Review - The Love Remedy

Title:   The Love Remedy

Author:  Elizabeth Everett

Series:  The Damsels of Discovery #1
Publisher:  Berkley

Genre:  Historical Mystery

Format:  Kindle ARC

No. of Pages:   352

Date of Publication:   March 19, 2024

My Rating:   4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there’s only one way to treat true love—with a happily ever after.

When Lucinda Peterson’s recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she’s certain it’s only the latest in a line of misfortunes at the hands of a rival apothecary. Outraged and fearing financial ruin, Lucy turns to private investigator Jonathan Thorne for help. She just didn’t expect her champion to be so . . . grumpy?

A single father and an agent at Tierney & Co., Thorne accepts missions for a wide variety of employers—from the British government to wronged wives. None have intrigued him so much as the spirited Miss Peterson. As the two work side by side to unmask her scientific saboteur, Lucy slips ever so sweetly under Thorne’s battered armor, tempting him to abandon old promises.

With no shortage of suspects—from a hostile political group to an erstwhile suitor—Thorne’s investigation becomes a threat to all that Lucy holds dear. As the truth unravels around them the cure to their problems is they must face the future together.

Link to purchase the book

MY THOUGHTS:

 

Elizabeth Everett has regaled her readers with a new series. It is the Damsels of Distress, and the first book is The Love Remedy. In this historical romance we have another STEM heroine, much like the heroines in Everett's The Secret Scientists of London series. This book is the first in a new spinoff series where women are not fitting into the molds of society of their time. Instead, their love of science, technology, engineering and mathematics is their focus in love, with romance entering into the picture.

Lucy is an apothecary. What is more is that her father left her the business, instead of one or both of her siblings, and that would include her brother David. David was certain the business would pass onto him, but even so, he and their younger sister Juliet all work together in one fashion or another. In this story, Lucy is beside herself when her lover Duncan wanted much more than she was ever prepared to give. In fact, keeping her family's apothecary running might just come to an end when Lucy discovers that Duncan has stolen a critical formula from her. Lucy hires Jonathan Thorne to retrieve the formula. Although acting in the capacity of private investigator, he comes into the family's business as their new bookkeeper.

Both Lucy and Thorne present as strong and independent people. Lucy, fighting in a field usually left for me. With regard to Thorne, he had a young daughter out of wedlock and chose to have her as a huge part of his life, paying close attention to her care and education. Of course, society simply did not bode well for those born 'on the other side of the cloth'. For Thorne, his daughter Sadie is everything to him and it was refreshing to read a historical romance where this was the case.

Lucy and Thorne are perfect for one another. Besides the fact that they are both as smart as a whip, they are impossibly drawn to one another, with the sexual tension between them nearly jumping off of the pages. I definitely look forward to continuing with the second book in this series.

Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy the following excerpt:

