BOOK REVIEW: A Tarnished Canvas by Anna Lee Huber

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I’ve been following Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby Mysteries since the beginning of the series. For fans of historical mystery, this is a series not to miss. A Tarnished Canvas is the thirteenth book, and there is also a novella tucked in there. While the latest novel can be read as a standalone, it would really be better to have read at least some of the earlier books to get the gist of the relationships. The mystery can stand alone, but you’ll lose out on a lot of the heart of the story.

Kiera Gage (Lady Darby) is an artist, a new mother, a skilled sleuth, and a devoted wife. That is a handful for anyone, but fortunately, she and her husband are wealthy enough to afford good help – a valet, lady’s maid, and nursemaid who also aid with the sleuthing. The valet and lady’s maid add a second element of troubled romance to the storyline.

Kiera is a sought-after portraitist amongst the members of high society, but she is currently working on material for an exhibition of the downtrodden populace. While she wants to make her peers see the subjects, she’s fearful of a negative response. (Her past has her very insecure about being attacked for her work.) As the book opens, Kiera receives an invitation and catalogue to an art auction. The effects of a deceased collector are being sold off. During the auction, calamity strikes. Part of the floor collapses, sending numerous attendees plummeting. Although at first it appears to be an accident, there are hints that it was intentional. Kiera and her inquiry agent husband, Sebastian Gage, are drawn into the investigation. They are aided, to Gage’s dismay, by the local crime lord Bonnie Brock (who is infatuated with Kiera.)

Once again, Huber crafts a well-plotted mystery that will keep you guessing until the end, and immerses it within ongoing complex family dynamics. This is an engaging series to follow!

BOOK REVIEW: Look Before You Leap by Virginia Heath

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Look Before You Leap by Virginia Heath is a delightful (moderately steamy) Regency Rom-Com.

Lottie Travers is a farmgirl whose family farm is failing, despite the efforts of her father and brothers. Lottie has been granted a great opportunity, education in Miss Prentice’s School, where she is to learn how to behave amongst wealthy aristocrats so that she can work as a governess, maid, or companion. She’s grateful for the opportunity because it allows her to earn wages to send home. Unfortunately, she is obsessed with fast horses, to the point that she can’t help flirting with stablehands in order to borrow mounts to go riding. And ultimately, in roundabout ways, getting herself fired. Fortunately, she is given the opportunity to be a companion to a crotchety old woman who seems amused by her escapades. Unfortunately, the lady is the aunt of a young lord with whom Lottie had collided in a park. The encounter was memorable for the lord’s rudeness and for his great good looks.

The lord, Viscount Wennington (Guy) is as grumpy as they come. Years ago, he made a fool of himself by making a very public proposal and being very publicly refused. Ever since, he has avoided female company, avoided polite society, and spent his time on his estate, taking care of his tenants. However, his 30^th birthday is approaching, and his grandchild-obsessed mother is plotting (along with her sister, Lottie’s employer, Lady Frinton) to throw him a birthday party filled with eligible ladies as guests. The party has to be kept secret because they know he’ll hate it.

While accompanying Lady Frinton, Lottie is repeatedly thrown into company with Guy. Their personality conflicts lead to a great deal of bickering and miscommunication, but the physical attraction is strong, and they are both good people at heart, so apologies follow the arguments and the two grow ever more enamored with one another. (Especially when Lottie is compared to the aristocratic competition!)

For fans of grumpy/sunshine romances, this one is fun!

BOOK REVIEW: Eliza and the Duke by Harper St. George

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Eliza and the Duke is the latest Victorian Era Romance by Harper St. George, the second book in the series The Doves of New York.

Eliza Dove is an American heiress whose substantial dowry will only come to her if she marries a titled British gentleman. She has one waiting in the wings, but he’s a prosey bore with a nasty habit of frequenting prostitutes. All too aware of what it’s like to be poor, Eliza accepts that she will have to go through with the marriage, but first, she wants a bit of adventure. She finds it with Simon Cavell, a commoner, who currently works in a semi-respectable club. However, in the past, he survived as a prizefighter/brawler and as a “punisher” for a crime lord. (Duke is his prizefighting nickname.) Simon wants to break free of his old life, but the crime lord, Brody, has a hold on him. Brody knows about Simon’s very young niece, hidden away at a brothel. If Simon doesn’t keep paying up, something bad will happen to both Simon and the niece.

