Escape to a beautiful Italian island with this wonderfully romantic story, threaded with secrets and intrigue.
It’s time to return to Ischia…
Alessia knows her grandmother grew up on the beautiful Italian island off the coast from Naples. But Ornella seldom talks about her life there – or why she never went back.
So Alessia is amazed when Ornella reveals that, in the months before she left Ischia, she had worked on the set of a famous 1950s movie filmed on the island. Is there a link between the film set and the tragic death of Ornella’s teenage sister? Ornella has kept her past – and the heart-wrenching promise she made – a secret for over sixty years. She has tried not to think about the love she gave up. But now, perhaps the truth should finally be revealed…
Travelling to Ischia together, Alessia falls in love with the utterly captivating island. Meeting handsome journalist Roberto helps her dig deeper into her family’s past, too. Just what happened to Ornella’s sister? What heart-wrenching secret is her grandmother hiding?
This summer, can Alessia and Ornella put the past to rest and find the happy ending they both deserve?
A wonderfully escapist, romantic and compelling story of secrets and sacrifice, love and loyalty, that is perfect for fans of Karen Swan, Louise Douglas and Rosanna Ley.
Victoria Springfield writes contemporary ‘wish you were here’ evocative women’s fiction set in Italy. Her feel-good books follow unforgettable characters of all ages as they deal with love, loss, friendship and family secrets. Readers can feel the sunshine!
Facebook: VictoriaSpringfieldAuthor
Twitter: @VictoriaSwrites
Instagram: @victoriaswrites
My thoughts: This was a lovely, sun drenched read, perfect for chilly January, although it would work pretty much any time!
Ornella never talks about her past, or why she and her husband left Ischia to move to the UK when they did, so her apparently sudden decision to open up and then to return takes granddaughter Alessia by surprise. Triggered by the death of an Italian film star, Ornella’s story takes us back to the 1950s full of glamour and tragedy.
In the present day Alessia and journalist Roberto delve into the events of that past, searching for answers, the stories don’t add up and there has to be more to it. A tragic event throws their investigation into relief as history seems to be repeating itself, but can something good come from so much sadness?
Romantic and sweeping, with the Mediterranean glistening in the background, this little island has a story to tell. Inspired by the truly glamorous film stars who once graced Italy’s southern coast and its unique history, this transported me to the warm glow of an Italian summer. Marvellous.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
It is 1597 and Kit Skevy and Mariner Elgin have just robbed the wrong grave.
They are young criminals in the pocket of a gang Lord named Will Twentyman, the Grave Eorl of Southwark. Mariner is the best cutpurse around, a strange Calvinist girl who dresses like a boy and is partner in crime to Kit Skevy, Southwark’s best brawler who carries a secret: he cannot feel pain.
When caught out in their unfortunate larceny, Kit is kidnapped by the menacing alchemist Lord Isherwood (a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his hopes for the Red Lion elixir) and his studious son, Lazarus Isherwood, with whom Kit develops a complicated intrigue. When Mariner enlists the help of a competing French alchemist, Lady Elody Blackwater, Mariner and Kit are thrust into the shadowed, political world of Tudor alchemy, testing both their friendship and their lives.
It matters not who you are born to… but where you are made!
Emma Hinds has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of St Andrews and has settled in Manchester, where she is a Queer playwright and Novelist. Her work focuses on telling untold feminist narratives. Her latest play, PURE, was featured in Turn On festival at Hope Mill Theatre Manchester in 2021 and she was the recipient of the Artist Development grant 2021 at Hope Mill Theatre. Emma’s debut novel, The Knowing (Bedford Square) was published January 2024 and is an exploration of female trauma in the vivid and cruel world of the Victorian freak show. This thrilling historical fiction title swiftly became a Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of The Month. She has written a few previous non-fiction books in her capacity as an academic (in another life she was a theologian) with an essay published, Tarantino and Theology; with Gray Matter Books and her book, Ineffable Love: Christian Themes in Good Omens; published by Darton Longman Todd.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this historical fiction adventure set in Elizabethan England (the first Queen Lizzy, not the more recent one!), mostly in the wild and infamous Liberty of Southwark, where theatres, inns, bear pits and brothels flourished away from the rules and influence of the City and the court.
