"Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord" by Celeste Connally ~ My Review

 Hello, my friends! It's been a while since I've posted a review. This is more of a mini review, but I thought I'd post it anyway. 😃

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord

by Celeste Connally

Publication Date: November 14th, 2023

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Pages: 304

Received: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Description

Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, a dazzling first entry in a terrific new Regency-era mystery series with a feminist spin. 

When Lady Petra Forsyth’s fiancé and soulmate dies just weeks ahead of their wedding, she makes the shocking proclamation—in front of London’s loosest lips—that she will never remarry. A woman of independent means, Petra sees no reason to cede her wealth and freedom to any man now that the love of her life has passed, nor does she intend to become confined to her country home. Instead, she uses her title to gain access to elite spaces and enjoy the best of society without expectations. 

But when ballroom gossip suggests that a longtime friend has died of “melancholia” while in the care of a questionable physician, Petra vows to use her status to dig deeper—uncovering a private asylum where men pay to have their wives and daughters locked away, or worse. Just as Lady Petra has reason to believe her friend is not dead, but a prisoner, her own headstrong actions and thirst for independence are used to put her own freedom in jeopardy.

 

My Review

Fabulous story! What a page-turner! I found myself thinking about the story when I wasn't reading it. 

Lady Petra is a strong, independent woman with a curious mind. And I like that! She is also concerned for the welfare of others, even those not of her station, like the street urchin Teddy. 

Taking the loss of her friend Gwen to heart, Lady Petra must discover what happened to her. Her curiosity sends Lady Petra into dangerous situations. I was so anxious for her!

I highly recommend Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord for your reading pleasure!

FTC Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher.

Purchase Links

Buy: Amazon (paid links) • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop

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About the Author

Celeste Connally is an Agatha Award nominee, and a former

freelance writer and editor. A lifelong devotee of historical novels and adaptations fueled by her passion for history—plus weekly doses of PBS Masterpiece—Celeste loves reading and writing about women from the past who didn’t always do as they were told.

Connect with Celeste Connally

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Thanks for stopping by, dear readers! I'd love to hear what you think of this book! Have you read it? I have always found terrifying that women could be place in an asylum by their husbands or fathers. 

"Every Time We Say Goodbye" by Natalie Jenner ~ Cover Reveal!

Hello, my friends! I'm back with another cover reveal! It's my pleasure to bring you Natalie Jenner's newest book, Every Time We Say Goodbye. 

I'm very excited about this book as I have read both The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls (I'll link my reviews for these books at the bottom of this page). Having met Vivien in Bloomsbury Girls, I look forward to getting to know her better!

A Message From Author Natalie Jenner

Hello Dear Readers,

Every Time We Say Goodbye was the hardest book I will ever write, and the most rewarding.

It all started when I learned about the world-famous Cinecittà movie studio in Rome being used as a war refugee camp in the 1940s. People who had been stripped of everything—homes, possessions, even their most basic humanity—suddenly found themselves confined to life inside a “dream factory.” I decided to set my third novel during a very specific, very cool time in history—la dolce vita of mid 1950s Rome—while exploring the incredibly complex and haunting legacy of that city under German occupation during the Second World War.

I also wanted to know why Vivien Lowry, a character from my book Bloomsbury Girls, had been so angry all the time! I wondered if a woman could make the biggest mistake of her life and move past the regret in a way that benefitted her and the world around her. I never intended to write a dual timeline. I had been working on Every Time We Say Goodbye for nearly a year when the voice of a young female Italian resistance fighter codenamed la scolaretta—the schoolgirl assassin—suddenly showed up on the page one day. Having witnessed the bravery and sacrifice of so many to keep us safe during our world’s most recent challenge, I wanted to pay tribute to them. How fortunate am I, through the intimate and emotional power of historical fiction, to have the opportunity to do so.

I packed everything I could into this book: love and conflict, faith and religion, censorship and resistance, art and moviemaking, fashion and food, and cameos by favorite actresses such as Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner and characters from both The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls (I, myself am terrible at goodbyes!). 

I hope, more than anything, that Every Time We Say Goodbye gives readers the entertainment, inspiration and food for thought that nourished me throughout its writing.

