Recent Reads {The Guardian Duke}

 

The Guardian Duke by Jamie Carie - I was lucky enough to win this book on a blog giveaway, and I really enjoyed it.  It is the first in a trilogy set in the early 1800s.  The story opens with the title character, the Duke of St. Easton (Gabriel) receiving the news that he has been appointed the guardian of a young woman named Alexandria Featherstone, whose parents have been missing and are presumed dead.  On the same day, Gabriel suddenly finds that he has lost his hearing.  Alexandria is living at her family home on a remote island in Northumberland, and when she receives the news about the guardianship, she refuses to believe her parents are dead.  They have been treasure hunters and their long absences are not unusual, but it has been a very long time since she had a letter from them... so she runs away, determined to track her parents down and equally determined to not allow the duke's men to take her to London.  What follows is a grand chase across England and Ireland, with Alex doing her best to elude Gabriel and stay one step ahead of him, while the two of them correspond and start a friendship through their letters.  The more clues Alex finds leading her to her parents, the more she finds herself in danger, and it's not only Gabriel that is pursuing her.

I enjoyed the characters and found that I liked them and sympathized with them, and I appreciated the settings and sense of adventure and romance throughout.  I found many of the situations to be unrealistic and with a sense of the fantastic, but I was drawn into the storyline and turned pages eagerly.  The cliff-hanger ending left me anxiously awaiting the second installment.

 

Recent Reads {A Crimson Warning}

A Crimson Warning by Tasha Alexander - Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have recently returned to London after their stay in Normandy, where their involvement in solving a murder threatened Emily's life.  Emily is hoping to simply enjoy the London season, but she is also drawn into the movement to gain the vote for women, and is still interested in antiquities and the study of ancient Greek.  However, a clever vandal begins terrorizing London society by splashing bright red paint on the fronts of the homes of some elite families.  Colin and Emily get involved in unraveling the case, which includes arson, murder and kidnapping, in a race to discover how all of it might be connected and capture the criminal before more lives are destroyed.  Another exciting mystery with the likeable and eccentric Lady Emily and her friends tempting fate and doing the unexpected in order to bring a criminal to justice.

By the same author: Dangerous to Know,  Tears of Pearl, A Fatal Waltz, A Poisoned Season, And Only to Deceive

Recent Reads {Dangerous to Know}

Dangerous to Know by Tasha Alexander - In this installment of the Lady Emily mystery series, Emily and Colin return from their honeymoon to visit Colin's mother in Normandy.  Emily had a brush with death while on their honeymoon in Constantinople and needs time to recover her health.  Not long after their arrival, things get exciting - and dangerous - again! Emily stumbles across the body of a young woman that has been murdered and soon she and Colin are involved in the investigation.  Emily is determined to bring the killer to justice, but as events unfold she begins to wonder about her own sanity.  She hears a child's voice but can't find her, and even finds blue ribbons that the child has supposedly left behind.  The killer is devious and manipulative, and Emily must keep her wits about her and use all her instincts and intelligence to outsmart him and avoid being his next victim.

By the same author: Tears of Pearl, A Fatal Waltz, A Poisoned Season, And Only to Deceive

Recent Reads {The Witch from the Sea}

The Witch from the Sea by Philippa Carr -  This will catch me up on this series for now!  I didn't read them all this weekend, just to be clear!  The third in the Daughters of England series tells the story of two women - Catherine's daughter Linnet, and Linnet's own daughter Tamsyn.  In Part One, Linnet journals her experiences beginning with her family's meeting a young man that is considered an excellent suitor for her.  She is very interested in the kind, peace-loving Fennimore Cooper, but on a journey with her mother to visit the Cooper family, fate intervenes.  Linnet is noticed, and pursued by the powerful Colum Casvellyn, and she is forced to accept her role as his wife and the life she has at his castle on the rocky coast.  For a time all is well, but Linnet begins to suspect her husband of foul play both past and present.  Things only get more dramatic and dangerous when she rescues a mysterious woman from drowning on their shore and takes her into their home.  Linnet learns more about her husband than she wishes to know and becomes very fearful for her own life as he becomes more and more detached from her.

Part Two begins quite abruptly, with Tamsyn's remembering her mother's death.  As Tamsyn grows up, she realizes there was more to her mother and the intrigues in the castle than she had thought, and her strange relationship with her 'sister' Senara is often enigmatic.  Tamsyn eventually uncovers the secrets of the castle and her mother's unexpected and sudden death, and must make decisions about what she must do to keep herself safe and to bring some kind of justice for the crimes that have been committed.