Kit and Mariner work for the rather nasty Twentyman, a crime lord of sorts, and have been sent to dig up a corpse for a mysterious alchemist, then all Hell breaks loose in the graveyard and Kit is kidnapped.
Both young and more or less alone in the world, Kit and Mariner are not as they first appear, beneath their clothes are secrets, Mariner may look like a boy, dress like one too, but is in fact female, although she was raised as a boy by her uncle aboard ship. Kit is slightly more complicated and that’s the reason he’s been taken. Mariner determines to rescue him and the two are drawn into dark plots and schemes by a pair of dangerous nobles.
I loved Mariner, her boldness, her courage, her fierce love of Kit, even in the face of being forced to work in the brothel, although the woman who runs it for Twentyman doesn’t want her as one of her girls – too boyish.
Kit was fascinating as well, and somewhat more fantastical, as the story unfolds. Rescued from a past he can’t remember, raised by the gentle Griffin, who produces special effects for the theatres, and his sister Squire Kay, he might not be able to grow a beard yet, but he is impulsive, bold, clever and extraordinary.
Their adventures lead them close to death at times and into the finest houses and palaces in the land, not bad for two scruffy thieves from Southwark. They both get their hearts broken and fall apart, but finding their way back to each other, to the bond they share, offers hope of a better life, a life they dreamt of. Marvellous stuff.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
French Huguenot Anastasia believes working in one of Sinai’s mirror factories will allow her to trap the imaginary Arctic fox which lives in her womb.
Whilst Jack escapes from London to Sinai to avoid being conscripted to fight in the trenches with strange imaginings that do little to alleviate his feelings of cowardice. Jack is captivated by Anastasia, seized with a fierce desire to possess her from the first second, and nothing can diminish his obsessive urge to be noticed by her, not even her obvious disgust in the face of his crude advances.
Their journeys twist together like a fugue, filled with phantasmagorical delays, as they both fail to accomplish what they set out to do. Unable to escape the consequences of their false beliefs, relentlessly they approach the brink, and eventual schizophrenia, on a quest for moral truths.
This book is a revelatory, hallucinatory account of the growing insanity of two young people who happen to be in the same place at the same time.
M Laszlo lives as a recluse in Bath, Ohio. Rumour holds that he derived his pseudonym from the Victor Laszlo character in the classic film Casablanca. M Laszlo’s works are written in strict form but contain a great deal of symbolism and/or objective correlative. This is because each work is intended to illustrate the eternal or Socratic truths that make up the human experience.
My thoughts: There is a trippy, dream-like quality to this book, which reflects the way Jack and Anastasia’s minds weave their reality around their imaginings. Anastasia is mourning her mother, her loneliness and grief bringing a childhood phantom – the Arctic fox spirit she believes lives inside her – back. Jack has been sent away by his father to escape conscription. It is 1917, and the First World War rages across Europe.
In Sinai, Egypt, both troubled young people meet amidst a clash of cultures and religions, reeling from the strangeness of the time and place. Jack composes music in his head, strange discordant pieces that reflect his loose grip on reality. Anastasia seeks relief from the cruel fox within her, desperate to force it out and away from her.
As they travel and attempt to work out their troubling mental health crises, they cross paths with others and each other but can not help one another as they can not truly help themselves. A strange journey into the desert and to England, seeking always answers to soothe their troubled minds.
