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 Pocketful of Diamonds by Pam Lecky

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Part of a Series, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

A Pocketful of Diamonds (The Lucy Lawrence Mysteries #4)

Barbara’s rating: 4 out of 5
Series: The Lucy Lawrence Mysteries #4
Publication Date: 9/17/24
Period: Victorian – Lake Como, Italy 1888
Number of Pages: 323

This book was the perfect ending for the series. The mystery was multi-faceted, nuanced, and filled with red herrings and the personal relationships were absolutely lovely. I read the first book of the series and loved the characters and the mystery, but then I didn’t get a chance to read the other two books before this current one was here. Goodness! A lot has happened to/with Lucy and Phin since that first book and now I have to go back and read the missing books.

Lucy Lawrence and Phineas (Phin) Stone have just married and are ready to set off on their wedding trip when they get word from Phin’s sister, Elvira, Contessa Carmosina, that her husband, Luca, is missing. Luca has been missing several days and everyone fears the worst for the beloved young Conte.

Lucy and Phin will face their greatest dangers yet in the beautiful, idyllic setting of Lake Como. They quickly discover that they cannot rely on anyone because none, other than Elvira and their personal servants, can be trusted. There are dark undercurrents in the Lake Como area and some very ugly people who don’t want the Conte to survive and they’ll do anything to keep anyone else from learning those dark secrets. You will find yourself suspecting everyone and picturing all the scenarios to see if it was this person or that person. Then, you rapidly read to see where the author chose to take the tale. It is a book that involves all of you, body, mind, and heart in the story and it will not turn loose of any of those very quickly.

A beautifully written epilogue perfectly closes out the series for Lucy and Phin. It is a lovely, poignant, caring piece of the story and you will find yourself letting out a very satisfied sigh. My only problem with the book was that it painted too vivid a picture of Luca and made the reader come to really care for him, Elvira, and their family. It was hard to concentrate on solving the mystery when so much heartache was involved. So, in the end, when Lucy and Phin were celebrating all of their joys, I was thinking of Elvira, Luca, and the children whose lives were forever changed.

This was an excellently written story. If you love a complicated mystery and deeply involved emotional and romantic interests, then you will enjoy this book—and the series.

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

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The Heiress Masquerade by Maddison Michaels

On By TracyIn America's Gilded Age (1870-1900), Part of a Series, Tracy's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

The Heiress Masquerade (Dollar Princess, 2)The Heiress Masquerade by Maddison Michaels

Tracy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Dollar Princess, #2

Release Date: August 20, 2024

Aimee Thornton-Jones, the only child of American shipping magnate Thomas Thornton-Jones, wants nothing more than to be allowed to work in her father’s company, to prove to him that she one day she should inherit and run his business, unfortunately her parents have a different plan for her. They expect her to marry and become a proper wife and mother. To achieve that goal, they have planned a trip to England for Aimee and her cousin/companion Evie, Aimee will participate in the London season and Evie will train as a secretary in her father’s London office. But weeks before their trip, Aimee’s mother breaks her leg, which means she will not be able to accompany the girls to England, but rather than cancel the trip, her mother decides that her cousin Evie is an adequate chaperone for the sea journey. Which gives Aimee the perfect opportunity to implement her scheme, she will switch places with her cousin and train at her father’s business while Evie will pretend to be her in society. Aimee will learn the business and be able to prove to her father that she is capable of running his company one day. She has planned for everything except for her unwanted attraction to her father’s protégée and operations manager for his London offices, Harrison Stone.

Harrison Stone is a self-made man, who has but one goal in life and that is to prove to his father’s family that he doesn’t need them to succeed. And after years of hard work, he is one deal away from making all his dreams come true, everything is going as planned until his boss’s niece shows up and affects him like no woman ever has. But Evie is nothing like the woman Thomas described, and it isn’t long before he figures out the truth. She is a distraction he doesn’t want or need, and he would love to ship her back to New York, but he needs her help to save his deal from falling through. He just needs to keep his hands (and other bits) to himself and keep his eye on the prize, because love is not for him. But even the disciplined Harrison Stone is not immune to love and decides that marriage to Aimee is the perfect solution, too bad Aimee isn’t willing to play by his terms.

This was a well-written, fast paced story with likable characters that is its own story and not simply a different POV retelling of the first book despite the parallel timeline. Aimee and Harrison are both stubborn, intelligent, alpha types who are both resistant to love and whose headbutting is only exceeded by their shared passion. This story has a decent mystery, great secondary characters, espionage, hidden identities, secrets, steamyish love scenes, some surprises, some twists, and turns before the HEA. Overall, I enjoyed the book even though I was not a huge fan of the ending, but I did like the epilogue and hope that the teaser contained therein means that this series is not over! This is the second book in the series, but it could easily be read as a standalone title or out of order, as the two books run parallel but barely intersect.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own. *