Category: Victorian Era (1837-1901)

In the history of the United Kingdom, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.
Preceded by: Regency era
Followed by: Edwardian era
Monarch: Victoria

Captivating The Countess by Patricia Rice

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Captivating the Countess (School of Magic, #6)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: School of Magic #6
Publication Date: 7/13/21
Period: Victorian
Number of Pages: 303

There is just something entrancing about this author’s Malcolm and Ives families. She has based several series upon the combination of families and every one of them is bewitching. 😊 I am not normally a fan of paranormal anything, but each Malcolm and Ives series has mesmerized me. 😊 This is the final (I believe) book in the School of Magic series and it was a wonderful finale. While we didn’t spend time visiting all of the characters from the previous books in the series, we did get to learn what was going on with them. We did get to spend time with the lead characters from the previous book, Entrancing the Earl, and I loved getting to see how they were faring – especially since the leads in that book are the twin sister and best friend to the leads in this book.

Lady Isobel (Bell) Malcolm Ross is a countess in her own right. She also hears ghosts and faints whenever she is startled by anything. Her Scottish estate, Craigmore, is cash strapped because her profligate step-father laid waste to everything before she was old enough and smart enough to help her twin sister, Iona, deal with him. When the elder, prescient, Malcolm’s told her she was needed at Castle Yates, the Duke of Somersville’s estate she was happy for part of the news. The ladies couldn’t tell her why she was needed there, but there was a position available for her there as a steward. Bell wanted to earn her keep so she didn’t continue to drain her own estate. Almost as soon as she walked in the door, she learned why the elders sent her – there was a ghost who insisted Bell should help save her son, the current duke. Bell has no medical abilities, so how is she supposed to help save the duke. Unless … Is she like her sister Iona who has the ability to enhance her husband’s abilities? If so, whose abilities is she supposed to enhance?

Jasper Winchester, Marquess of Rainford (Rain), keeps himself under very tight control. It is a survival mechanism learned over the years because of his odd, loud, unusual, boisterous, eccentric family. After all, someone in the family had to have a level head and present a sane family face to the world. Rain has buried his feelings so deep he isn’t even aware they are there anymore. So, it is no wonder the world views him as icy, cold, and unfeeling. Rain is a healer, as is his father. However, there is a vast difference between the two – his father has a healing ability and Rain does not. His father is very ill, dying to tell the truth, and Rain can do nothing to save him. Not only that, if Rain doesn’t marry prior to his father’s death, the estate will be split – Rain will have the title and entailed estates, but his cousin Teddy will receive all of the money. With a close-knit family that wouldn’t be a problem, but Teddy is very immature and would plow through the family money in no time. Even if Rain marries today – which he can’t do because his fiancé ran away with his steward – he still has to produce an heir within five years or the money will still go to Teddy.

Rain craves peace, quiet, and tranquility. Bell craves peace, quiet, and tranquility. Neither of them is finding it with Rain’s ghostly grandmother haunting the Castle, trying to possess Bell, and insisting she help save the Duke. Will Rain and Bell be able to save the Duke, appease Rain’s grandmother, and find their HEA amidst the chaos that is Castle Yates? You’ll just have to read this wonderfully well-written, well-researched, witty, and romantic book to find out.

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

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The Price of Glory by Caroline Warfield

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The Price of GloryBarbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: None Attributed
Publication Date: 7/7/21
Period: January 1839 – Egypt
Number of Pages: 248

This author’s impeccable research, excellent writing, and vibrant descriptions of the locales always reach out and pull me right out of my comfort zone. My normal reads are located in Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland and Warfield sets her stories anywhere except those places. The topics are rarely comfortable and cover everything from the opium trade in China to the treatment of wives in Egypt. She doesn’t sugarcoat the lives lived in that time and place, but she isn’t in-your-face explicit either. With the horrors and intrigue going on around our intrepid couple, Warfield still manages to create a romance and a HEA.

Richard Mallet, nephew to the Duke of Sudbury (who happens to be the Ambassador to Egypt) is a scholar. He’s never dreamed of being anything other than a scholar and now his long-held dream of visiting the tombs in Egypt to find enough examples of Meroitic script to allow him to decipher it is almost within his grasp. No one has ever been able to decipher it – there is no Rosetta Stone equivalent to make interpretation any easier. All he needs is the appropriate permits, but since he is sponsored by his uncle, he’s sure he’ll receive the proper authorizations. Maybe… There is a lot of political plots going on and he’ll have to be very careful how he negotiates that territory.

As Richard is headed into the alleyways of Cairo, he comes across a disturbance. There is a very small, feisty, woman, in Arabic dress, who is going nose-to-nose with a much larger man. Richard prepares to step in to defend her but finds she has the situation under control. What an impressive woman to find in a country where women are property to be locked totally away from the world as one of a man’s several wives. He hears the word ‘hakima’ and he knows that means she is a healer. It turns out the Pasha wants to create a good health-care system for his country – well – what he wants to create is a healthy army and he’s been convinced that the way to keep his soldiers healthy is to also keep their families healthy. The woman Richard has just seen is there to inoculate the women and children of the household against smallpox.

Analiese Cloutier is a hakima, and it is the one thing that defines her as a person. Her work is the most important thing in her life and she has absolutely no intention of becoming a possession of any man. She will not marry but will stay in Egypt and continue to heal the sick women and children of the country. Her father, Cloutier Bey, is the Health Minister of Egypt even though both he and his daughter are French. He created the Hakima program and only reluctantly allowed his daughter to participate. However, now that he has allowed it, she is going at it full force – even though he wants her to marry and become a ‘proper; wife.

Analise and Richard were each intrigued by the other – and when they ended up in the same travel party headed to Nubia, they became even more intrigued. Friends only, each decided, because neither intended to marry as they were both intending to devote themselves to their work. Danger, intrigue, and plots abound in Nubia. Both Richard and Analise are in extreme danger and have to flee for their lives. Their camel-back trip across Egypt brings them closer and closer to each other.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I hope you will as well. I gave a 4-star rating because of Analiese’s character and not the story content. I loved Richard and his uncle as well as Richard’s guide Ahmed – they were richly formed and I just knew I’d love them if I could meet them. I detested Analiese’s father – as I was supposed to. However, what was unexpected was that I really didn’t care for Analiese. I love a strong, level-headed, wise, intelligent heroine, but I felt Analiese was more stubborn, pig-headed, and I-am-always-right, than she was strong and level-headed. It didn’t matter what was said, if a man said it, she took exception to it because they were telling her what to do. She was foolhardy to the maximum and her stubborn insistence on doing exactly what she wanted to do caused the death of a favorite character. She mourned him, to a degree, but she was never consumed with guilt – and didn’t appear to change her attitude at all. I found it a bit hard to believe Richard would love her.

Anyway – It is an engrossing, suspenseful, well-told tale and I hope you’ll give it a try.

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

View all my reviews