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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
This one came perilously close to being too romancy for me, but at least the mystery was complex, and I do like the characters, even if i sometimes want to slap the author. ;)
Now that I've read this book, I'm seriously eager for more! I can't wait to continue this series! I totally loved the whole snowbound house party thing, because the villain was right there the whole time. Julia grows even more in this book, and makes one of the best speeches about equality and not standing for being coddled by the men in her life. It was brilliant. Once again, Deanna Raybourn did a splendid job at taking the reader back to Victorian England. The reason this book doesn't get the 4.5 star rating that the first installment got is because I kind of suspected a lot of the answers. Not all of them, and not the most important one, but it was enough to take my rating down. With the way this story ends, book three sounds like it'll be just as engaging.
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked this one less than the first one because you have to get halfway through the book before the murder takes place - I can deal with a little scene-setting, but this one was too much. After 100 pages, I started wondering when in the world we'd get to the point. But I did enjoy it being set at Christmas time - since I was reading it at that time - and once the investigation started it went much more quickly for me. Again, a good brain candy mystery/romance series if you can ignore some of the more snobbish observations from the heroine.
A fun follow-up to [b:Silent In The Grave|267869|Silent In The Grave|Deanna Raybourn|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173284547s/267869.jpg|259684]. This time, the murder takes place during a snow-bound house party (in an abbey-turned-family-estate, of course) and the mysteries are a little trickier to solve. While the mysteries are entertaining, the characters and dialogue are really the fun of this series. I would recommend starting at the beginning of the series, since several characters carry over and the first book really explains Julia's transformation from a quiet and conventional Victorian lady to someone who is itching to be useful (and willing to break the rules of society to do so). The first book also sets up the tension between Julia and the private investigator who helped solve her husband's murder. A good, relatively fluffy page-turner that's perfect for an afternoon on the couch.