti piacerà!

___ UN PO' DI SUSPENSE ROMANTICA ___ Non c'è niente di meglio di un ex amore per rendere le cose più complicate anche nella relazione più bella e solidale.
Come donna, durante la lettura non potevo fare a meno di detestare la contessa Von Lange, che come molti gli ex-grandi amori, si divertiva a torturare Emily ricordandole quanto potere avesse ancora sulla parte emotiva di Colin e minacciandola ogni volta di riprendersi il suo amato.
Mi sentivo vicino ad Emily e soffrivo con lei, provavo quel pizzico di gelosia normale per tutti insieme a lei e ho provato una grande soddisfazione quando... ops, no... devi leggere il libro! :-)

Il rapporto d'amore, tra Emily e Colin si sviluppa in maniera abbastanza moderno per l'epoca vittoriana, ma rimane comunque coerente con quell'epoca sotto molti aspetti, dunque non c'è nulla che stoni con l'intera lettura, anche se non è il rigido cliché di coppia a cui siamo abituati nella lettura di libri calssici.

______ IL FASCINO DELLA PARTE STORICA ____ In questo libro gli amanti di Sissi rimarranno deliziati dall'apparizione sulla scena del celebre personaggio storico, rappresentato in un momento della vita in cui la bellezza era già sbiadita, in parte a causa del tempo, in parte a causa di dolori personali , ma non la sua eleganza, presente in ogni momento.

Un'altra figura storica presente nel libro è il famoso pittore austriaco Gustav Klimt, il cui dipinto "Il bacio" è noto in tutto il mondo, anche a chi non sa nulla di pittura.

Sissi giovane e dopo il lutto _ Il quadro di G. Klimt "Il bacio"

Come scrive l'auttrice nell'epilogo, Vienna a quel tempo era una città in anticipo sui tempi.
La capitale austriaca, la città dei valzer di Strauss, con la sua bellezza austera e scintillante, era un luogo sofisticato, teatro di grande fermento culturale, politico e intellettuale ed era una tappa obbligata del "Grand Tou"r, il viaggio che compiva la maggior parte dei giovani aristocratici europei.

A quei tempi le sale da ballo contenevano fino a duemila persone, che bevevano latte di mandorla, limonata e centinaia di bottiglie di champagne.
La Ringstrasse, con la sua atmosfera da sogno, incantava tutti coloro che la percorrevano.

Tuttavia, nonostante questo splendore e la grande modernità (come la facciata del Teatro di Corte illuminata da quattromila luci elettriche), Vienna, come ogni grande capitale, aveva anche un lato oscuro: l'antisemitismo e la povertà erano dilaganti e il tasso di suicidi era il più alto in tutto il continente, tanto che spesso, al mattino, i tanti nottambuli di turno iniziavano la giornata con il resoconto impressionante di un eennesimo suicidio

In quella città meravigliosamente complicata, Lady Emily, per la prima volta nella sua vita, ha l'opportunità di incontrare e fare amicizia con persone che non appartengono alla sua classe sociale e non fanno parte della sua servitù.

In epoca vittoriana i ricchi e gli aristocratici vivevano in un loro mondo dorato e non vedevano povertà e malattia delle classi meno abbienti con i proprio occhi, essi conoscevano le terribili condizioni di vita delle classi più basse solo attraverso la lettura.
Quando Emily arriva in questa bellissima città innevata, non può fare a meno di innamorarsi delle sue bellezze: la Ringstrasse, i balli, i musei, l'opera, i caffè.

Tuttavia, di fronte alle difficoltà di alcune persone che vivevano in condizioni di estremo svantaggio, non riesce a restare insensibile e comincia a sviluppare una coscienza sociale e questo è un altro tema che mi è piaciuto molto : aprire gli occhi sulle realtà diverse dalla nostra ( vale anche per la società odierna ).