Not always the easiest book to read and hard to place yourself in the shoes of the protagonists in a time before mental illness and grief were better understood (though it’s still not perfect), this odyssey that Jack and Anastasia undertake is moving and tragic, the help they both seek is not within reach.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Wanton Troopers is a historical romance set in the tumultuous aftermath of the English Civil War. The action unfolds in the cloud-wracked autumn of 1645 as the defeated Royalist Hugh Malahide returns to his Uncle’s impoverished estate in need of sanctuary; “He had half expected warmth at last and blessings, had them stored up as miser’s gain. But he had already been upstaged. The tableau that greeted him was not of upflung arms and welcome, but of a medical emergency in front of him, centred on a writhing, groaning heap of bloodied old clothes there on the floor of his uncle’s hallway.”
The ‘groaning heap’ is Tom Fentiman, a figure who will drag the hero, Hugh, into a whirlwind adventure of danger and betrayal, and into the path of the beautiful Isabella, daughter of his Parliamentarian rival, with whom romance and a happy life seems an impossibility, but one he does not resist.
Can this defeated Royalist reject the siren song of King Charles’s lost cause, and survive? Only armed by force of character and a charm-the-birds smile, Hugh sets about seduction, burglary and defying Fate.
Author Lindsey Erith’s background as a portrait artist provides the canvas on which her characters are displayed. Her keen interest in human nature creates protagonists and antagonists who live with her readers. The puritanical Fentiman comes to life on the page; “His nose was high, his visage hewn from good quality rock. A swag of jowls had started to sag off the square jaw onto blindingly white neck linen.”
Action and suspense whip the story along at a galloping pace. There is shocking betrayal, theft, kidnapping and rebellion; “Isabella saw human gargoyles up on the tower: mutineers with matchlocks, pointing long barrels. Their intentions were not innocent. Below in the square a prone figure lay in a spreading pool of blood.”
The romance is equally exhilarating as Hugh and Isabella attempt to resist their forbidden attraction; “Every hair on the back of Isabella’s neck curled, she held his hand against her face. The barrier was gone, he breathed and gathered her against him, she sighed and raised her mouth, giving, so the little room they were in hummed about him…”
A happy vein of humour also runs through the pages. The angry Fentiman’s whisper gains, “a head of steam like a kettle and rising in pitch.” And the disappointed Hugh, “felt like a tomcat whose fur has been rubbed the wrong way…”
Wanton Troopers takes us to a bygone era full of daring, greed, ambition and danger. Her characters aren’t cardboard cutouts. Each personality and their inner motives are delivered with the care and enjoyment of a masterful portrait. These heroes aren’t perfect, they are all too human, which makes them irresistible. The central character exudes determination, honour and fairness. Readers will cheer for him and fear for him until the very end.
Lindsey Erith was born in Reigate, the daughter of the photographer John Erith. She survived a girls’ public school and coming to terms with severe health problems before achieving a graphics Diploma. This gave her an entry to portraiture and strengthened her keen interest in character and likeness. Woven throughout her life has been an abiding passion for music, reflected in the poetic rhythm of her original writing style.
Her love of music led to the love of her life and a Valentine’s Day happy marriage to the distinguished classical music producer John Boyden, whose unwavering belief in her encouraged her to submit her first book for publication. Wanton Troopers, her new book, is written in the same style and period as Mary Florida. Each ‘Royalist Romance’ explores the heights of love and longing in the tumultuous aftermath of the English Civil War.
My thoughts: Hugh Malahide returns to his uncle’s house after the crushing defeat of the Royalists at Naseby, during the English Civil War, when it becomes clear that Scottish reinforcements are not coming. He’s lucky to get away, luckier than Tom Fentiman, son of his uncle’s neighbour, who has been shot.
Riding to his father’s house to warn them that Tom might die, he meets Isabella, Tom’s sister, who hurries to her brother, and their ghastly, greedy father, who has told people that Tom was dead. He’s a real charmer, intent on selling Isabella into marriage in exchange for land and money. With Hugh and Tom’s help she escapes one such entanglement and she and Hugh fall for one another – unfortunately he’s already married, although estranged from his wife, and so must fight the attraction.
