Month: December 2022

Death and Deception: A Victorian Book Club Mystery by Callie Hutton

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Part of a Series, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

Death and Deception: A Victorian Book Club Mystery

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: A Victorian Book Club Mystery #4
Publication Date: 12/26/22
Period: Victorian Bath
Number of Pages: 261

What a delightfully witty and entertaining visit with Lord William Wethington and his mystery novelist wife, Lady Amy Wethington! For the further delight and entertainment of the reader, the extended family and friends are all included as well. We find that Amy is well into that stage of pregnancy where you feel like a whale and move about as gracefully, and she’s sharing that wonderful experience with her best friend Eloise, who is also her sister-in-law.

The ever-protective and loving William is doing his best to get Amy to look after herself and not exert herself on so many projects – like continuing to write her mystery novels. He’s just thankful there are no more murders for them to investigate because he knows Amy would be right in the middle of that. Until . . . the midwife who is to attend the delivery for both Amy and Eloise is found floating in the Roman Baths. Amy truly tries to leave it alone, but her natural curiosity, as always, gets the better of her – especially when the two inept police detectives immediately arrest someone for the murder.

Amy frets, so William frets, and they both decide they must investigate if there is going to be any serenity in their lives. When yet another body turns up they have to wonder if the two deaths are related. Neither of the victims was particularly nice people, so there could be any number of people who might wish them harm – but to murder them. . . Who, among their suspects, could be that cold-blooded?

The author does a nice job of making the mystery interesting. There are plenty of red herrings and plenty of suspects to keep you guessing. The story is nicely paced so it keeps you reading without wanting to put it down.

I am a big fan of this series and I always love the mysteries better than the romance – though they MUST have a romance to suit me. With this one, however, the mystery was a really good one and well-written, but my favorite was the personal storyline. If you read the book, you’ll see why. So, I guess you could say this book has it all – a great personal story and a great mystery. What more could you want?

I can definitely recommend this book and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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The Mistletoe Temptation by Eve Pendle

On By TracyIn Christmas, Georgian Era (1714-1837), Novella, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

The Mistletoe Temptation: A Regency Christmas Romance (Faking Stitch Book 2)The Mistletoe Temptation: A Regency Christmas Romance by Eve Pendle

Tracy’s rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Faking Stitch, #2

Release Date: December 21, 2022

Miss Geraldine “Gina” Bains is an expert at dissuading suitors right under her mother’s nose. Gina is months away from inheriting a fortune from her late father and has big plans to travel the world and those plans don’t include a husband! But despite her subtle tricks to ward off potential husbands, her mother is pushing her even harder to wed and has practically every minute of her day booked with instruction in womanly accomplishments, all of which she hates, save her embroidery “lessons”. So she is shocked when her brother’s best friend, Emmett Stanton sees through her ruse and blackmails her.

Emmett Stanton, son, and heir to the Earl of Hapthorpe had been dreading his promise to his best friend Marmaduke “Duke” Bains to dance with his younger sister, but when he sees Gina he is stunned and smitten. He claims his dance and soon figures out her scheme and thwarts her, much to her surprise, but it isn’t until she dances with someone else and runs out of the ballroom in tears that a plan forms and he gets her to agree to a temporary engagement. She agrees and they will act like the loving couple until she turns 21 on Christmas day, but makes it clear that there will be nothing more between them, especially no kissing, he agrees to only kiss her if she asks him to, to which she scoffs and makes it clear that will never happen and she will be breaking their “engagement” just as soon as she can, but Emmett has already decided that Gina is the perfect woman for him and plans to convince her to marry him, starting by tempting her into kissing him.

What a fun read, Gina and Emmett were such delightful characters that it was easy to root for their HEA. The book is filled with wonderful characters, secrets, lies, ulterior motives, spicy love scenes, a bit of heartache, compromises and finally a HEA complete with an epilogue (and an extended epilogue when you sign up for the author’s newsletter). This novella is part of the Faking Stitch series, but you can absolutely read them out of order. Note – This was previously published in the Twelve Lords for Yuletide anthology.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*