Author: Barbara

Avid reader/reviewer of historical romance and historical mysteries.

A Love By Design by Elizabeth Everett – Blog Blitz

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

A Love by Design (The Secret Scientists of London, #3)Barbara’s rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Series: The Secret Scientists of London #3
Publication Date: 1/17/23
Period: Victorian London
Number of Pages: 336

I have glanced down the list of reviews and ratings for this book and quickly learned I am in the minority. So, feel free to quit reading at this point if you like. I met and liked Earl Grantham in earlier books and was looking forward to an exciting, romantic, whiz-bang story for him. I was also looking for an exciting, no-holds-barred, wrap-up for the series. I don’t feel I got any of that, so I am sad about that. Don’t get me wrong – I think George is about as romantic as they get, I just don’t think his story was.

Margaret, Violet, and George were childhood friends – and Margaret and George were childhood sweethearts. Margaret and George had planned to run away together and marry so she could accompany him to Canada as a soldier’s wife – except – he ended it on the morning they were to leave. Why? Since it would be a bit of a spoiler I won’t tell you, so you’ll just have to read the book to learn why. Since Margaret couldn’t marry George, she left for France to become an apprentice engineer and there she married the son of her mentor.

This book begins several years later when Margaret is back in London as a widow and George has inherited an earldom. George still loves Margaret – he never stopped loving her, but Margaret, on the other hand, doesn’t think she wants anything to do with George. She is adamant – absolutely nothing and no one will get in the way of her starting her engineering firm and being the first female engineer in England. She is ruthless in pursuit of that goal – and even accepts a contract that is backed by the man who has openly tried to harm her fellow scientists. She doesn’t even tell them what she is doing. That smacks of dishonesty to me.

Poor tongue-tied, fumble-footed George is bent on wooing Margaret. He is so funny, entertaining, caring, and loving. You couldn’t ask for a lovelier hero – he is perfectly content to be the rug on which she wipes her feet. Finally, after a bit of danger, Margaret figures out where she needs to be.

I found the story to be a bit draggy and flat when it could have been so exciting. We spent page after page learning about engineering when we could have been learning about the plot to ruin Margaret and get rich. We could have seen more machinations from Victor Armitage and his Guardians of Domesticity. But we didn’t get any of that and I found myself skimming page after page.

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

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An Extravagant Duplicity by Lynn Messina

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

An Extravagant Duplicity (Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, #11)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery
Publication Date: 1/13/23
Period: Regency – London
Number of Pages: 310

As usual, this author has provided us with an entertaining and well-crafted read. Our murderer is among an insanely dysfunctional family that will almost remind you of the old Keystone Cops movies. When you add Bea’s wild and wooly family into the mix, you have a recipe for total and utter chaos – along with some witty and humorous banter. As always, we have a lot of Bea’s internal dialogue to know what she is really thinking – and most of that internal dialogue centers around the fact that she is expecting a ‘cherub’ and is afraid she’s going to have to curtail her investigating. Oh! My! I sure do hope that isn’t the author actually thinking of ending the series.

Roger Dugmore, a man who is old and feeble, died when he was trying to get out of bed, fell, and hit his head on a table. Or is that what happened? You’ll know for sure after Bea and Kesgrave finish their investigation. Dugmore’s grandson, Viscount Ripley, asked for their help – mostly as a lark. You see, Ripley is very young, very naïve, very immature, and very determined to come to the notice of Mr. Twaddle Thum so he can be featured in his gossip column.

Bea is distracted by the news that she is ‘with child’ and initially misses an important clue. Thus, she believes this really is just a horrible accident – until Kesgrave shares what he has noticed. So, murder it is, and there are plenty of suspects with several grown grandchildren and a daughter all living in the home.

As the investigation progresses, they learn that grampa wasn’t the nicest of men. He ruled his family with an iron hand and had no compunction about blackmailing or otherwise coercing his own family into doing his bidding. With so many suspects and alibis floating around it seems almost impossible to find the solution. But, of course, they do.

While murder is a serious subject, the author always manages to slip in plenty of wit and humor along with side stories to make the darker topic more tolerable. As always, this story was rife with Americanisms – just in case you needed to know that. The characters are engaging and fun, and the side stories keep it really interesting. Again, as always, there is a lot of self-dialogue on Bea’s part – sometimes that causes me to skip some paragraphs – sometimes it doesn’t. At any rate, it is an enjoyable read 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.

View all my reviews