He also needs to help his beloved uncle who is about to lose everything as a poor harvest and heavy taxes (to pay for the war) have left his tenants unable to pay their rents. But Hugh is clever and capable, getting into all sorts of scrapes and adventures as he waits to see whether the tide will turn for Charles I and restore the throne or not.
There’s lots of clever little historical references which set the time and place perfectly, like the many nicknames Royalists had for Oliver Cromwell, the burning of Basing House, the last Royalist stronghold, and the way that Parliamentarians and Royalists viewed each other, easy to identify from their very different clothing.
This was a really enjoyable book, if I’m honest I don’t read many books set during the Civil War (although Children of the New Forest was a favourite growing up) and usually prefer non-fiction (The Siege of Loyalty House about Basing House was very good) but I really liked this, I thought Hugh and Isabella were great characters and Hugh’s various adventures in pursuit of saving his uncle’s home and protecting Isabella, were really interesting and entertaining. Uncle Josiah and the housekeeper Luisa were very sweet together and the ending was bittersweet, coming as it did with two deaths, one that set Hugh free, and one that broke his heart.
Highly recommend this to both historical fiction and romance fans.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for a review, but all opinions remain my own.
Holmes and Watson face treachery and danger in the latest full-length thriller by Bonnie MacBird, author of the bestselling Sherlock Holmes novel Art in the Blood.
Murder, jealousy, and deceit underscore three interlocking mysteries as Holmes and Watson take on a high profile case at Windsor Castle, a boy drowned in the Serpentine, and a crusading women’s rights activist who suspects a traitor in her organization. The cases send them into danger into locales as varied as the Palace itself, a dockland cannery, an arts and crafts atelier, and a Gypsy encampment. But is there peril underfoot as well – right at 221B Baker Street?
The twisting, breathlessly plotted conjoined mysteries that Bonnie MacBird is known for provide a thrill ride that will delight Sherlockians worldwide.
Born in San Francisco, educated at Stanford, Bonnie MacBird lives in London with her husband, computer scientist Alan Kay. A fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle since age ten, she’s active in the Sherlockian community in both the UK and the US, and lectures regularly on Sherlock Holmes, writing, and creativity. A longtime veteran of Hollywood, MacBird has been a screenwriter (original script for TRON), an Emmy winning producer, a playwright, studio exec (Universal) and actor.
MacBird attributes her enjoyment in capturing “voice” to both her acting and screenwriting experience and her music training as well. She teaches a popular screenwriting class at UCLA Extension, which approaches writing for film using techniques of other art forms.
In her Sherlock Holmes novels, she aims to accurately portray the brilliant detective and his friend as closely as possible to Doyle, yet expanding the original short-form fiction to full-length novels. ART IN THE BLOOD features a child who has disappeared, and a bloody art theft and touches on the theme of the perils and blessings of the artistic temperament. UNQUIET SPIRITS features a murdered girl, a threatened scientist, and a haunted whisky estate while reflecting on the dangers of not dealing with the ghosts of one’s past. THE DEVIL’S DUE brings Holmes to the edge of evil in order to combat a devilish serial killer. And THE THREE LOCKS involves magic, cutting-edge science at the Cavendish Laboratories at Cambridge, and a mysterious box which arrives at 221B and which defies all efforts to open it. WHAT CHILD IS THIS? provides a Christmas conundrum in which danger stalks two boys, both sought by their fathers, and the mysteries surrounding their identities.
My thoughts: I do enjoy additions to the Conan Doyle canon, especially when they’re well written and give us a similar voice for Dr Watson, as this does. It feels faithful to the original and to the many, many lives Holmes has lived since.
There’s several interwoven cases in this book, and quite a few snakes, including of the human kind. The title of course references Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and there is betrayal and treachery here too.
