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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
Such a delightful book! Lady Emily is being added to my list of favorite spunky heroines!
– Cecile du Lac, And Only to Deceive, page 36
Lady Emily Ashton has been a widow for longer than she had known her husband Philip - and she has only been in mourning for a year. We begin the story from Emily’s point of view and know Phillip only from her account. Emily freely admits she made no effort to know her husband before his death, having written him off as an ignorant hunter. As Emily discovers Philip’s intellect, kindness, and his love for her via his diaries, she starts to realize that her previous indifference is something she may regret.
While examining her husband's life and character, Emily discovers a man she barely knew, and worse, one she could have loved. However, Emily also learns about his passions – and his dangerous secrets regarding stolen or forged antiquities. Emily also begins to realize Philip’s death may not have been an accident and, armed with the knowledge gained in the pursuit of getting to know her dead husband, sets off to solve the crime.
I choose Tasha Alexander’s And Only to Deceive for three reasons: it is partially set in Greece; it is, in part, epistolary, a sub-genre I fell in love with after reading The Letters of Napoleon to Josephine; and it is part of a series – winter being my time for series.
What captured me is the work’s sense of the human condition: the wonder that we may never truly know another person, the joy of trying, and the great mystery therein. Eventually the reader, having known Philip only as well as Emily originally had, comes to love him, and there is an exquisite sense of loss and bereavement felt for what could have been a beautiful, complimentary relationship between these two people.
Almost equally wonderful as the characterization is the mystery plot, it being neither too heavy-handed, nor illogical in the path to its solution. The limitations of etiquette and the position of women within the period are excellently handled, and the romance readers can look forward to is treated with dignity.
Really, though, Emily is portrayed as a fun, dynamic character, one who readers can watch evolve and blossom into her own person throughout the work , especially as she escapes from under her mother's thumb and grows into her widowhood. I will for sure at least be reading the next book in Tasha Alexander's series and recommend it to anyone intrigued by the synopsis.
I love books set in Victorian England. I thought the main character Emily was interesting and thought that the development of her character after the death of her husband was a new idea for a novel. I guessed at the mystery part of the story fairly quickly, but wasn't sure how it was all going to pull together. Will definitely look for the second one.
"It was ok."
Precisely, Goodreads. Two stars sums this book up pretty well. I had hoped for something similar to [a:Elizabeth Peters|16549|Elizabeth Peters|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1232144920p2/16549.jpg], but this one was not nearly as interesting as anything written by her. The most suspenseful part of this novel is whether Achilles or Hector is the better man. While I found Lady Emily interesting, and it was touching watching her fall for her deceased husband, it was also kind of disturbing. It felt rather anticlimactic, too. Hard to build a passionate romance with someone who is dead and her fantasies left me rolling my eyes. There really wasn't much action, just Emily jumping from situation to situation, releasing all sorts of useless details. Things wrap up a little too neatly.
Emily was a little too modern in her opinions and actions and I didn't care much for the conclusion. However, it wasn't a bad read.
Just ok.
Precisely, Goodreads. Two stars sums this book up pretty well. I had hoped for something similar to [a:Elizabeth Peters|16549|Elizabeth Peters|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1232144920p2/16549.jpg], but this one was not nearly as interesting as anything written by her. The most suspenseful part of this novel is whether Achilles or Hector is the better man. While I found Lady Emily interesting, and it was touching watching her fall for her deceased husband, it was also kind of disturbing. It felt rather anticlimactic, too. Hard to build a passionate romance with someone who is dead and her fantasies left me rolling my eyes. There really wasn't much action, just Emily jumping from situation to situation, releasing all sorts of useless details. Things wrap up a little too neatly.
Emily was a little too modern in her opinions and actions and I didn't care much for the conclusion. However, it wasn't a bad read.
Just ok.
I’m excited to start a new historical mystery series with an interesting, smart female protagonist. I always enjoy mysteries where lots of connected people and events slowly come together in a satisfying conclusion. I feel that this book has a hiccup as the pieces are coming together, though. There was a point where I didn’t feel the connections were being made clear. However, the resolution comes and the end is the nice nudge I need to start on the second book.
I really wanted to like this book - the plot seemed promising, historical mystery involving a plucky heroine with a dash of romance thrown in. And about antiquities to boot! It started off well, great sense of humor, witty dialogue (the formal austenian language does not bother me) but it all started going downhill pretty quickly.
Please be warned that the heroine is incredibly stupid and stubborn and spends more than half this book blatantly ignoring very obvious facts and reasoning. If there is anything worse than a stupid heroine, it's a stupid AND stubborn heroine. By the time I was halfway through I was struggling to finish only because I actually wanted to know what happened and at what point she stops being an idiot.
So no, I'm not going to be picking up the second book in this series.
Please be warned that the heroine is incredibly stupid and stubborn and spends more than half this book blatantly ignoring very obvious facts and reasoning. If there is anything worse than a stupid heroine, it's a stupid AND stubborn heroine. By the time I was halfway through I was struggling to finish only because I actually wanted to know what happened and at what point she stops being an idiot.
So no, I'm not going to be picking up the second book in this series.
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Lady Emily Ashton is a young woman in the late Victorian era who has been widowed soon after marrying her husband whom she barely knew, dead on safari in Africa. She begins to know him after his death through his books on Ancient Greece, and visits to the British Museum to view pieces he donated.
While dealing with a mother bent on seeing her remarried, and the condolences of friends who knew her husband far better than she herself did, Emily discovers that her husband may have been involved in antiquities forgery.
Meanwhile, Emily is trying to find herself, apart from what others - and London Society - expect from a woman of her station in the time period.
An enjoyable light read without much in the way to trouble the reader.
While dealing with a mother bent on seeing her remarried, and the condolences of friends who knew her husband far better than she herself did, Emily discovers that her husband may have been involved in antiquities forgery.
Meanwhile, Emily is trying to find herself, apart from what others - and London Society - expect from a woman of her station in the time period.
An enjoyable light read without much in the way to trouble the reader.
I liked it and I didn't like it. The author did a good job of keeping Emily within the context of Victorian society but I'm not sure if I liked her. She said the same things over and over again, was a bit conceited, and didn't mind letting everyone know just how rich she was. Colin was a decent love interest but he seemed a bit too perfect and a bit too eager. I kept getting Joey Potter/Rory Gilmore flashbacks. As Luca Kovac on "ER" once said back in the day, was Emily "that pretty or that great" to have all these men fawning over her? Either way, in end I think I liked Philip the best out of them all - and he's dead.