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To be or not to be!

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The Lady Plays with Fire  (Goode’s Code to Misconduct #2) by Susanna Craig    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It was not the most fortuitous of introductions. Julie Addison goes with her sort of aunt / companion Mrs Hayes to the theatre. They’ve obtained the use of Graham McKay, Earl of Dunstane’s box for the season from the Box Manager. The Earl apparently stayed in the wilds of Scotland. Imagine her consternation to find the Earl occupying said box. What? The theatre’s full so there’s no chance of seats somewhere else. Reluctantly Graham allows them to join him. Little does he know that Julie is actually “Miss on Scene” who writes theatre reviews for a relatively new women’s publication “Mrs Goode’s Magazine for Misses.” By the same token no one is aware that Graham is the infamous playwright Randome Blackadder who’s currently writing  an other scathing play ridiculing his audience, including the reviewer Miss on Scene. Graham is both appalled and struck by Miss on Scene’s latest review of his work. The d
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An American heiress challenges the aristocracy

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The Stranger I Wed  (Doves of New York #1) by Harper St. George       ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The marriage of convenience trope takes on new insights here. Cora Dove and her sisters, illegitimate daughters of one of Fifth Avenue’s most prestigious families, have been left a large sum of money by their grandmother. Its conditional upon them marrying someone their father, Mr. Hathaway (who doesn’t acknowledge them) approves of, and they remove themselves from New York. The girls and their mother sail to London (far enough away?) to join the stream of American heiresses marrying into the cash strapped aristocracy. (Approval guaranteed!) Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, is a  vocal member of parliament supporting a variety of forward thinking causes. He  needs to marry an heiress. His brother Harry’s gambling habit is bringing the family coffers to its knees. Their ancestral home,  Timberscombe Park, is  falling down around his ears. (Why he puts up with Harry’s antics are a mystery to me). Cora it se
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Love creeps up unawares!

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My Season of Scandal  (Palace of Rogues #7) by Julie Anne Long       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another sparkling episode set in London’s exclusive yet lively boardinghouse, The Grand Palace on the Thames. Once a brothel, now a place of superior accommodation with a non negotiable set of rules and a lively cast of permanent residents. Catherine Keating is a doctor’s daughter. She’s been persuaded to come to London for a season and is ensconced in the Grand Palace. She will chaperoned by her new friend Lucy Morrow’s godmother Lady Wisterberg, who’s also a close friend of her aunt. Lady W is rather interesting, and unfortunately irresponsible from time to time, particularly when she’s swept away by the feverish call of the card tables. It’s the challenge you see!  Any pretence of chaperoning tends to go out of the window when she’s ensnared in a card game, and there’s always a card room set aside at the balls they attend. Lord Dominic Kirk is a Member of Parliament who champions laws to improve the lot
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A Confederate Challenge, 1894!

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Death and Glory  (Barker and Llewellyn #15) by Will Thomas   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Detectives Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn have their hands full with the surfacing of a thirty year old document, a Treaty, testifying that Britain sold an iron warship to the Confederacy during the war between the North and the South. Barker and Llewelyn find themselves ensconced in International politics. If the Treaty is legitimate, the British Government is in an unenviable position.  Survivors, ex- soldiers, have been plotting for decades to fund a war from the countries they had escaped to—Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and Columbia. The war of Northern Aggression will be redefined and the Confederacy restored. Now they are raising money and marching on towards their goal of taking the warship which they will use as a model to build more cheaply in the countries they now reside in. An amarda of iron ships will rise and threaten the newly established United States order. (Thomas’s research is amazing!) We have armed
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Wickedly, joyous Lady Detective!

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The Mayfair Dagger : A Novel  by Ava January       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ After her father, an Earl and renowned scientist dies followed by her brother Algernon, Albertine Honeycombe is left to the mercy of cousin Franklin,  who’s  always considered her as uncontrollable. When Franklin decides to marry her off to a farmer with fifteen children, Albertine decides to flee in the kitchen dogcart, along with her friend Joan. She’s come to London to become a detective. A dream she and her brother Algernon always had. Albertine (or Bertie) takes on the personae of Countess Avon Dagga, whose husband the Count is supposedly still abroad. Breaking into the detecting business is not easy. She takes on some small tasks, but is never paid. When one of those tasks has her being arrested for murder Albertine has no-one to turn to, except maybe the Scotland Yard Inspector. Albertina had taken on the case of retrieving some ill advised letters written by a prominent ton member Lady Roche to Lord Grendel from his
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Volatile!

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A Duke of One's Own   by Emma Orchard     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I knew within a few pages I was going to lourve this. Deftly woven Emma Orchard! An unusual heroine who’s feisty, gives into her passions, and beloved by her family even as they support her through her many mishaps. Lady Georgina Pendlebury craved a little more excitement so she’d gone to what she thought would be slightly outre masquerade dressed as a young man with her new friend, the dashing widow Mrs. Caroline Aubrey. (The action in the Prologue reminded me of some of Heyer’s works but with a great deal more explicitness taking place. You know, aging rake meets feisty innocent.) Although this time Georgina mishaps spectacularly with the infamous Silver Duke, whom she meets under somewhat spurious circumstances. (And this mishap, unknown to her, looked like coming back to  bite.) What Emma had entered was a scandalously luxurious house where orgies were taking place everywhere!  It’s here Georgina becomes somewhat involved with
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Assassins, Spies and Love!

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A Touch Wicked  (Private Arrangements #0.5) by Katrina Kendrick     ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Emma and Isobel Dumont are the illegitimate daughters of the Duke of Southampton and a French mother had grown up in poverty in Paris when the Duke had thrown his mistress out. They had done everything they could to find money for medicine for their mother. To no avail. Concerned for her sister Isabel, Emma had gone to her flat and found the place in disarray and Isabel missing.  What she does find is a card with a place in London called The Masquerade.  She’s then attacked by a man who’s also looking for Isobel. Emma’s able to fight free. Emma flees to London where she becomes a maid to  Alexandra,  the sister of James Grey, the Earl of Kent. With employment settled she’s able to pursue her search. That means entering The Masquerade. But who does she meet there but James. Emma becomes Tempest.  James is completely enthralled by Tempest, but how can he be attracted to both her and his sister’s maid. He’s troubl
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