Author: Barbara

Avid reader/reviewer of historical romance and historical mysteries.

The Highlander’s Tudor Lass by Heather McCollum

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The Highlander’s Tudor Lass (The Brothers of Wolf Isle Book 3)My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Barbara’s rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Series: The Brothers of Wolf Isle #3
Publication Date: 8/22/22
Period: Tudor England – 1547

I have been looking forward to the release of this book for a while now. I’ve read the first two books in the series and they were non-stop action and excitement with a romance just as exciting as the action parts. Not this one. It is a nice read but is missing the action and excitement of the other books. In the first two books, the pirate Claude Jandeau was a fierce, mighty, nasty pirate who stole away innocent women and children and sold them into slavery to men who wanted them. He is bound and determined to get the Montgomerie sisters into his nasty hands. So far, the only thing that has stood in his way is the Macquarie brothers. One of the brothers married the older Montgomerie sister and now, since their father’s death, she wants to bring her sisters to Wolf Isle to live with her. Callum and Drostan (twins) Macquarie were dispatched to Hawick to accompany the four sisters back to the isle. When they arrived, two of the sisters had left for England. Drostan accompanied the two sisters (Kat and Agnes) who were at Hawick back to Wolf Isle and Callum continued to Sudeley Castle in England to retrieve Anna and Dorothia (Dora) and then accompany them north to Wolf Isle.

Since the pirate Jandeau escaped before he could be hanged, the Montgomerie ladies cannot be left unprotected. Anna and Doro are in the employ of the Dowager Queen Katherine Parr Seymour as Ladies to Princess Elizabeth. When Anna refuses to leave, Callum knew he had to stay until he could convince her to leave.

We spent several months or about 70% of the book at Sudeley Castle with Callum trying to convince Anna and dealing with the English who looked down upon him. This part went on much, much too long. When they were deceived and ended up in the hands of Jandeau, it was a tad more exciting, but not by much. Jandeau was a mere shadow of himself and really didn’t pose much of a threat at all.

I enjoyed the book; it just wasn’t the exciting, page-turning, swashbuckling read I had expected. I wanted some exciting cross-country chases, or sword fights onboard a pirate ship or … something. It did get livelier; it just wasn’t that bone-tingling excitement from the previous books.

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

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Letter to a Duchess: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mystery by Nellie H. Steele

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

Letter to a Duchess: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mystery (Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries Book 2)Barbara’s rating: 3.7 of 5 Stars
Series: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #2
Publication Date: 7/19/22
Period: Regency or Victorian (hard to tell)
Number of Pages: 365

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I could have given each of them 5-stars except for the historical inaccuracies. The author teaches at a college, so I don’t understand why she couldn’t take the time to research something as simple as forms of address. I was jolted from the story each time someone addressed the Duke or Duchess as Duke (or Duchess) Blackmoore or worse yet introduces her as Mrs. Robert Fletcher. That is just so very wrong – and getting it correct would be so very easy. Even if it was correct, there was just so very much of it.

Lenora Hastings has had an unusual talent (or curse) her entire life. It has made her life miserable because nobody could deal with a child who could talk with the dead. Everyone left her, even the nuns at the convent couldn’t deal with it and turned her over to an orphanage. As an adult (barely) she married Robert Fletcher, the Duke of Blackmoore, and used her talent to solve the mystery of the death of Robert’s first wife.

The Duke’s ne’er do well brother, Edwin, has written Lenora a letter begging her to use her talent to get him out of trouble. He is in Glasgow and has been arrested for murder. He swears he didn’t do it and he believes all Lenora has to do is speak to the ghost of the murder victim and find out who really did do it. Nothing, of course, is ever that easy when one is speaking with the dead.

The Duke doesn’t want Lenora to have anything to do with his brother, but she convinces him to let her try. The main reason she believes Edwin is that her deceased friend Tillie insists he is innocent.

With uncommunicative ghosts, seedy locales, dangerous villains, and a worrywart husband, finding the true murderer isn’t easy. When there is another attack and they all come under suspicion, they know that they have to quickly find the real murderer. Will they all survive? Can they thwart the murderer and prove Edwin isn’t guilty? You’ll just have to read the book to see.

I enjoyed the mystery and thought it was well-plotted and well-delivered. Other than the forms of address, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. One thing that struck me as a bit humorous though – the ghosts kept coming to Lenora at night and sometimes literally pulling her from her bed. They lead her into the bowls of Glasgow – and always into trouble. Robert would rant – but – somehow it never occurred to him that he ought to sleep in the same bedroom so he’d know when she was dragged out into the night.

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