Author: Barbara

Avid reader/reviewer of historical romance and historical mysteries.

Sleepless in Scotland by May McGoldrick

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)2 Comments

Sleepless in Scotland (The Pennington Family, #3)Sleepless in Scotland by May McGoldrick

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Pennington Family #3
Publication Date: 8/7/18

Unfortunately, I decided to begin this wonderful book about an hour before bedtime. From the first word on the first page it pulled me into another time and another place and didn’t let me go until quite some time after I had finished the last word early this morning. It is beautifully written and filled with characters you want to get to know as friends. And the ending – Oh! My Goodness! It is perfect. I am almost always dissatisfied when a book doesn’t have an epilogue – I feel as if I’m not done with it yet. Without an epilogue, this book closed up all of the loose ends and provided a lovely, poignant HEA. There was even a wonderful solution for a street urchin I was hoping would have his own HEA.

This is absolutely my favorite kind of book, historical with a mystery AND a romance. Absolutely perfect. The villain is a mad fiend – sort of a Jack the Ripper type. He’s been stalking the underground of Edinburgh for decades and three years ago he murdered the sister of Captain Ian Kerr Bell of Bellhorne, Fife. Now, Ian haunts the Vaults (huge underground area) of Edinburgh in search of his sister’s murderer. Ian is riddled with guilt – he should have done more to protect her. How did she even get to such a place? She wasn’t a flighty girl – she was intelligent and careful.

Now, imagine Ian’s shock and dismay when he is in the Vaults and hears the sounds of a fight and runs to the location. He finds a crumpled form lying at bottom of a staircase – and a man, dressed in black, at the top of the stairs. As Ian picks up the unconscious man at the foot of the stairs, he quickly realizes that it isn’t a man at all – it is a woman – and a woman of means. Finally, when Ian gets her to his carriage he realizes that it is Lady Phoebe Pennington, daughter of the Earl of Aytoun – his deceased sister’s best friend.

Phoebe is a crusader – a reformer. She’s writing newspaper articles under a pseudonym and she is hot on the trail of a story showing that the charity hospitals, poorhouses, etc. are turning out the sick and infirm in order to make themselves look better for a fact-finding group that is coming up from London. She just needs absolute proof and she has an informant who has agreed to sell her the proof she needs – but she must meet him in the Vaults or he won’t provide the documents. Since she must have the proof, she agrees. However she isn’t an idiot, so she hires Duncan Turner, a surly Highlander, as her bodyguard. As she and Duncan find the place, they get separated and Phoebe sees a man chasing a half-grown boy with the intent of killing him. Phoebe doesn’t even think – she just acts and chases after the two. As she attacks the villain, the boy escapes and the villain comes after Phoebe. When she awakes from her tumble down the steps, she finds she is in a carriage with a furious Ian Bell – her deceased friend’s brothere and a man she was infatuated with in her youth.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Ian and Phoebe have several encounters and some of them open her eyes to what being a good reporter really is. Then, when Phoebe is really in danger – can Ian save her – more than once?

This is a fast-paced book that will hold your interest from beginning to end. The descriptions of the time and place are so vivid that you can smell the fetid bogs, feel the warm sunshine and see the blue skies over Edinburgh and Bellhorne.

This is part of a series, but can easily be read as a stand-alone. I have read all of the other books in the series and highly recommend those as well as this one.

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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

Promise of Redemption by Ellie St. Clair

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

Promise of Redemption (Searching Hearts Book 5)Promise of Redemption by Ellie St. Clair

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Searching Hearts #5
Publication Date: 8/7/18

Ellie St. Clair is a new-to-me author who could easily become a favorite. She did a lovely job with what could have been a very dark book. The story was well plotted and well written. Christina, our heroine, is a lovely young woman who is calm, intelligent, mature, and she doesn’t do even one TSTL thing. Daniel, our hero, is a tortured soul who has built walls around his heart and won’t let anybody through – even his family. Daniel is bent on revenge and nothing and nobody will stop him.

The family of Daniel Harrington, the Marquess of Ravenhall is very, very worried about him. For six years he has shut his family out and become a virtual hermit at his country estate and they don’t really understand why. Yes, his fiancé died, but he should be over it by now and getting on with his life. What he hasn’t told them is that she was murdered and he found her body on his threshold. He knows who did it and he has every intention of exacting his revenge on him. That rage and hunger for revenge have consumed him for six long, dark years.

Daniel’s family is so desperate that his father, the Duke of Ware, has decided to take desperate measures. He is going to force his son to marry and the only way to do that is to demand he come to London and then demand he marry. The Duke sends a message demanding Daniel’s return, which Daniel intends to ignore – until he reads the letter from his solicitor saying all of his funds have been frozen. Daniel has absolutely no choice and heads toward London.

Lady Christina Princeton is the daughter of a Marquess, but she has never had a season. Her father just never got around to it. Christina has dreamed of, longed for, a lovely season where she can dance and choose a man to love and cherish for a husband. Her father has always denigrated her by telling her she is too plump, too intellectual, not particularly pretty, etc. yet she is still a confident forthright, steady young woman with a very loving outlook on life.

Christina’s father has now made plans for his life that don’t include Christina, so he’s ready for her to be married and sees no need to go through the trouble of a season. He is, after all, good friends with the Duke of Ware who has a son who needs to be married. So, the two men get together and decide to force a marriage between their two children.

Christina and Daniel don’t have a very auspicious first meeting – you’ll have to read the book to find out about it — but despite Christina’s misgivings, they end up married anyway. I loved watching Christina’s sweet nature, mature attitude and plain-spoken ways gradually chip away at Daniel’s frozen heart. Of course, he fights it every step of the way. What will happen when Daniel finally gets the murderer of his fiancé in his sights? Will he take his vengeance and risk losing Christina or will he do what he can to keep the warm, lovely lady he has come to love?

There is also a small secondary romance with Daniel’s best friend Lord Hudson and Christina’s friend Lady Beatrice. It is sweet, but is definitely in the background and doesn’t impact the larger story. I like Lord Hudson and Beatrice and was glad to see their affection grow. Everyone should have a friend like Lord Hudson in their lives!

The only thing that would have made the book better for me would have been for Christina’s father, the Marquess of Burrton to have something impact his cozy little world. I’d like him to have some sort of punishment for the unforgivable way he treated his daughter. Maybe he could become a laughing stock of the ton or fall off his horse and break his leg – something.

Anyway – a great read and I’ll be looking forward to another one by this new-to-me author.

Please check out my reviews at:
Blog: https://flippinpages.blog/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlippinPagesRev
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BarbBookReview

“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”