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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
This book started off well, but by the end I wanted to strangle the main character, and the plot was extremely transparent.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I enjoyed following along as Emily comes into her own, casts off the undesired trappings of the life her family and society expected / raised her to live, and pursues a life she actually wants. I appreciated that she wasn't a thoroughly modern woman who flouts all conventions at every turn; she is progressive in ways that are astounding for who she is in her context, even as she remains (as we all are) a product of her time and station in life. I also thoroughly enjoyed the fact that her rebellion / growth largely consists of intellectual pursuits.
The heroine is very young (maybe 20 when the book starts, at most, is my guess). I like watching her grow up a bit over the course of the novel, though I wasn't really expecting this to be NA from the blurb. Her decision-making is... not unexpected, but also a little exhausting to watch sometimes.
The heroine is also very sheltered and very, very, very privileged. Sometimes I wanted to yell at her that if she doesn't want the burden of being a pretty decoration, maybe she could spend some time advocating for the rights of the exploited Africans and other Indigenous peoples who are the source of her wealth instead of just using the results of their labor to pay for her self-absorbed sulking and retail-therapy.
Anyway.
The writing flowed easily and I really do enjoy watching characters develop. The mystery was... let's just say that the character I most wanted to drop-kick off the island was the villain, to indicate my lack of surprise at how things wrapped up. But as I've said before, I don't really read mysteries for the mystery.
I'll probably read more in the series, but I'm not in a super hurry to do so.
The heroine is also very sheltered and very, very, very privileged. Sometimes I wanted to yell at her that if she doesn't want the burden of being a pretty decoration, maybe she could spend some time advocating for the rights of the exploited Africans and other Indigenous peoples who are the source of her wealth instead of just using the results of their labor to pay for her self-absorbed sulking and retail-therapy.
Anyway.
The writing flowed easily and I really do enjoy watching characters develop. The mystery was... let's just say that the character I most wanted to drop-kick off the island was the villain, to indicate my lack of surprise at how things wrapped up. But as I've said before, I don't really read mysteries for the mystery.
I'll probably read more in the series, but I'm not in a super hurry to do so.
it was quite good i enjoyed reading it, someone recommended it to me saying she fell in love with her husband after he died so i instantly bought bc that sounded interesting. if probs give it 3.5 because i guessed what was gonna happen really early on, but i’m used to doing that with books and most people aren’t as bad as me for doing that so idk how others would read this, but the satisfaction of being right never gets me annoyed that ik what’s gonna happen. it wasn’t the most favourite book i’ve read but it was historical and omg the guy i love him so much ( canny remember his name as a i read it idk how long ago and forgot to review) this was the first book i read since not reading a proper physical book for years and i read it super fast :)
A light British mystery and first in the series. Lade Ashton's husband dies on expedition shortly after they are married. In death, she learns more about him than she'd known before and becomes embroiled in a mystery involving antiquities.
A little bit dissatisfying; a promising beginning lacked further intrigue as the story progressed toward a fairly predictable ending, and the dialogue seemed stilted and unnatural, even for the formal Victorian setting.
Still, it was a pleasant diversion, and a very quick read, and worth reading for its likable heroine and amusing insight into Victorian manners.
Still, it was a pleasant diversion, and a very quick read, and worth reading for its likable heroine and amusing insight into Victorian manners.
Wow. I loved this book. It’s more of a mystery than a romance but the romantic elements just tugged at my heart. It’s so rare when I read a book and wish so hard that things would turn out for fictional characters.
{Spoilers start here}
The heroine, Lady Emily, was one of the upper class in Victorian England and realized that even though she’d be content to stay single there was no way that her family would allow it. After multiple offers, she agrees to marry the first man, Phillip, whom she finds remotely tolerable. She doesn’t know him and certainly hasn’t fallen in love, but marrying him will get her out of her mother’s house. He’s a big game hunter who loves to travel and leaves for Africa soon after her wedding. In Africa he falls sick with a fever and dies. About a year after his death, she has not emerged completely from mourning when Phillip’s best friend Colin Hargreaves comes to visit her and tells her about a villa in Greece that Phillip owned and would have wanted Lady Emily to visit.