THE LOVE REMEDY by Elizabeth Everett Berkley Romance Trade Original | March 19, 2024 Excerpt Lucy's guilt had been squeezing the breath from her lungs for weeks. On the counter, slightly dented from having been crushed in her fist, then thrown to the ground and stepped on, then heaved against the wall, sat a grimy little tin. Affixed to the top was a label with the all-too-familiar initials RSA. Rider and Son Apothecary. Rider and Son. The latter being the primary reason for this very worst of days. The longer she stared at the tin, the less Lucy felt the strain of responsibility for running Peterson's Apothecary and keeping her siblings housed and fed. Beneath the initials were printed the words Rider's Lozenges. The ever-present exhaustion that had weighed her down moments ago began to dissipate at the sight of the smaller print beneath, which read "exclusive." The more she stared, the more her guilt subsided beneath a wave of anger that coursed through her blood. "Exclusive patented formula for the relief of putrid throats." Exclusive patented formula. The anger simmered and simmered the longer she stared until it reached a boil and turned to rage. Grabbing her paletot from the coatrack and a random bonnet that may or may not have matched, Lucy stormed out of the shop, slamming the door behind her with a vengeance that was less impressive when she had to turn around the next second to lock it. Exclusive patent. The words burned in her brain, and she clenched her hands into fists. One warm summer afternoon four months ago, Lucy had been so tired, she'd stopped to sit on a park bench and had closed her eyes. Only for a minute or two, but long enough for a young gentleman passing by to notice and be concerned enough for her safety to inquire as to her well-being. While the brief rest had been involuntary, remaining on the bench and striking up a conversation with the handsome stranger was her choice, and a terrible one at that. Lucy had allowed Duncan Rider to walk her home, not questioning the coincidence that the son of her father's rival had been the one to find her vulnerable and offer his protection was down to her own stupidity. Now, as Lucy barreled down the rotting walkways of Calthorpe Street, she barely registered the admiring glances from the gentlemen walking in the opposite direction or the sudden appearance of the wan November sun as it poked through the gray clouds of autumn. Instead, her head was filled with memories so excruciating they jabbed at her chest like heated needles, rousing feelings of shame alongside her resentment. Such as the next time she'd seen Duncan, when he appeared during a busy day at the apothecary with a pretty nosegay of violets. He'd smelled like barley water and soap, a combination so simple and appealing it had scrambled her brains and left her giddy as a goose. Or the memory of how their kisses had unfolded in the back rooms of the apothecary, turning from delightfully sweet to something much more carnal. How kisses had proceeded to touches, and from there even more, and how she'd believed it a harbinger of what would come once they married. A shout ripped Lucy's attention back to the present, and she jerked back from the road, missing the broad side of a carriage by inches. The driver called out curses at her over his shoulder, but they bounced off her and scattered across the muddied street as Lucy turned the corner onto Gray's Inn Road. Halfway through a row of weathered stone buildings, almost invisible unless one knew what to look for, a discreet brass plaque to the left of a blackened oak door read: Tierney & Co., Bookkeeping Services Lucy took a deep breath, pulling the dirty brown beginnings of a London fog into her lungs and expelling it along with the remorse and shame that accompanied her memory of Duncan holding her handwritten formula for a new kind of throat lozenge she'd worked two years to perfect. "I'll just test it out for you, shall I?" he'd said, eyes roaming the page. Duncan and his father had long searched for a throat lozenge remedy that tasted as good as it worked. Might Duncan be tempted to impress his father with her lozenge? His lips curled up on one side as he read, and Lucy recalled the slight shadow of foreboding moving across the candlelight in the back storeroom where they carried out their affair. "I don't know," she'd hedged. Too late. He'd folded the formula and distracted her with kisses. "I've more space and materials at my disposal. I know you think this is ready to sell, but isn't it better that we take the time to make sure?" It might have been exhaustion that weakened Lucy just enough that she took advantage of an offer to help shoulder some of her burdens. However, the decision to let Duncan Rider walk out of Peterson's Apothecary with a formula that was worth a fortune was due not to her sleepless nights, but to a weakness in her character that allowed her to believe a man when he told her he loved her. Now, four months later, somehow Duncan had again betrayed her. Having already lost the lozenge formula to Duncan's avaricious grasp, Lucy had been horrified to find a second formula missing. She'd come up with a salve for treating babies' croup, a remedy even more profitable than the lozenges. What parent wouldn't pay through the nose to calm a croupy baby? Lucy was certain that Duncan must have found out about her work and stolen both the formula and ingredient list for the salve. This time, Lucy would not dissolve into tears and swear never to love again. This time, she was going eviscerate her rival and get her formula back. Then she would swear never to love again. Excerpted from The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett Copyright © 2024 by Elizabeth Everett. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elizabeth Everett lives in upstate New York with her family. She likes going for long walks or (very) short runs to nearby sites that figure prominently in the history of civil rights and women's suffrage. Her series is inspired by her admiration for rule breakers and belief in the power of love to change the world.