The tattoo laid across the face of a beautiful young woman, cruelly murdered, and dumped at Windsor Castle, where she was the companion of a cantankerous old Duchess, sees the crime solving duo invited expressly by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, to investigate, putting the police on the back foot.
Meanwhile an acquaintance of theirs brings them the news of the sorry death of one of the Baker Street Irregulars. He too has been killed. Do these deaths connect to one another?
Holmes picks up straight away on tensions within the young woman’s family, she’s practically estranged from her younger siblings, and their mother’s death twelve years before has a bearing on the cases he believes.
There are other deaths and kidnappings before Holmes holds all the pieces of this fiendish mystery together, with Watson at his side as they encounter Roma (referred to as Gypsies in the book in keeping with the period) who hold answers to several key elements to the sorry tale of death, revenge and greed.
Clever, filled with twists and turns that only Sherlock’s singular mind can unravel, this was an enjoyable and compelling read that Conan Doyle himself might have enjoyed (and yes, I know he hated Holmes).
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re celebrating the upcoming release of The Book Binder by C.A. Cordova. Read on for more details!
The Book Binder
Publication Date: December 6, 2024
Genre: Historical Fantasy
High Stakes
Exotic Locale
Forbidden Romance
Love Triangle
Choice is an illusion gifted by the gods.
Aria never expected to be a mistress, especially to the Pharaoh’s son.
But when she accidentally witnesses the poisoning of his cup and intervenes, he is intrigued. Even more so when he discovers that she can speak the betrayer’s language and many others.
Aria’s forbidden education as the daughter of a book binder makes her valuable, and she quickly becomes the prince’s obsession.
As she embraces her newfound power, she begins to question the rulings of the palace and uncovers a world of deception.
Is Aria destined to receive the spoils of the gods or will tragedy befall her?
The Book Binder is an epic adventure novel with elements of suspense and mystery. C.A. Cordova’s tale is woven with intense emotion, dire situations, and female cunning.
In London, 1666, drinking coffee can get you killed…
The case of Samuel Pepys’s missing pocket watch escalates rapidly when Eustace Blount, writer and wit, is found murdered in Rose’s Coffee House on The Strand.
Blount was a prig, a poseur and a parliamentarian – nobody liked him, not even his friends – and Pepys’s intrepid personal inquisitors, Abby Harcourt and Jacob Standish, find themselves with a suspect list as unwieldy as it is perplexing.
When their investigation leads to the nearby Gilded Bean coffee house, frequented by fervently royalist members of parliament, it becomes clear that a dangerous political game is afoot. Abby and Jacob face their most audacious challenge yet:
To break into Westminster Palace, at the very heart of English politics. The penalty, if discovered – is death.
Ellis Blackwood fell in love with the writings of Samuel Pepys, and the 17th-century England he inhabited, through the great man’s published diaries. The Samuel Pepys Mysteries are the result of that literary love affair.
My thoughts: I really like this series, it’s a lot of fun and brings the hubbub of 17th Century London to vivid life.
The coffee shops were a new concept and where the great and good (and not so good) would meet to talk, boast and scheme. They were male only spaces much of the time and Pepys would have been very familiar with them.
When Pepys asks his two inquisitors to locate his missing pocket watch, which he thinks may be in one of those very coffee shops, they stumble into murder and intrigue, just round the corner from Jacob’s house.
Abby as always, is quicker off the mark and starts to untangle the relationships between the coffee house denizens, the wits who spend their days writing pretty terrible poetry and the politicians who pontificate and squabble just round the corner.
The plot the pair discover threatens the King himself, Charles II, and the heart of government, much like the Gunpowder Plot that almost killed his grandfather.
Clever, entertaining and enjoyable, each installment of this series gets better and better.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Solving their own murders is the least of their problems…and the beginning of Stone & Steele, a reluctant yet surprisingly skilled investigative team.