Best wishes, Natalie

And now for the moment you've been waiting for! 🥁🥁🥁

Book Description

The bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls returns with a brilliant novel of love and art, of grief and memory, of confronting the past and facing the future.

In 1955, Vivien Lowry is at a crossroads in life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Vivien's last chance for theatrical success. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. There she finds a vibrant moviemaking scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeate the very soul of Italy.

As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also searches for the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the fate of her deceased fiancé lost in battle. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a bold and moving exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.

(Every Time We Say Goodbye is linked to The Jane Austen Society, & Bloomsbury Girls by characters, but is a stand-alone novel.) 

Advance Praise

• “I’m in awe of Natalie Jenner’s new novel, which surprised me at every turn. At times it reads like the juiciest historical tell all, boasting cameos by enduring household names like Sophia Loren and Gina Lollabrigida, and featuring a party where Ava Gardner dances on the table. But most importantly, this is a story about damaged people who are still blinking into the light after the nightmare of the Second World War. This beautiful book balances and explores the most heroic aspects of humanity, and by extension the most evil. Every Time We Say Good Bye is a heartbreaking, engrossing, and thoroughly dazzling work of art that would make the filmmakers at the center of its story proud.” —Nina de Gramont, New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair
• “Every Time We Say Goodbye welcomes back beloved characters from Jenner’s previous novels along with a new fascinating cast in Italy for the production of post-war films. Well-researched and written in a perfect blend of harrowing and heartwarming, this is another fabulous Natalie Jenner novel that historical fiction fans will adore!” —Madeline Martin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London and The Librarian Spy
• “In her latest novel, Every Time We Say Goodbye, Natalie Jenner deftly weaves in elegant prose, the lives of the incredibly unique characters working to create a controversial war film at the Cinecitta in Italy, and the effects they have on each other and society. An emotionally poignant tale, that explores the human condition before, during and after war, and how those experiences change some while others remain unapologetically stuck. Ultimately, readers will find themselves swept along on a vivid journey through 1950s Italy, wading through the pains of the characters’ pasts and the sacrifices they made, in order to find a way to their hopeful future. Every once in a while, a story comes along that really grips you and inspires you to contemplate the choices we’re all given, and Jenner has done that here. An absolute page-turner, I couldn’t put this captivating book down.” —Eliza Knight, USA Today bestselling author of The Mayfair Bookshop and Starring Adele Astaire 

About the Author

Natalie Jenner is the internationally bestselling author of The
Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls, which have been translated into more than twenty languages worldwide. Born in England and raised in Canada, Natalie has been a corporate lawyer and career coach and once owned an independent bookstore in Oakville, Ontario, where she lives with her family and two rescue dogs.

Connect with Natalie Jenner

Website • X (formerly Twitter) • Facebook • Instagram • Goodreads

Publisher: St. Martin's Press 

Publication Date: May 14th, 2024

Pages: 336

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Purchase Links

Amazon (*paid link) • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop • St. Martin's Press • BookBub

Add to Goodreads

*FTC Disclaimer: Link to Amazon. I am an Amazon Associate. I will receive a small commission if you purchase a book through the link provided. Thanks!

Links to my Reviews

The Jane Austen Society 

Bloomsbury Girls

Many thanks to Laurel Ann Nattress @ Austenprose PR for including me on this blog cover reveal tour! 

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear if you're also looking forward to this book!

A Winter by the Sea by Julie Klassen ~ Cover Reveal!

Hello, my friends! I'm delighted to bring you another cover reveal! Julie Klassen has a new book, A Winter by the Sea, coming out in December 2023! It's my pleasure to be part of the cover reveal book tour! 

Before we see the cover, here's a word from Julie Klassen:

Dear Readers,

I am excited to give you an insider’s look at my December 2023 novel, A Winter by the Sea. This is the second book in the On Devonshire Shores series. Book One, The Sisters of Sea View, has been enthusiastically received and reviewed. I am grateful for each of you who helped spread the word about it!