She’d never known of her husband’s interest in Greece and antiquities, but Emily begins to delve into the art he’d donated to the British museum and pursue Greek literature while reading journals that her husband left behind. As she studies more, she learns more about Phillip and about herself. And even though he’s dead, she finally falls in love with him and regrets the opportunity that she had lost.
Meanwhile, she stumbles across a mystery regarding her husband. Could he have been a criminal? She travels to Paris and back and back to Paris again as she investigates. She starts to question who she can really trust.
Admittedly, I found it easy to figure out who she’d end up with from the beginning of the book, but still as the story progressed I kept hoping that her husband would turn out to be alive. It was painful seeing this journey as she gets to know who he was and realizing she’ll never be able to act on that knowledge.
Mystery or romance? However you categorize it, this was an outstanding book.
4/5 stars.
{Spoilers start here}
The heroine, Lady Emily, was one of the upper class in Victorian England and realized that even though she’d be content to stay single there was no way that her family would allow it. After multiple offers, she agrees to marry the first man, Phillip, whom she finds remotely tolerable. She doesn’t know him and certainly hasn’t fallen in love, but marrying him will get her out of her mother’s house. He’s a big game hunter who loves to travel and leaves for Africa soon after her wedding. In Africa he falls sick with a fever and dies. About a year after his death, she has not emerged completely from mourning when Phillip’s best friend Colin Hargreaves comes to visit her and tells her about a villa in Greece that Phillip owned and would have wanted Lady Emily to visit.
She’d never known of her husband’s interest in Greece and antiquities, but Emily begins to delve into the art he’d donated to the British museum and pursue Greek literature while reading journals that her husband left behind. As she studies more, she learns more about Phillip and about herself. And even though he’s dead, she finally falls in love with him and regrets the opportunity that she had lost.
Meanwhile, she stumbles across a mystery regarding her husband. Could he have been a criminal? She travels to Paris and back and back to Paris again as she investigates. She starts to question who she can really trust.
Admittedly, I found it easy to figure out who she’d end up with from the beginning of the book, but still as the story progressed I kept hoping that her husband would turn out to be alive. It was painful seeing this journey as she gets to know who he was and realizing she’ll never be able to act on that knowledge.
Mystery or romance? However you categorize it, this was an outstanding book.
4/5 stars.
An enjoyable read, though slow and predictable at times. What saved it for me were the characters, I really liked Lady Emily and her cohorts.
A well-written and well-researched novel about recently widowed Lady Emily Ashton. She has to deal not only with her husband’s death, but also his possible involvement regarding some Ancient Greek artifacts that may have been stolen from the British Museum.
Those interested in The Iliad and the art of Ancient Greece will definitely enjoy this mystery.
Those interested in The Iliad and the art of Ancient Greece will definitely enjoy this mystery.
This book was fabulous! Thank you to Celina for recommending it to me. If you like a good mystery or suspense novel, you need to read this. It is set in Victorian England. Lady Emily Ashton is widowed after a short marriage to her husband Philip. In the two years after his death, many details about her husband come to the surface that she did not discover during their brief marriage. Emily has to figure out who her late husband really was. Was he a good man or involved in criminal activities?
If you could ask my husband what I thought about this book, he would tell you that I had to have loved it because I could not shut up about it. Every single chapter I read, I told him how much I liked it. I don't feel like I can talk about many details of the story without giving it away because the suspense builds through the whole book. If you like suspense with a little romance thrown in, you need to read this! It reminded me of the same feeling I had when I first started reading Marne Davis Kellogg's Brilliant, one of my favourite books I've read in recent years. This one is a must read! I couldn't put it down, and I'm super excited to read the next one.
If you could ask my husband what I thought about this book, he would tell you that I had to have loved it because I could not shut up about it. Every single chapter I read, I told him how much I liked it. I don't feel like I can talk about many details of the story without giving it away because the suspense builds through the whole book. If you like suspense with a little romance thrown in, you need to read this! It reminded me of the same feeling I had when I first started reading Marne Davis Kellogg's Brilliant, one of my favourite books I've read in recent years. This one is a must read! I couldn't put it down, and I'm super excited to read the next one.