Enter Eliza. She first meets him in the aftermath of a prizefight when he is dopey from the fight. She meets him again when her brother-in-law hires him as a short-term protector for his wife’s sisters, Eliza and Jenny. Once Eliza sees him again, she knows what she wants: one night of adventure (not sex), with Simon for a guide. She wants to see London’s seamy side.

Of course, the more time they spend with one another, the more they both realize they want more than one adventuresome night. The novel gets steamy. And the protagonists have to figure out a way to be together.

It’s nice to read a romance where both characters are not aristocrats (though they operate on the fringes of the ton and have aristocratic friends.) And Simon is a character with depth. But this is not one of my favorite Harper St. George novels. Eliza came across as a bit too selfish, impulsive, and irresponsible. True, she needed to be headstrong to get out of a future that would have stultified her, but I came away with the impression that her infatuation with Simon was more instalust than instalove.

Nevertheless, the side characters are interesting and I suspect the other books in the series will appeal to me more.

BOOK REVIEW: Winter's End by Barbara Pronin

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

We think of D-Day as the beginning of the end of WWII. But it wasn’t the end. Yet. Barbara Pronin’s new historical novel, Winter’s End, takes readers into the lives of Resistance fighters in the Netherlands in the waning days of the war. Nazis are ramping up their cruelty and destruction in a desperate attempt to stave off defeat. Over the devastating winter of 1944-45, peace was still too far off.

The novel follows three women in Haarlem, where the Nazi presence was strong. Evi, a sixteen-year-old patriot, wanting to do more for her country, accepts the assignment of luring lecherous, drunken German officers into the forest to be killed. Zoe, a young veterinarian, repeatedly finds ways to hide (and feed) several Jewish families, Jewish physicians, and a German enemy of the Reich. Mila, the beautiful daughter of a collaborator, uses her position in the father’s home to learn information from high-ranking German officers to pass on to critical members of the Resistance, and, when necessary, perform dangerous missions herself. Along the way, all three women find love in unexpected places.

This is a gripping, inspiring novel of bravery and endurance in the face of fascism.

BLOG TOUR: Nothing Proved by Janet Wertman

Blurb:

 Danger lined her path, but destiny led her to glory…

Elizabeth Tudor learned resilience young. Declared illegitimate after the execution of her mother Anne Boleyn, she bore her precarious position with unshakable grace. But upon the death of her father, King Henry VIII, the vulnerable fourteen-year-old must learn to navigate a world of shifting loyalties, power plays, and betrayal.

 After narrowly escaping entanglement in Thomas Seymour’s treason, Elizabeth rebuilds her reputation as the perfect Protestant princess – which puts her in mortal danger when her half-sister Mary becomes Queen and imposes Catholicism on a reluctant land. Elizabeth escapes execution, clawing her way from a Tower cell to exoneration. But even a semblance of favor comes with attempts to exclude her from the throne or steal her rights to it through a forced marriage. 

Elizabeth must outwit her enemies time and again to prove herself worthy of power. The making of one of history’s most iconic monarchs is a gripping tale of survival, fortune, and triumph.

Review: 

I received an e-galley of this book from the Coffee Pot Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

I=m a sucker for biographical historical fiction, so I was pleased to receive a review copy of Janet Wertman=s novel, Nothing Proved: Book One of the Regina Series. The novel follows the life of Queen Elizabeth I from childhood to her ascension to the throne at age twenty-five. It was a youth fraught with peril. Although somewhat protected by her royal birth, the fact that she was in line for the succession also made her a target. Given the instability of the kingdom after the death of her father, King Henry VIII, it was never entirely clear that she would live to take the throne.

The political machinations during the rein of her young half-brother left her sometimes central to and sometimes on the fringes of the court. Her older half-sister, Mary, was seen as a danger (to Protestant nobility and to England itself) because of her unwavering loyalty to the Catholic Church and her attachment to Spain, yet she was legally next in line. Elizabeth was burdened by the fact that her mother was Anne Boleyn, and her legitimacy was often questioned, which meant she could be booted from the line of succession if Parliament turned against her. There was no love lost between Mary and Elizabeth, but both knew when to feign sisterly care for one another as a political expedient.