The Golden Age of Hollywood, 1938. Vivian Steele moved to California to start a new life. She opened a fashion boutique in Beverly Hills, befriended Carole Lombard, the actress, and married a successful banker. But when her husband is murdered, Vivian discovers she isn’t the only one hiding a few secrets.
An anonymous phone call lures Vivian to a plush hotel room where she stumbles upon the dead body of a beautiful young actress – her husband’s mistress. To add fuel to the fire, she’s not alone.
Preston Stone, her adversary and Hollywood’s notorious playboy, is standing beside her. Suspiciously, they part ways only to find themselves alone again at a movie premiere two days later, and the message becomes brutally clear. They’re both the next targets of a cold-blooded killer.
Together, Vivian and Preston are thrown into a deadly race to find a missing collection of valuable coins and stop a vicious killer before they become the next murder victims. But first, they need to stop pointing their fingers at each other.
A Perilous Premiere is the first book in this exciting new 1930s Stone & Steele mystery series starring a great cast of characters ranging from the rich and famous to Bella, a Boston Terrier, her new friend, Boris, a Saint Bernard, and a few other endearing folks. (A pretty clean read)
Award-winning author Gail Meath writes historical romance novels that will whisk you away to another time and place in history where you will meet fascinating characters, both fictional and real, who will capture your heart and soul. Meath loves writing about little or unknown people, places and events in history, rather than relying on the typical stories and settings.
My thoughts: brand new series set in 1930s Hollywood, where our lead character is best friends with Carole Lombard (actress and wife of Clark Gable), and has an adorable canine sidekick? Yes please!
And bonus, it’s from the always enjoyable Gail Meath.
I loved Perilous Permiere, the setting, the characters, the investigation, the bickering between our two protagonists, the secrets and mystery that swirls round them. It was delicious.
I love classic Hollywood movies (Bringing Up Baby is my favourite) so this era is perfect for me. It’s a time of huge change, the Great Depression is finally drawing to an end, in Europe rumblings of war, and women are starting to be more independent. Just like our girl here, Vivian owns a high end fashion boutique and dresses film stars and the wealthy alike, aided by her assistant Nora and cute pooch Bella.
When her husband is tragically shot dead during what appears to be a robbery gone wrong, she hires a PI to do what the corrupt LAPD haven’t, and find the killer. But there seems to be more to it than she first thought.
Preston Stone, playboy and scion of a wealthy family, although he too appears to have plenty of secrets, crosses paths with her and the pair team up to solve the case and prevent more people being killed.
They bicker in the best screwball cinematic way, there’s another (enormous) dog called Boris, who helps save the day, because of course he does. Such a good boy.
I cannot wait for more!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Elena Morandi has gained a fragile foothold in the workshop of a master tailor, despite the profession being officially barred to her as a woman. But then a powerful man from her past crosses her path and threatens everything she has worked for. Antonio della Fontana has every corner of the city in his pocket and, as Elena knows all too well, he abused his position of power at the Baraccano orphanage. Driven to fight for justice against a man seemingly above the law, Elena hatches a plan to get retribution for herself, a lost friend and those still prey to Fontana’s abuses.
With sumptuous detail that brings the sights, sounds and textures of Renaissance Italy to vivid life, City of Silk is a breathtaking historical fiction debut.
My thoughts: I loved this, I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, history and Italy. So this was directly up my street. Inspired by art hanging in the National Gallery, both by 16th Century Italian artists, and of ordinary people from that time.
Elena just wants to be a tailor like her father was, and having been through the trauma of losing both her parents and being sent to an abusive orphanage, where the benefactor would choose girls to sexually assault, with essentially the blessing of the staff, and where her best friend Laura chose to end her life rather than be forced to continue to submit to this monster, I felt like Elena deserved to find some happiness.
She was working for a seamstress, making clothes for the wives of Bologna’s great and good, but on hearing a marriage contract was being drawn up, she flees into the city and makes her way to the tailors’ quarter, hoping to find a master who might take pity on her.