 

Review - A Grave Robbery

Title:   A Grave Robbery

Author:  Deanna Raybourn 

Series:  Veronica Speedwell #9
Publisher:  Berkley

Genre:   Mystery & Thrillers

Format:  Kindle ARC

No. of Pages:   336

Date of Publication:   March 12, 2024

My Rating:    5 Stars 

DESCRIPTION:

Veronica and Stoker discover that not all fairy tales have happy endings, and some end in murder, in this latest historical mystery from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why?

Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain—a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?

Link to purchase the book 

MY THOUGHTS:

 

Madame Tussaud's was a wax museum that gained popularity in London in 1835. So when Stoker Templeton-Vane is hired by the Earl of Rosemorran to install a clockwork mechanism to Lord Rosemorran's latest acquisition, an exquisite wax mannequin, Stoker is certain he is up to the job. Meanwhile, Stoker's friend, lover and confidante, Veronica Speedwell, would rather be spending her time in her work as a lepidopterist, as butterflies and their habits is Veronica's area of expertise.

From the outset, Stoker is enamored of the wax figure. He can't get over how much the mannequin resembles his beloved Veronica. However, that is not the only shock that Stoker experiences. As Stoker and Veronica soon discover, the mannequin actually contains the wonderfully preserved body of a young woman. This is definitely no ordinary mannequin. Thus, the deducing couple set out to discover the woman's identity, as sleuthing comes quite natural to both of them.

 I have followed the enjoyable Veronica Speedwell series from the very first book, A Curious Beginning. This historical mystery series has been captivating right from the very start. Veronica is a delightful character, and I love how her relationship with Stoker has evolved over the series. I also enjoyed how Veronica's ability to solve crimes has slowly garnered the reluctant respect of the Metropolitan Police. 

Another facet of this story is the history behind wax figures, and other surprising Frankenstein like inclusions. Deanna Raybourn skillfully takes each book in this series into different directions, and always entertains her readers. Quite naturally, I can't wait to see what Veronica and Stoker get into next.

Reviewer's note: This is a series that is best read in order.

Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A sixth-generation native Texan, New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn grew up in San Antonio where she met her college sweetheart. She married him on her graduation day and went on to teach high school English and history. During summer vacation at the age of twenty-three, she wrote her first novel, and after three years as a teacher, Deanna left education to have a baby and pursue writing full-time. Fourteen years and many, many rejections after her first novel, she signed two three-book deals with MIRA Books.

Deanna’s debut novel, Silent in the Grave, published in January 2007. The first in the Silent series, the book introduces Lady Julia Grey, an aristocrat bent on investigating the mysterious death of her husband with the help of the enigmatic private enquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane. From the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to a Gypsy camp on Hampstead Heath, Silent in the Grave deftly captures the lush ambience of Victorian London.

The series continues with the second book, Silent in the Sanctuary (January 2008), a classic English country house murder mystery with a few twists and turns for Brisbane and Lady Julia along the way. Silent on the Moor (March 2009), set in a grim manor house on the Yorkshire moors, is the third adventure for Lady Julia and the mysterious Brisbane.

March 2010 saw a departure from the series with the release of The Dead Travel Fast, a mid-Victorian Gothic thriller that features novelist Theodora Lestrange as she leaves the safety and security of her Edinburgh home for the dark woods and haunted castles of Transylvania. Deanna turns once more to Lady Julia and her companions with Dark Road to Darjeeling (October 2010) which features an exotic setting in the foothills of the Himalayas and the introduction of an arch-villain. The fifth book in the series, The Dark Enquiry, follows the return of Lady Julia and Brisbane to London for their most puzzling adventure yet. The Dark Enquiry hit the New York Times Bestseller list the week before its official release in July 2011. The digital exclusive novella Silent Night, published in November 2012, is a bright Christmas adventure set in Julia’s ancestral home in the Sussex countryside.

