You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
Quick, consuming read. Alexander did a good job of transporting you to the later Victorian Era without bogging you down in unnecessary details or boring chit chat. Liked the idea of a widow bucking some societal conventions, though I think the emphasis on how ~crazy it was for a woman to drink port instead of sherry could have been mentioned once, maybe twice, not beaten to death. Considering the rest of the series if they're just as quick as this one.
Great characters, history and mystery. I will have to read the rest of the series.
I LOVED the experience of reading this book, even if, as my friend Amanda already noted, in the end it isn't as exciting or complex as one would hope. I had the mystery all figured out by the 65%ish point (Kindle). In the meantime, however, there was plenty to hold my interest. I was intrigued by the premise of a wife falling in love with her dead husband. It got to me in [b:The Painted Veil|99664|The Painted Veil|W. Somerset Maugham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320421719s/99664.jpg|1069201], too (though in that case the husband was still alive).
If [b:Sorcery and Cecelia|64207|Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Cecelia and Kate, #1)|Patricia C. Wrede|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328875743s/64207.jpg|505] is Jane Austen + Harry Potter, then this book is Henry James + Hercule Poirot. I'll definitely read the next book in this series.
If [b:Sorcery and Cecelia|64207|Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Cecelia and Kate, #1)|Patricia C. Wrede|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328875743s/64207.jpg|505] is Jane Austen + Harry Potter, then this book is Henry James + Hercule Poirot. I'll definitely read the next book in this series.
Finished this book in one day and even picked up chores around the house so I could keep listening to it. This book had a little bit of everything and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to book 2!
Another foray of mine into the Victorian young widow detective oeuvre. I still can't believe that that is a genre.
I knew the solution as soon as they said that her husband had been collecting artifacts on the black market and the guy started going "yeah but those papers you know, I really need them" and I found it really frustrating how long it took her to get to the correct answer but I really liked the characters and felt like I really wanted Colin to be my friend. I thought her reaction to him was deeply out of proportion to his supposed transgression (I mean all he said was do you know that guy is a forger - if you want to get into the antiquities game you need to know that some people are forgers and can get you into trouble) but then hung out with this creepy other dude who's demeanor changes on a dime and is really pushy - that's not a red flag at all!
I knew the solution as soon as they said that her husband had been collecting artifacts on the black market and the guy started going "yeah but those papers you know, I really need them" and I found it really frustrating how long it took her to get to the correct answer but I really liked the characters and felt like I really wanted Colin to be my friend. I thought her reaction to him was deeply out of proportion to his supposed transgression (I mean all he said was do you know that guy is a forger - if you want to get into the antiquities game you need to know that some people are forgers and can get you into trouble) but then hung out with this creepy other dude who's demeanor changes on a dime and is really pushy - that's not a red flag at all!
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! In And Only to Deceive, wealthy widow Emily Ashton, who was barely married to her husband before he died on safari in Africa, becomes entangled in a world of art forgery, cat burglars, and classical studies all while learning how to be on her own without a family or a husband to dictate her life. Meanwhile, she is solving the mystery that is her dead husband and, through reading his journals and talking with this close friends and family, she finds there was more to him than just being the wealthy, dashing hunter she knew him to be. I love how elements of Greek mythology are interwoven throughout the story, and we learn more and more about Lord Ashton through his journal entries along with Emily. I found the characters to be well-written, witty, and they even dodged a few common tropes. The mystery wasn't that hard to solve but the journey getting there was a lot of fun. I am so glad that there are like 11 books in this series so I can spend more time in this world!
I may just be kind of meh on historical aristocracy in general. It wasn't a bad book, but I can't really see hunting down the rest of the series. The story was somewhat interesting, but it was undermined by a weak resolution. (In fact, I'm still not quite sure why their plan to catch the villain worked.)
Ultimately, this book was a disappointment. The set-up was remarkably similar to "Silence in the Grave" by Deanna Raybourn, which I recently read. However, I enjoyed that book much more. The story here was completely predictable. It calls itself "A Novel of Suspense" but I found it completely lacking in suspense. The main character of Emily was boring, stupid, and fickle. I couldn't understand why she kept letting different men kiss all over her when she didn't even like them. And this in the Victorian period. Just overall this book left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The idea was good, but the execution failed.
Finally, a book I couldn't put down from the minute I started it till the (very late) minute I finished. It seems those are becoming exceedingly rare. Moving on to book 2 immediately...