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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
I came into this with incorrect expectations. I thought this would be about a widow who didn't love her husband discovering who he was in life and unraveling the circumstances of his death. Instead this is about a preternaturally attractive widow finding passion in Ancient Greek art and literature while also being romantically pursued by two men and uncovering a mystery surrounding antiquities that eventually lead to demystifying her husband's death. I've read the story about the woman who doesn't realize how beautiful she is and how she effortlessly intrigues men many times before. It really annoys me and it was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. I also thought the plot was scattered and the characterization to be limited to dialogue. This is not a bad book, but it's not for me.
This reminded me a lot of Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series.
An engaging historical romance, with an interesting plot and a diverse number of well constructed characters.
I loved the first page of the book,(as well, as the following's of course...)but that one did an amazing job at catching my interest, presenting a character, with a very dry sense of humour...
When Lady Emily finds herself widowed, she cannot in thruth, consider herself saddened by her husband's demise.
In fact, her husband's death, will give Emily, something she has longed for a long time now: Her freedom.
Freedom of a husband dictates, to whom she was forced to marry( if not to that one, it would be another ), and freedom from her dragonlike Mother! (Thank God!! I wasn't born in the nineteen century...well, if i did live through those times, i honestly don't remember anymore...although that would definitely explain some things...)
But things will start changing in our heroine's life, once she starts getting to know her husband, through his diary and notes.
Through them, Emily is shocked to find out, that Phillip was, (unlike her), in love with his spouse...or at least, with the image he had of her....
As the story unfolds, and while Emily adquires two admirers, she starts to appreciate the husband she had, and wishing they had gotten the chance of living a livetime together....of course this may be due to the fact, that he couldn't command her life anymore...fairy tales are lovely, but reality due gets in the way.
And when, Emily finds herself in the possession of certain facts, those ones may forever shatter the image she constructed regarding her dead spouse...oh, and in a strange turn of events,Phillip could well be alive...or not
It was really a very engaging story, so i'm definitely looking forward in reading, the next books of this series.
I loved the first page of the book,(as well, as the following's of course...)but that one did an amazing job at catching my interest, presenting a character, with a very dry sense of humour...
When Lady Emily finds herself widowed, she cannot in thruth, consider herself saddened by her husband's demise.
In fact, her husband's death, will give Emily, something she has longed for a long time now: Her freedom.
Freedom of a husband dictates, to whom she was forced to marry( if not to that one, it would be another ), and freedom from her dragonlike Mother! (Thank God!! I wasn't born in the nineteen century...well, if i did live through those times, i honestly don't remember anymore...although that would definitely explain some things...)
But things will start changing in our heroine's life, once she starts getting to know her husband, through his diary and notes.
Through them, Emily is shocked to find out, that Phillip was, (unlike her), in love with his spouse...or at least, with the image he had of her....
As the story unfolds, and while Emily adquires two admirers, she starts to appreciate the husband she had, and wishing they had gotten the chance of living a livetime together....of course this may be due to the fact, that he couldn't command her life anymore...fairy tales are lovely, but reality due gets in the way.
And when, Emily finds herself in the possession of certain facts, those ones may forever shatter the image she constructed regarding her dead spouse...oh, and in a strange turn of events,
It was really a very engaging story, so i'm definitely looking forward in reading, the next books of this series.
While I did enjoy the book, there were times when I didn't particularly like Emily...this is why I gave this, first in a series only three stars.
By the end of the story I was satisfied by the resolution and I will read the others in the series to see how Emily progresses.
I very much enjoyed the end notes the author added.
The author said she was inspired by Gaudy Night, so I thought this would be my thing, but there was little to like. The characters were surface level, the mystery was obvious, and the plot kept doing the opposite of what I thought would be interesting. A historical mystery with romantic overtones that was not worth reading.
I have NEVER been into mystery before (with the exception of Wilkie Collins) but when this author combined light mystery with my favorite time period to read about I couldn't resist - and I thoroughly enjoyed it! So much so that I am reading the entire series. It's light hearted fun mixed with romance and intrigue. My only complaint is that for whatever reason (maybe I was distracted while reading this part) but I have NO IDEA what the main character - Emily looks like. With regards to physical descriptions Alexander lacks with the ladies but goes overboard with the gentlemen.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was really loving it- great characters, great plot- until about 3/4 of the way through. At that point I was avoiding having to pick it up. The pacing was just awful. It wasn't concise enough, and not enough happened quickly enough to suit me. It just really dragged. There was even an entire chapter in which you don't learn anything new! I wanted to like it so badly but by the end I couldn't have cared less what happened to Emily, who the art thief was, none of it. The only reason I gave it two stars is because the first 3/4 was so engrossing.
I say, I quite enjoyed the prose of this good novel. *coughs* Now that I've gotten that out of my system. Awhile ago I bought the first books of a few historical mysteries. I had intended to start them last year, but it wasn't until this week that I picked up And Only to Deceive. It took me a minute to get used to the tone of the novel. Emily narrates the novel in a very crisp, formal tone. It reminded immediately of other 19th century novels I'd read. I really enjoyed that and I loved learning about Greek literature and art through Emily. I did have hopes that Philip may have been awhile, but it turns out that Andrew murdered. I wasn't expecting Andrew to be the crook. Colin had me suspicious, but he proved himself in the end. I'm looking forward to read more about Emily's adventures.
This was disappointing to me because I was hoping that I had rediscovered a series that I could enjoy. I had read this book several years ago and I remember liking it and I believe that I read several more in the series. This time around I was not a fan of the book and do not see myself continuing on. In this first book our heroine is a wealthy widow living in London who enjoys the freedom that being a widow affords in Victorian England. Her husband fell ill and died while on hunting trip to Africa almost two years ago. Besides being an avid big game hunter he was also a lover of art-specifically that from Greece. Emily begins to further her education and discovers a passion for all things Greek which brings her closer to her husband than she was when he was alive. We then have a beginning of a mystery dealing with forgeries and who is behind them along with a cat burglary. The biggest issue that I have with this book is that I felt stupid while reading it. The author and the heroine love Greek art and history, which means that there is a lot of info dumping throughout the book. If I was a lover of Greek material then maybe I would be all about this but I am not. I was not interested in it and felt dumb as a result. The other big issue is that the mystery and the villain in this book are so obvious. I found it very difficult to believe this strong and intelligent woman would be so clueless and gullible.