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

A Lady’s Formula For Love by Elizabeth Everett

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

A Lady's Formula for Love (The Secret Scientists of London, #1)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Secret Scientists of London #1
Publication Date: 2/9/21
Number of Pages: 336

Elizabeth Everett’s debut novel is a delightfully witty, humorous, romantic, and exciting story filled with lovable characters who will quickly capture your heart. The story is excellently crafted and well-plotted without being predictable.

After her husband died, Lady Violet Hughes was a shadow of the vibrant, fun-loving, brilliant young lady she had been before her marriage. After years of abuse to her self-esteem, she had shrunk into herself. Her dream now that she’s a widow has been to create a retreat, Athena’s Retreat, where other women like herself can be themselves – without the censure of unsupportive spouses and family. These are all brilliant ladies who engage in studies in every scientific field imaginable – botany, chemistry, paleontology, biology – just to name a few. Lady Violet has sunk a considerable chunk of her fortune into creating that retreat and now she needs to gain at least a moderate acceptance from the ton in order to make it acceptable for ladies to become members. Of course, the public face of Athena’s Retreat will be benign and will not show the projects and experiments that are carried on in the non-public areas.

Arthur Kneland is an ultra-elite bodyguard who has just retired from a special branch of the Queen’s service. He has guarded and protected everybody from foreign despots to villains to – well, you name it – all in the name of the Crown. He’s been stabbed, shot, and almost anything else and he is still mostly in one piece and retiring. He’s only had one failure in his service to the Crown and that was his very first case as a very green 18-year-old. That case still haunts him and caused him to exile himself from England for twenty years. Now, he’s back and looking to find a farm to call home – right after he takes this one private case for a good friend – Lord Greycliff. Grey wants him to provide protection for his stepmother, Lady Violet Hughes, while she is working on a very important project for the Crown.

Arthur certainly has his work cut out for him when he finds himself surrounded by quirky, brilliant, secretive ladies who don’t quite trust him – or anyone else for that matter. Their explosive experiments cause him much alarm – especially when there are explosions happening that are far from benign. Lady Violet will not believe that one of her ladies could be involved in a plot against her and therefore is always putting herself in danger. Arthur himself is in danger as well – at least his heart is. Despite his considerable strength of will, he finds himself more and more drawn to Lady Violet – and she appears to be drawn to him as well.

Can a Scottish farmer’s son and an English lady find their HEA? Is the villain of the piece one of Lady Violet’s ladies? Or, is the villain Adam Winters, the violent leader of the violent rebel group Omnium Democratia? Or, is the villain Violet’s suitor, Earl Grantham? Or – someone else entirely? You’ll just have to read this delightful book to find out.

This was a great, fun-to-read mystery, but the ending left just a little to be desired. I’m sure this is a personal preference, but it is important to me as a reader. I want the romance to be totally complete in the book. I really dislike it when the book ends with the proposal and acceptance. I always want a wedding and some follow-up from that. An epilogue is absolutely one of my favorites. In this one, I would have LOVED to see their wedding and a scene from several months down-the-road when he receives his ‘honors’. I’d like to know what those honors were. Was he granted a title – maybe a Baron or something? Did he just get medals or was it more substantial? For me, it just felt a bit unfinished because I had too many questions. Therefore, I’ve given it a 4-star rating.

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

The Heiress Gets A Duke by Harper St. George #Release Day Blitz

On By TracyIn America's Gilded Age (1870-1900), Blog Tour, Book Publicity, Tracy's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

The Heiress Gets a Duke (The Gilded Age Heiresses, #1)The Heiress Gets a Duke by Harper St. George

Tracy’s rating: 3.5/4 of 5 stars

Series: The Gilded Age Heiresses, #1

Release Date: January 26, 2021

August Crenshaw is not your average young woman; she is smart, savvy, and deeply involved in her father’s business ventures and has no plans to stop working or change her ways to please a man. She plans to marry someday, but on her own terms. So, after watching her friend Camille forced into marriage with the Duke of Hereford, August thanked her lucky stars that her parents would never do such a thing to her or her sister Violet. But when they travel to London to visit Camille, August is horrified to learn that her parents are planning to marry Violet off to the penniless Duke of Rothschild. She is still reeling when later, she sneaks out with Camille to watch a prizefight and ends up kissing one of the fighters.

Evan Sterling, the Duke of Rothschild has inherited a mountain of debt and a failing estate, he has tried over the last year to sort things out, but it is clear that he is in over his head and must marry an heiress to save his tenants and his family from ruin. When his mother has suggested he marry Miss Crenshaw, he recalls the kiss he coaxed out of her at his fight and agrees to meet her. But to his dismay, she is not the Miss Crenshaw he wants. A thought that is further cemented when August takes him to task and warns him away from Violet by threatening to expose his fighting to society – he decides then and there – August is the one that he wants!

August is shocked to learn that her parents expect her to marry him and make it clear that if she doesn’t, she will no longer have a job in the business. But sadly, her father also makes it clear that if she marries Evan, she will not have a job either – so August is understandably angry and tries to thwart Evan at every turn – but her efforts only make him more determined to marry her! They finally make an agreement and he promised to release her from the betrothal if she will come to his estate and let him court her for a week. A HEA seems like it might be possible, but a shocking twist and some misunderstanding make things much, much harder.

I loved this book right up to the 90% mark and then it came very close to being a wall-banger for me. I thought the book was well written and paced nicely, I liked the storyline and even though I found August a bit abrasive and at times annoying, I felt her pain and anger, likewise, I felt Evan’s desperation and feelings of failure and loss. They were both great characters and I loved the banter between them, and the undeniable chemistry – this book was a five-star read until the end ruined it for me – the ending sucked – the book that had been nicely paced up until this point went into hyperdrive with TWO misunderstandings, followed by a quick resolution and then BOOM! it was over – not even an epilogue to let the reader get a little taste of their HEA – it was disappointing. This is the first book in a new series and despite my disappointment with this book’s ending – I did enjoy most of the book and will certainly be looking forward to the next installment.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher. *