More dark Gothic novel intrigue with dramatically drawn characters and fantastically imagined storylines, but (for me, anyway) hard to put down.  The series continues through many more generations, all the way to the early 1900s (if I remember correctly), and once restarted on the road of re-reading the series, I will be at it for awhile to come.

By the same author: The Miracle at St Bruno's , and The Lion Triumphant

Recent Reads {The Lion Triumphant}

The Lion Triumphant by Philippa Carr - This is the second in Carr's Daughters of England series, and if I thought The Miracle at St Bruno's was far-fetched, this is over the top! This story focuses on Damask's daughter Catherine and her adventures.  The story opens with some background and almost immediately Cat meets Captain Jake Pennlyon, and is repelled yet fascinated by him.  He is crude and aggressive and makes it clear that he intends to have her as his own.  Cat takes great delight in trying to outwit Jake and his advances.  Her adventures become outlandish when she and two other women from her household are kidnapped by a Spaniard intent on having revenge.  They wind up living for quite some time with their Spanish captors and to a great extent are resigned to their new life, since there doesn't seem to be a way of escape.  Then Jake appears on the scene again and rescues them, while setting up even more danger and adventure.  Back in England, and married to Jake, things don't settle down easily because there is always a threat to the country from Spain, religious intolerance, and in Cat's own home she fears that someone is trying to destroy her.

By the same author: The Miracle at St Bruno's

Recent Reads {The Miracle at St Bruno's}

The Miracle at St. Bruno's by Philippa Carr - This is the first novel in a series that I discovered several years ago, rather by accident.  Author Philippa Carr has also written a number of biographical novels under the name Jean Plaidy, and historical romance novels under the name Victoria Holt.  In my opinion, this series (Daughters of England) is a middle ground between the two genres -  a historical setting epic in Gothic novel style, but not necessarily romance.  The series opens during the reign of King Henry VIII in Britain, before the rise of Anne Boleyn.  The main character, Damask, is the only child of a well-to-do London businessman who is also a devoted father.  Their estate neighbors an Abbey, and in time Damask and her cousin develop a friendship with the young boy that lives at the Abbey and is named for the patron saint.  Bruno's background and parentage is unknown, and his coming to Abbey was regarded as a miracle.  The saga follows Damask and her contemporaries as they grow up during this very unsettled time in Britain - the wives and intrigues of Henry VIII and his court, and the persecutions of Catholics.  Damask eventually marries Bruno, but in true Gothic novel style, they certainly do not live happily ever after.  Mysteries and intrigues abound and Damask finds herself in the middle of one unlikely scenario after another.

The story continues in the sequel novels, each of which centers on a female descendant of Damask's, and is an interesting - if rather fantastic - view of the history of Great Britain, not from the royal court or from truly 'ordinary' folk.   As colorfully imagined as the characters and storylines are in the series, it still offers a glimpse of the life and times of Britain's history and how people may have been affected by world events and shifts in political power and royal attitudes.

 

Recent Reads {Madame Tussaud}

Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran - Although I thoroughly enjoyed the first novel by Moran that I read, I was at first reluctant to read this one.  After all, the French Revolution was bloody and violent, and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to get into that.  Once I started, I was drawn into the story of the talented wax sculptor Marie Tussaud and her family's business in Paris during the time of the French Revolution.  I didn't even realize that there was a real, historical Madame Tussaud until I read this outstanding work of historical fiction that brought her to life!  Marie's family had a wax museum, the Salon de Cire, in Paris and were working towards greater fame and wealth.  They had the attention of the royal family, and Marie was summoned as an instructor in wax sculpture to the sister of King Louis XVI.  The times are troubled, and there are risks, but as Marie spends time with the princess and at the royal court, she sees all the facets of the escalating political troubles.  Even while she spends time at court and her older brothers serve in the Swiss Guard which protects the king, the Salon de Cire often hosts meetings that include the leading revolutionaries of the day, so the Tussaud family and their dearest friends walk a dangerous tightrope.  As France descends into the Reign of Terror, Marie is called upon by the revolutionaries to make death masks of beheaded aristocrats - does she dare refuse?  When opportunities arise for her to escape to England, will she take the chance?

By the same author:  Cleopatra's Daughter