Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Everton Domestic Society #4
Publication Date: 11/19/19
Number of Pages: 223

This was an adventurous, exciting addition to the Everton Domestic Society series. It also has the most wonderful, romantic, dedicated, honest, steadfast and loyal hero I’ve read in a long time. We should all have a Jacques in our lives – I mean, he always calls Diana his Goddess! I liked Diana too – she was smart (very smart), beautiful and running for her life. She’s about as resilient as one lady can be, so you can’t help but admire her. I think this is my favorite book in the series.

We meet a new group in this book, and they really impressed me. I’d love to see a series featuring them and some of their exploits. The group is the Buckrose Horsemen – sort of a takeoff on the apocalyptic Horsemen. They all attended the Buckrose School for Boys and were recruited by the Crown to form a group that would work on behalf of England. This group rescued Jacques from France just before he’d been scheduled for the guillotine.

We get a lovely visit with Millie (A Lady’s Escape) and her hero Preston – along with her eccentric uncle Francis who we all learned to love in Millie’s book. I really liked Preston in this book – he was a wonderfully loyal friend to Jacques.

Jacques, who has just managed to rescue his parents from France, is traveling to London for a meeting when he comes across a woman traveling on foot in the dead of winter – during a storm. At first, he isn’t sure if she is a highwaywoman out to rob him or just a frightened woman. Whatever the case, he knows he cannot leave her on the road to die. As they travel – and have to stop at an inn to get out of the worsening storm – he tries to get to know her better. What he does (and doesn’t) learn intrigues him.

Diana is running for her life. Two governments are after her – one thinks she is a traitor and the other wants to imprison her and force her to work for them. Everybody she loves has been tortured and killed and she cannot afford to get close to anyone – ever again. She can’t live with more people who care about her dying. So, when she feels drawn to the kind and caring man who has offered her sanctuary on a cold and lonely road into London, she knows she must stay away from him. She asks him to drop her off at some very public places, but his conscience won’t let him do that. He persuades her to let him take her to the Everton Domestic Society where she can seek employment or just rest up while she decides where to go and what to do.

We all know that Diana and Jacques meet again – and things blossom – even though neither of them is prepared for a relationship. Things get really exciting and tense when the bad guys start closing in. Diana and Jacques are thrown together more and more often and, of course, love blossoms in a very difficult situation. I love how they came together.

This could have been a 5-star read for me had the author not mentioned whiskey so many times. Whiskey wasn’t readily available in England in that period. If they had it, it was illegally made in Scotland (spelled Whisky) or Ireland (spelled Whiskey). As punishment for the Irish and Scot rebellion against the Crown, extreme, exorbitant taxes were imposed on the production of whiskey and on the distilling equipment to make it. Since the upper classes tended to view the Scots and Irish as barbaric, few would have made any effort or paid the price to have it. Whiskey didn’t become a staple in England until the Victorian period.

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

A Lady’s Virtue by A.S. Fenichel

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Everton Domestic Society #3
Publication Date: 3/19/19
# of Pages: 208

This is an enjoyable addition to the Everton Domestic Society series. Everton is an employment agency of sorts. They provide ladies to perform tasks such as introducing a debutant to society, planning events, matchmaking, etc. for their clients. All of the proprieties are met and the ladies are provided with chaperones, transportation, etc. during the performance of their tasks. They also live at Everton House.

Sylvia Dowder had spent five years of her life being courted by and betrothed to Hunter Gautier. A month before her wedding, Hunter inherited the title of Viscount March and promptly ended the betrothal – because Sylvia wasn’t lofty enough in society to be a Viscountess. Between that punch to the gut and her mother’s constant belittlement and preaching about the perfidies of the male of the species, Sylvia knew she couldn’t/wouldn’t marry. She also decided that she couldn’t live with her mother’s constant belittlement any longer and applied to become an Everton Lady.

Anthony Braighton was rocking along in his life quite happily until his much-loved cousin died and Anthony inherited the title – Earl of Grafton. Tony didn’t want to be an earl and he certainly doesn’t want to marry as his mother is constantly prodding him to do. He can’t do anything about the title, but he can show his mother that he is perfectly capable of meeting his obligations without marrying. He’ll just hire an Everton Lady to plan several social events and at their successful completion, his mother will understand that he doesn’t need a wife.

There is an immediate attraction between Tony and his Everton Lady, Sylvia. However, neither of them want to admit it – and neither wants to act on it. Tony is quicker to ‘give in’ and admit he wants Sylvia than she is. The road to gain her trust is not an easy one – and until about the last chapter in the book you don’t see how they are going to get to their HEA.

I never did come to understand Tony’s aversion to marriage. His parents had a happy and loving marriage as does his sister and a number of his friends. I can understand any young man not wanting to marry but Tony was adamant – because he had things he wanted to do. I did understand Sylvia’s aversion. She’d suffered what I guess would be mental abuse her entire life. She was constantly told how bad men were, how they used women, etc. – and then with her engagement being broken as it was, she was totally convinced.

I’m not sure what it is with authors and alliteration in character names, but this book is another example – we have Sylvia, Serena, and Sophia. For this reader, that is usually a distraction because I’m constantly having to stop and remember which character is which. For some reason, that wasn’t an issue this time.

While I enjoyed the read, there were some inaccuracies and the use of more modern words – like okay. Tony talks about not accepting the title, giving up the title, etc. and that just wasn’t possible. The only way to get rid of the title was to die or be a traitor. Even the King couldn’t take the title away.

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