Deanna’s next release, A Spear of Summer Grass (May 2013), chronicles the adventures of a scandalous flapper heroine in Africa and the lives she changes along the way. It is listed as one of Goodreads’ most highly anticipated books of 2013 and was preceded by Far in the Wilds, an exclusive digital prequel novella (March 2013). A Spear of Summer Grass received a starred review from Library Journal. Deanna carried on the theme of 1920s adventure with City of Jasmine (2014) and Night of a Thousand Stars (2014), but is delighted to return to Victorian London with the September 2015 hardcover release of A Curious Beginning, the first mystery featuring butterfly-hunting sleuth, Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian sidekick, Stoker. Veronica returned in 2017’s A Perilous Undertaking, and A Treacherous Curse, 2018. A Dangerous Collaboration was released in 2019, and book five, A Murderous Relation, is a March 2020 release.

Deanna’s novel Silent in the Grave won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Mystery. The Lady Julia Grey series has been nominated for several other awards, including an Agatha, a Last Laugh, and two Dilys Winns. Dark Road to Darjeeling was also a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Historical Mystery as well as a Romantic Reviews’ finalist for Best Book of 2010. A Treacherous Curse, the third Veronica Speedwell Mystery, was nominated for the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

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BLOG TOUR - Under a Veiled Moon

 

DESCRIPTION:

In the tradition of C. S. Harris and Anne Perry, a fatal disaster on the Thames and a roiling political conflict set the stage for Karen Odden’s second Inspector Corravan historical mystery.

September 1878. One night, as the pleasure boat the Princess Alice makes her daily trip up the Thames, she collides with the Bywell Castle, a huge iron-hulled collier. The Princess Alice shears apart, throwing all 600 passengers into the river; only 130 survive. It is the worst maritime disaster London has ever seen, and early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who believe violence is the path to restoring Irish Home Rule.

For Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan, born in Ireland and adopted by the Irish Doyle family, the case presents a challenge. Accused by the Home Office of willfully disregarding the obvious conclusion, and berated by his Irish friends for bowing to prejudice, Corravan doggedly pursues the truth, knowing that if the Princess Alice disaster is pinned on the IRB, hopes for Home Rule could be dashed forever.

BUY LINKS:

Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads

MY THOUGHTS:

 

Title:   Under a Veiled Moon

Author:  Karen Odden

Series:  Inspector Corravan #2
Publisher:  Crooked Lane Books

Genre:   Historical Mystery

Format:  Kindle ARC

No. of Pages:   336

Date of Publication:   October 11, 2022

My Rating:   5 Stars 

Before I read the second book in the Inspector Corravan series, I was able to get the first book, Down a Dark River, from my library as an audiobook. 

I am so glad that I did, as I was able to really familiarize myself with Inspector Michael Corravan. Both books, including Under a Veiled Moon, that I have for review, were easily both five star reads for me.  

For this second book, Corravan works exceptionally hard on his newest case. A pleasure boat called The Princess Alice had a huge disaster resulting from a collision, and with 600 passengers, there were only 130 survivors. He is determined to prove that the devastating loss was due to sabotage and that the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was not responsible. 

Corravan’s superiors do not agree with his assessment, so he has to work even harder to bring those responsible to justice. This disaster, and the conspiracy, could have far-reaching effects. Meanwhile, Corravan finds himself distracted and with good reason. When Corravan was younger he was taken in by the Doyle family and was treated as if he was one of their own. The youngest Doyle, Colin, has joined a dangerous gang. Loyalty and love move Corravan to do whatever he can to get Colin out of the gang no matter what it takes. 

So Corravan truly has his hands full. Not only is Colin fervently resisting any help from Corravan, the IRB might be doing more harm, and Corravan must find a way to stop them if that is the case.  

What an intense read! As I read both books back-to-back, I really felt that I was pulled into Corravan‘s world. His adopted family. His relationship with Belinda. His job at Scotland Yard. Corravan is a very rounded character, one whose values stand out. As mentioned, loyalty was a strong suit of Corravan’s, and this drew me to him even more. I really hope there are more books in this series as Karen Odden is a remarkable author that I am glad to have had a chance to read her stunning work.

Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to AustenProse for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Karen Odden earned her Ph.D. in English from New York University and subsequently taught literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has contributed essays

to numerous books and journals, written introductions for Victorian novels in the Barnes & Noble classics series and edited for the journal Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge UP). 

Her previous novels, also set in 1870s London, have won

awards for historical fiction and mystery. A member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and the recipient of a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts,

Karen lives in Arizona with her family and her rescue beagle Rosy.

BLOG TOUR - Shadow in the Mind’s Eye

Title:   Shadow in the Mind’s Eye

Author:  Janyre Tromp

Publisher:  Kregel Publications

Genre:   Historical Mystery

Format:  Kindle ARC

No. of Pages: 288

Date of Publication:   April 19, 2022

My Rating:   4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

Charlotte Anne Mattas longs to turn back the clock. Before her husband, Sam, went to serve his country in the war, he was the man everyone could rely on--responsible, intelligent, and loving. But the person who's come back to their family farm is very different from the protector Annie remembers. Sam's experience in the Pacific theater has left him broken in ways no one can understand--but that everyone is learning to fear.

Tongues start wagging after Sam nearly kills his own brother. Now when he claims to have seen men on the mountain when no one else has seen them, Annie isn't the only one questioning his sanity and her safety. If there were criminals haunting the hills, there should be evidence beyond his claims. Is he really seeing what he says, or is his war-tortured mind conjuring ghosts?

Annie desperately wants to believe her husband. But between his irrational choices and his nightmares leaking into the daytime, she's terrified he's going mad. Can she trust God to heal Sam's mental wounds--or will sticking by him mean keeping her marriage at the cost of her own life?

Debut novelist Janyre Tromp delivers a deliciously eerie, Hitchcockian story filled with love and suspense. Readers of psychological thrillers and historical fiction by Jaime Jo Wright and Sarah Sundin will add Tromp to their favorite authors list.

BUY LINK:

https://amzn.to/3w0Dfkn

MY THOUGHTS:

 

Charlotte Anne Mattas (Annie) was able to get away from her abusive father when she married Sam. In fact, Sam had always acted as Annie's protector. However, Sam left to serve in the war and now is about to return home to Annie and their young daughter. While Sam was serving his country, Annie managed their farm with the help of Sam's brother and also his best friend.

Sam is back now, but he is not the man Annie remembers. He is moody and difficult to read. He also begins to notice that things are not quite right, but then it proves questionable about how damaged Sam might be and if the things he sees are actually occurring.

Shadow in the Mind's Eye is a remarkable debut novel by Janyre Tromp. Not only do we have the drama about Sam and Annie's reunion and the adjustments both of them must make, there is also a mystery on hand. Something is indeed going on and this affects everyone concerned. Sam suspects illegal activity is going on and that is where the mystery lies with this book. Love and faith do indeed bring peace to Sam and Annie in this remarkable story.

Ms. Tromp did a fine job with this book. In fact, with same having what we know today as PTSD, in the acknowledgments of this book she discusses battle-specific psychological wounds. In addition to that supplementary information, there are also discussion questions at the end of the book.

Many thanks to Kregel Publications and to Audra Jennings PR for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion. 

Please also see my YouTube video review - 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Janyre Tromp is a historical novelist whose loves spinning tales that, at their core, hunt for beauty, even when it isn’t pretty. She’s the author of Shadows in the Mind’s Eye and coauthor of It’s a Wonderful Christmas.

She’s also a book editor, published children’s book author, and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her family, two crazy cats, and a slightly eccentric Shetland Sheepdog. And if you ever meet in person, you pronounce that first name Jan-ear.

You can find her on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and her website, www.JanyreTromp.com (where you can grab a free copy of her novella Wide Open).