In many ways Elena is very lucky in her friends, in the bonds she forms as she works for the Maestro alongside his teasing journeymen. She’s talented and capable and they see that. She and her friend Sofia (properly called Suhailah), kidnapped and enslaved, find freedom in their friendships with the artist family, the Carraccis, who invite them into their studio.
It is with these friends that she plots an audacious scheme, to expose Antonio della Fontana as a rapist, molester and monster. On his daughter’s wedding day, in front of the whole city. Revenge will be sweet but she doesn’t reckon with the city’s short attention span.
Some of her friends, like Maestro Rondinelli are outsiders as much as she and Sofia are, he’s gay, in a time where there could get you killed, and even Elena struggles to understand why he would risk everything, until she realises the importance of love. Something she doesn’t really see in the marriages around her, arranged as they are to maintain wealth and status. I think the outsider status of the characters is important, Fontana is the ultimate insider, wealthy and influential. Until he isn’t. But there’s nowhere for him amidst those he disregards.
The only off note was that Elena never explained why she wanted to be a tailor and dress the city’s men instead of dressing the women. If I remember correctly from history books, men did tend to dress more sumptuously at this time, displaying their wealth through their clothes, while women were required to be more muted and demure. Think peacocks and peahens. But it would have been nice to see her thinking. I know there’s an emotional connection to her father, but as she could never work under her own name, and he doesn’t appear to have been well known, it was a little confusing.
Overall this is a splendid tale of outsiders, friendship, revenge and taking back power from those who would exploit it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Sophie Delavallois is the new companion to the ageing Dowager Marchioness, but she also has another reason for coming to the infamous Wyverne mansion, one that will shake the family to their core. Lord Drake left his childhood home many years ago, and only returns now to see his beloved grandmother. He takes little interest in the goings on of the house until the arrival of Mademoiselle Delavallois. There’s something about her that he can’t put his finger on; it’s as if he’s seen her before, but surely, that is not possible…
Sophie is also drawn to Drake, but he is a Wyverne, and she cannot allow herself to fall for him, because her intentions towards the family are resolute – revenge. But inside the walls of Wyverne Hall, she discovers the rumours about the family barely scratch the surface, and she can’t escape the dangerous allure of the Viscount. Once her plans are set in motion, will he be her saviour or her ruin?
Emma Orchard grew up in Salford and was given tickets to the grown-up library at the age of 11 because she’d read all the children’s books and the librarians were sick of the sight of her. She became obsessed with Georgette Heyer and hasn’t stopped reading her novels since. She studied English Literature at university and went on to work at Mills & Boon and behind the scenes in television and in publishing.
My thoughts: Continuing her run of feisty, smart and capable Regency heroines, Emma Orchard has written another cracker.
Sophie is out for revenge on the man that destroyed her family. Marquis Wyverne, a man who trails scandal everywhere he goes, is responsible for the deaths of her parents and beloved brother. Eight years have passed and she’s ready to enact her plan to bring down the Marquis and humiliate him. With the help of her criminal employer, Nate Smith, who has his own reasons for wanting to get one over on Wyverne.
Going undercover as the companion to the Dowager Marchioness, an elderly French woman who has no love left for her eldest son, kept hostage on his estate, will get her close to the family and able to access everything, no one really pays servants attention after all.
No one that is except the Viscount, Lord Drake, Wyverne’s eldest son, who also despises his father and stepmother. He visits only to see his grandmother, and is fascinated by her new companion. She seems incredibly familiar to him, but he can’t quite place her.
Drake’s attention could be a real problem for Sophie, he might even try to stop her…or will he?
As the two grow closer, their secrets are revealed and they join forces, even as they fall in love. But can a Viscount really love a thief?
Glorious, fun, funny and saucy. I really enjoyed this romance of revenge and finding where you belong. A delight.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 