Author: Barbara

Avid reader/reviewer of historical romance and historical mysteries.

A Lady’s Past by A.S. Fenichel

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A Lady's Past (Everton Domestic Society, #4)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Everton Domestic Society #4
Publication Date: 11/19/19
Number of Pages: 223

This was an adventurous, exciting addition to the Everton Domestic Society series. It also has the most wonderful, romantic, dedicated, honest, steadfast and loyal hero I’ve read in a long time. We should all have a Jacques in our lives – I mean, he always calls Diana his Goddess! I liked Diana too – she was smart (very smart), beautiful and running for her life. She’s about as resilient as one lady can be, so you can’t help but admire her. I think this is my favorite book in the series.

We meet a new group in this book, and they really impressed me. I’d love to see a series featuring them and some of their exploits. The group is the Buckrose Horsemen – sort of a takeoff on the apocalyptic Horsemen. They all attended the Buckrose School for Boys and were recruited by the Crown to form a group that would work on behalf of England. This group rescued Jacques from France just before he’d been scheduled for the guillotine.

We get a lovely visit with Millie (A Lady’s Escape) and her hero Preston – along with her eccentric uncle Francis who we all learned to love in Millie’s book. I really liked Preston in this book – he was a wonderfully loyal friend to Jacques.

Jacques, who has just managed to rescue his parents from France, is traveling to London for a meeting when he comes across a woman traveling on foot in the dead of winter – during a storm. At first, he isn’t sure if she is a highwaywoman out to rob him or just a frightened woman. Whatever the case, he knows he cannot leave her on the road to die. As they travel – and have to stop at an inn to get out of the worsening storm – he tries to get to know her better. What he does (and doesn’t) learn intrigues him.

Diana is running for her life. Two governments are after her – one thinks she is a traitor and the other wants to imprison her and force her to work for them. Everybody she loves has been tortured and killed and she cannot afford to get close to anyone – ever again. She can’t live with more people who care about her dying. So, when she feels drawn to the kind and caring man who has offered her sanctuary on a cold and lonely road into London, she knows she must stay away from him. She asks him to drop her off at some very public places, but his conscience won’t let him do that. He persuades her to let him take her to the Everton Domestic Society where she can seek employment or just rest up while she decides where to go and what to do.

We all know that Diana and Jacques meet again – and things blossom – even though neither of them is prepared for a relationship. Things get really exciting and tense when the bad guys start closing in. Diana and Jacques are thrown together more and more often and, of course, love blossoms in a very difficult situation. I love how they came together.

This could have been a 5-star read for me had the author not mentioned whiskey so many times. Whiskey wasn’t readily available in England in that period. If they had it, it was illegally made in Scotland (spelled Whisky) or Ireland (spelled Whiskey). As punishment for the Irish and Scot rebellion against the Crown, extreme, exorbitant taxes were imposed on the production of whiskey and on the distilling equipment to make it. Since the upper classes tended to view the Scots and Irish as barbaric, few would have made any effort or paid the price to have it. Whiskey didn’t become a staple in England until the Victorian period.

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

The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

The Beast of BeswickBarbara’s rating: 2.5/3 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone
Publication Date: 11/26/19
Number of Pages: 384

Well, I’m not sure how to write this review. I liked the basic story and the writing was good, but it just was not a Regency story. Nothing in it was period correct – and I think I really do mean nothing – not even the basic stuff. All of it was anachronistic. It is also a very, very modern tale with modern language, modern ideas, modern – well everything. I’m not sure I understand why an author would choose to write a period story and then ignore the research to get it right. So, I guess my bottom line is – the basic story is nice and if you don’t mind all of the inaccuracies, then you will enjoy the read.

I also think that the author went way over-the-top with making the heroine a strong, intelligent woman. She was actually a superwoman. She had every skill known to man (or woman). I assume that is why she was always arguing with the hero – in order to showcase all of her skills and talents. She is an expert on the exact type of porcelain the hero needs to have cataloged, she is an expert horse trainer, she swims like a fish, she isn’t fond of ‘feminine’ things like embroidery, she (and everybody else) cusses like a sailor, she can write, etc. She has absolutely every talent/skill/attribute that we, in today’s world, would consider being a strong independent woman. I think it would have been better to pick one or two attributes and focus on those instead of using the shotgun effect. It would have been really easy to dislike her – and, in the real world, I probably would have disliked her.

I really liked Thane. He was horribly, horribly injured in the Napoleonic wars and came home a very angry, very reclusive man. The description of his injuries and what caused them drew me out of the story. I just can’t picture it. I picture this man in the center of a large circle of men with bayonets and they are all poking him with the bayonets. Had they been sword slashes or something I could picture it – but not bayonets. Anyway – I digress. Thane is horribly disfigured and even before that he had an unhappy life – his father was cold and disapproving and, evidently, his older brother was as well. By the time Astrid appeared on his door, he had managed to drive most of his friends away and most of his servants as well. So, he was lonely and angry.

I loved his Aunt Mable – she was priceless. Totally anachronistic, but priceless. She was bright and funny – and very risqué. She, along with the valet and butler, add a bit of lightheartedness to the story.

There were some plot points that just didn’t make sense to me – for instance – he just, out of the blue, decides to give Astrid some land and buildings to open a school. Why? She’d never mentioned any desire to open a school – and that is the only mention of it. It was just left hanging.

Even given the above, I did enjoy the actual story itself. I liked Thane and enjoyed seeing him learn that he could have love and a family in his life. I even liked Astrid because, even though she was annoying, she was still vulnerable, and that humanized her a bit.

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