BLOG TOUR - A Perilous Perspective

Title:   A Perilous Perspective 

Author:  Anna Lee Huber

Series:  Lady Darby Mystery #10
Publisher:  Berkley

Genre:   Historical Mystery

Format:  Kindle ARC 

No. of Pages:   384

Date of Publication:   April 19, 2022

My Rating:   4 Stars

DESCRIPTION:

An all-new historical mystery in this USA Today bestselling series featuring beloved inquiry agents Lady Kiera Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage.

Argyll, Scotland. July 1832. After a trying few months in Edinburgh, Kiera and her husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, are eager to escape to the Highlands with their three-month-old child. Kiera is overjoyed for her cousin Rye and her detractor-turned-friend Charlotte who are being wed in a private ceremony at the estate of Rye’s great-uncle, the Marquess of Barbreck, in what seems to be the perfect wedding party.

But when Kiera is invited to peruse Barbreck’s extensive art collection, she is disturbed to discover that one of his most priceless paintings seems to be a forgery. The marquess’s furious reaction when she dares to mention it leaves her shaken and the entire house shocked. For it turns out that this is not the first time the word forgery has been uttered in connection with the Barbreck household.

Matters turn more ominous when a maid from a neighboring estate is found murdered  where the forged painting hangs. Is her death connected to the forgeries, perhaps a grisly warning of what awaits those who dare to probe deeper? With unknown entities aligned against them, Kiera and Gage are forced to confront the fact that they may have underestimated their opponent. For they are swiftly made to realize that Charlotte’s and Rye’s future happiness is not the only issue at stake, and this stealthy game of cat and mouse could prove to have deadly consequences.

link to purchase the book

MY THOUGHTS:

Set in Scotland in the 1830s, A Perilous Perspective is the tenth book in Anna Lee Huber's historical mystery series. As a series fanatic, usually I won't jump into a series this late without reading any of the previous books. However, the premise for this book intrigued me so I jumped right in. In this installment, Lady Kiera Darby and her husband Sebastian Gage are about to attend a wedding of Kiera's friend Charlotte in the Scottish Islands. They bring their three-month-old daughter Emma along with them. As the wedding will be taking place on her uncle's estate. this affords Kiera the opportunity to seek answers regarding her own past.

However, there are some definite hiccups along the way. For one thing, Charlotte's father does not approve of her soon-to-be husband Rye. Her father was quite a stickler for propriety. Charlotte of course is old enough to marry Rye without permission, but she at least wants her father's blessing. But Charlotte soldiers on, and expects her wedding to be quite lovely.

More than Charlotte's concern for her father's position regarding her upcoming wedding, far more serious things are happening. Soon there is a shocking murder, and this is right up Kiera's ally. Along with Sebastian, Kiera begins an investigation. She wants to solve the murder so that the wedding can go on. There is even more, and this involves some type of forgery scheme.

Factor in long-buried secrets that are now unraveling, Kiera and Sebastian, in their role as inquiry agents, will leave no stone unturned as they try and find the identity of the killer, all while getting behind the forgeries, lies and secrets that are casting a dark cloud over what should be a delightful occasion

Although I came into this series quite late, this book did quite well as a standalone novel. It had enough of a back story, its own conflicts and strong characters that all made this book quite easy to follow. However, I did check my online libraries and I can get the first nine books in the series and hope to read them before book eleven is released.

Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy the following excerpt:

I tipped my head back and breathed deeply of the Highland air thick with the scent of pine trees and the salty brine of the loch, as well as the faint aroma of old stone. The castle ruins providing us shade were little more than two stubby walls of a former tower while a number of larger stones straggled across the hillock. Lord Barbreck had explained that the rest of the rocks had long been carted away, most of them being utilized to help build the new castle in the early seventeenth century near the spot where the manor now stood. That building had been burned to the ground by Hanoverian troops following the Jacobite rising of 1745, but if I looked to the northeast over the treetops, I could just spy the decorative chimneys and crenellations of the Georgian manor which had been built to replace it some fifty years ago. At the sound of the loud snuffle behind me, I looked over my shoulder to find Lady Bearsden blinking up at Morven. "Rise and shine, sleepy-head," my cousin teased as she poured herself some lemonade from the pitcher she'd located. "I wasn't sleeping," she countered, pushing herself upright, then patting her snow-white hair to be certain it was in place. "Merely resting my eyes." Morven nodded toward her chin. "Then I suppose you'll blame that bit of drool on little Emma?" Lady Bearsden swiped at her face but, upon seeing the smirk Morven had failed to hide behind her glass, narrowed her eyes. Morven bent forward to return the pitcher to the basket, but the older lady halted her with a thump of her gold figure-headed cane, narrowly missing my cousin's foot. "Aren't you going to offer to pour some for me? My, but isn't it warm today." She fanned her face with her hand. "And you ladies dashing about in this heat." "I suppose you and Kiera had the right idea," Morven replied good-naturedly, handing her the glass of lemonade she'd demanded in retaliation for Morven's impertinence. Lady Bearsden accepted it with a nod of thanks. "I told Kiera I was surprised she'd not brought her sketchbook with her, as I've scarcely seen her without it the past three days." She had, indeed, already remarked such just before dozing off and apparently missing my answer. "There are many interesting sights to capture at Barbreck," I replied. "But I suspected it would be much too blustery on this hill to fumble with paper and charcoals, and I was correct." "All the same, that view must be beckoning to you," Charlotte interjected, admiring the aspect before us. "Yes and no." This admission was met by a quizzical glance. "Kiera is only curious about people." A twinkle lit Morven's eyes as she sat beside me again. "Landscapes are much too dull and less prone to foibles." I laughed. "I suppose that's partly true. But portraits are definitely where my talents lie. I wish I could paint a landscape half so well as Gainsborough or Constable," I added wistfully. My cousin made a derisive sound at the back of her throat. "Well, I wish I could paint more than a blob with arms and legs. You happen to be one of the most gifted portrait artists in all of Britain, so don't expect me to feel sorry for you." I smiled at her taunting tone, hearing the pride behind it. Though she had been exaggerating, at least a little. It was true that, second only to my family, my art was my greatest passion. But while my portrait paintings had recently become all the rage, that was more due to my scandalous reputation than my talent. And my decision some months past to stop accepting portrait commissions had only seen the demand for them rise. In the past three weeks alone, I had turned down two outrageous offers from one of the highest-ranking peers of the realm and a wealthy industrialist. Had money been my chief consideration, I might have been sorely tempted, but Gage's fortune was more than adequate, and I was much more interested in pursuing my own portrait projects. "I've two Gainsboroughs up at the hall," the Marquess of Barbreck declared, shuffling over to rejoin us with the aid of his walking stick. "A few Van Dycks, Titian, Reynolds, Zoffany . . ." he continued rattling off artists' names, some of whom made my ears perk up with interest. I had already spied a pair of portraits by Thomas Lawrence and a delightful watercolor by Thomas Girtin, but I'd not yet had time to explore the rest of the manor, what with the demands of motherhood and preparations for the wedding to be completed. "Yes, Barbreck is quite proud of his art collection," my Aunt Cait said, breaking into this litany as she herded Morven's youngest child toward his mother. As always, dressed in the first stare of fashion, my late mother's younger sister appeared elegant and unruffled even after chasing a toddler and his ball about. "Rightfully so," Barbreck trumpeted in his deep brogue as he settled in the other chair. "'Tis one o' the finest private collections in all o' Scotland. Nay, all o' Britain!" He gestured upward with his walking stick before lowering it to point at me, his scraggly white eyebrows arching. "I'll take you for a tour myself one o' these days." He thumped the stick down between his legs, leaning against the silver filigreed head. Between his and Lady Bearsden's canes, I expected someone's head or knuckles to be rapped at any moment. "At least I ken you'll appreciate it." Excerpted from A Perilous Perspective by Anna Lee Huber Copyright © 2022 by Anna Lee Huber. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Anna Lee Huber is the Daphne Award–winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries and the Verity Kent Mysteries. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides with her family and is hard at work on her next novel.