To Tame a Scandalous Lady by Liana De La Rosa

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

To Tame a Scandalous Lady (Once Upon A Scandal, #3)To Tame a Scandalous Lady by Liana De la Rosa

Tracy’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: Once Upon A Scandal #3

Release Date: October 21, 2019

Lady Flora Campbell, the youngest daughter of the Duke of Kilmorow, is visiting with her sister Juliana, the Duchess of Ashwood and drops a bombshell – she wants to take a job as an assistant trainer at the renown horse farm Amstead Gardens and work under the Marquess of Amstead – one of the best trainers in England. Flora’s dream is not to marry and have children, but to run a successful horse farm. She is aware of the risks to not only her reputation, but her families, but for her, the benefit outweighs the risk. So she disguises herself as a man and takes a chance.

3 months later, Christian Andrews, Marquess of Amstead is finally back at Amstead Gardens and ready to dive into training his new stallion, Asad. After a devastating fire that killed his father, Christian learned the extended of his father’s debt. In an effort to raise funds, he is holding a house party to attracted investors, one of whom is a former lover, who wants to rekindle their affair. In an effort to escape her, Christian goes to the stables, hoping to find his trainer Baniti Mubarak and get caught up with the progress of Asad. In the stables he runs into the assistant trainer – William Grant and immediately thinks that he is very “pretty”, but Baniti has nothing but good things to say and once he sees Will with the horses, he knows “he” has a gift.

Flora is immediately attracted but needs to stay focused. They spend a lot of time together and it isn’t long before he discovers her secret and they become lovers. But Flora hasn’t shared all her secrets and when the truth is revealed, Christian is hurt and angry. But Flora will not give up her dream, not even for love.

I didn’t really care for this book, the writing was great, but the story itself didn’t really capture my attention, first, there is A LOT of horse training, in fact most of the book is about horses, which just aren’t my “thing”. I probably could have overlooked that, but I found myself really disliking Flora, I thought she was incredibly selfish and the fact that she acknowledges it at the end didn’t endear her to me, it just make me dislike her all the more. Yes, Christian made some stupid comments and decrees, but for the most part, I felt like he was the victim, but he had to do most of the compromising in the end and Flora basically got to call all the shots and got her way without having to give up anything, even though she was the cause of all the trouble. I read the two previous books in the series and loved them and while I find no fault in the writing, I just didn’t like Flora and the story was just not my cuppa. This is the third book in the series, but it can easily be read as a stand-alone.

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

Penny For Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Interwar Period (Nov 1918 - Sep 1939)Leave a comment

Penny for Your Secrets (Verity Kent, #3)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Verity Kent #3
Publication Date: 10/29/19
Number of Pages: 336

The period just after World War I is a frenetic time. Everybody seemed to be struggling with survivors guilt and deep, deep sorrow – they all probably knew more people who had died than who had lived. The times were stressful with the soldiers returning home and trying to resurrect some semblance of a normal life and the women who had flocked into the workforce to fill the gaps left by the men being forced out of jobs they had not only filled but excelled at. Is it any wonder that everybody turned to the clubs and dancing and drinking to fill the hours and avoid the pain.

Verity and Sidney Kent are two of those frenetic people trying to get past the guilt of surviving. Sidney is particularly hard hit because he feels so very much guilt – I won’t tell you a lot about it, but you’ll learn when you read the story. As we know from the first two books in the series, Sidney was declared dead and was left in a ditch. Somehow, he managed to survive and went into hiding in order to uncover a nest of viperous traitors. In the meantime, Verity was mourning him deeply and burying her sorrows in drink. She’d worked for the Secret Service during the war and was about as shell-shocked as Sidney. In the first book, This Side of Murder, Verity was drawn into a case where she discovered Sidney was still alive. Now, Verity and Sidney are slowly trying to patch up their marriage and make things work between them.

Verity and Sidney spent a very tense evening at the home of Verity’s friend Ada and her husband, the Marquess of Rockham. Everyone could tell that Ada and her husband had been at odds with each other and neither behaved very well. Verity and Sidney left early, only to be awoken by Ada requesting them to come right away because Rockham had been shot. Verity is sure that her friend can’t be the guilty party, but the police seem to be heading in that direction. Verity can’t do anything else, so she starts to investigate on her own – well – with Sidney.

Not long after Ada comes to Verity, another friend, Irene Shaw, comes to Verity about the death of her half-sister. The police are treating her sister’s death as if it was the result of a robbery, but Irene doesn’t believe that because nothing was taken.

As Verity and Sidney investigate the two cases, they soon come to suspect they might be related – but how and who or what is the common denominator. Their investigations take them back to France and on to the Isle of Wight – and introduces a master manipulator who will probably be a villain in a few future books at least. I hope not too many because I really don’t like him and I want him gone.

The story is masterfully written and the research is impeccable. From the first page, the reader is drawn into that time and place and doesn’t leave until hours after the last page has been read. The story is so compelling that you feel those repressed emotions, the grief, the guilt that Sidney and the other survivors feel. You also feel Verity’s anxiety for Sidney when he constantly closes her out and won’t talk.

I can definitely recommend this well-written, well-researched story.

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