Wertman=s novel is meticulously researched, and she does a wonderful job of presenting the tense atmosphere of the times. Elizabeth learned how to keep a low profile and how to bend rather than break when political winds blew against her. She was able to discern who was truly loyal and who were the opportunists, and how to make use of both.

 It=s not a spoiler to say Elizabeth eventually does inherit the throne. The truly impressive feat of this novel is how it kept me in suspense the whole time. With all the jockeying for power, all the self-serving courtiers, all the ongoing bloody religious strife, I found myself frightened for this future monarch. It was fascinating to watch this young princess navigate her path to the throne.

Highly recommended!

Buy Link:  https://books2read.com/u/bM8Vrk

BOOK REVIEW: The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich is a stunning debut. It is a beautifully written novel of Clara Bishop, a piano virtuosa, descended from a (fictional) master composer of the 19th century and taught by a strict and violent pianist who was a musical descendant of that same composer. (Meaning she was taught by someone who was taught by the composer.) Clara’s career was derailed by injuries sustained in a fire, and by the psychological trauma of having been a child prodigy with all the associated baggage.

The novel is infused with music, but so deftly written that you needn’t be a classical musician or even a lover of classical music to understand the passion these characters feel. It explores the themes of exploitation vs supportive pressure when dealing with child prodigies. And, as its protagonist is a woman as was her teacher, it also brings to the fore the historical sexism in the musical world.

But this page-turner is also a carefully plotted mystery. In fact, it is several interwoven mysteries. Avoiding spoilers, Clara’s teacher bequeaths her an antique metronome and a cryptic notice that she should know why. Clara has no idea why. But as it becomes clear that the metronome is sought after, perhaps dangerous to possess, and has a history of its own, she is caught up in solving the puzzle.

There are so many layers to this novel, but I’m going to have to leave my review at this, because for full appreciation, you won’t want any of the plot twists revealed beforehand. It’s a contemporary novel, but with enough forays into the past that I can consider it a little bit of a historical novel, too. Read it and enjoy! 

BOOK REVIEW: Endling by Maria Reva

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Endling by Maria Reva is a startling novel that examines extinction (of a species, of a life, of one’s hopes and dreams) and left me stricken with awe (at the author’s creativity and skill) and sadness (because it grew darker and more hopeless as it progressed.)

It begins as a quirky, literary, contemporary novel, set in Ukraine, that twines together three lives.

Yeva is a conservation scientist obsessed with snails and the rapidity of the rate of extinction of various species. She is a one-woman crusader, determined to save as many Ukrainian snail species as she can. Yeva owns a trailer fitted up as a mobile lab.The information provided about snails is honestly fascinating and surprisingly poignant.

Nastia and Sol are sisters. Nastia is very young and very beautiful. Sol is two years older and plain. They never knew their father and were abandoned by their mother who was a performative activist against the marriage business (matchmaking services that bring foreign bride-seeking men into Ukraine to find beautiful, young, docile mates.) It sounds a lot like legal human trafficking. Angered and despondent over their mother’s disappearance, the sisters have joined a marriage-brokering business in rebellion and to earn a living. Nastia poses as one of the “brides” and Sol follows as her translator.

Nastia has a plan to get their mother’s attention. She wants to abduct a group of the bride-seeking bachelors and briefly hold them hostage as a publicity stunt. If they make the bridal business appear dangerous, it might shut the practice down. Sol follows along. Nastia manages to persuade Yeva to join them so that they can use her trailer to contain the bachelors.

There are pitfalls aplenty, and yet, the plan seems to be working. They kidnap thirteen bachelors and set off. However, here the story screeches to a halt. The Russian invasion of Ukraine begins.

In a meta-twist, the author (a Ukrainian expat, living in Canada) now intrudes on the story. How can she continue writing this quirky tale given what is going on back in Ukraine? 

When the author returns to the storyline, it incorporates this new reality. Events grow darker and quirky turns to surreal. The book barrels along to its ambiguous conclusion.

It’s a fascinating, heart-wrenching book, full of surprises, somewhat reminiscent of If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, which I also loved.