During my research, I learned that the Duke and Duchess of Kent and their baby daughter stayed in Woolbrook Cottage (very near fictional Sea View) during the winter of 1819-1820. I instantly knew I wanted to include them in the novel to give readers a glimpse of the early life of Queen Victoria and her parents. The royal party arrived with too many attendants to accommodate at Woolbrook, so some were lodged elsewhere. I thought it would be fun to have a few staff members stay at Sea View, including a pastry chef who invades their kitchen, a man in desperate straits, and the duke’s handsome private secretary.

It was also interesting to write a seaside novel set during wintertime (it was unusually cold and snowy that year). Because I live in frigid Minnesota, cold weather details and sensations were easy to imagine. 😊

When I began writing this series, I had not yet traveled to Sidmouth, where the series is set. I am happy to say I was able to visit in August 2022 and was thrilled to experience this delightful town in person. The highlight of that trip was meeting the staff and volunteers of the Sidmouth Museum who have been extremely helpful in answering research questions and checking setting details for me.

A Winter by the Sea focuses on beautiful Emily Summers, who finds herself caught up in two rivalries. First, while striving to further her writing aspirations, Emily is torn between her loyalty to a well-established publisher & bookseller and his flamboyant competitor. Second, despite her best intentions, she is attracted to one of their new guests, but an old love comes to town, determined to renew their courtship.

I hope you are eager to return with me to the English seaside for Book Two of the On Devonshire Shores series. Thank you for all you do to support my books, and readers everywhere! 

Gratefully, Julie

About the Author

Julie Klassen loves all things Jane—Jane Eyre and Jane Austen.
Her books have sold more than a million copies and she is a three-time recipient of the Christy Award for Historical Romance. She has also been honored with the Minnesota Book Award, Midwest Book Award, and Christian Retailing’s BEST Award. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Julie worked in publishing for sixteen years and now writes full time. She and her husband have two sons and live in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Pinterest • Instagram • Goodreads

Now without further ado, here's the cover!

Book Description

When the Duke and Duchess of Kent rent neighboring Woolbrook Cottage for the winter, the Summers sisters are called upon to host three of the royal couple's male staff in their seaside house. But they soon realize they've invited mysterious secrets and the sweet possibility of romance into their home.

Meanwhile, Emily Summers approaches a local publisher in hopes of fulfilling her dream of becoming an author. When he turns her down, his dashing competitor promises to consider her novel if she will first write a new Sidmouth guidebook for him. Emily accepts and begins researching with the help of the Duke of Kent's handsome private secretary. But a surprise visitor from her past shows up at Sea View, leaving Emily torn between the desires she used to hold dear and her budding dreams for the future.

Return to the Devonshire coast with the Summers sisters, where loyalties are tested, secrets come to light, and new love emerges.

Purchase Links

Amazon (paid link) • Barnes & Noble • Book Depository • Bookshop

Add to Goodreads

FTC Disclaimer: Link to Amazon. I am an Amazon Associate. I will receive a small commission if you purchase a book through the link provided. Thanks!

Many thanks to Laurel Ann Nattress @ AustenprosePR for organizing and including me on this tour! 

Wow! This looks like another fantastic book! Be sure to pre-order your copy! 

Under a Veiled Moon by Karen Odden ~ Blog Tour ~ Excerpt

 Hello, my friends! Today I'm excited to bring you an excerpt from Karen Odden's new book Under a Veiled Moon! I read this book and loved it. It's the second book in the series, and although I haven't read the first, I didn't have any trouble jumping right into this mystery. 

Under a Veiled Moon

An Inspector Corravan Mystery

by Karen Odden

BOOK 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.

Corrovan’s dilemma is compounded by Colin, the youngest Doyle, who has joined James McCabe’s Irish gang. As violence in Whitechapel rises, Corravan strikes a deal with McCabe to get Colin out of harm’s way. But unbeknownst to Corravan, Colin bears longstanding resentments against his adopted brother and scorns his help.

As the newspapers link the IRB to further accidents, London threatens to devolve into terror and chaos. With the help of his young colleague, the loyal Mr. Stiles, and his friend Belinda Gale, Corravan uncovers the harrowing truth—one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself.

 

Excerpt

Having finished writing my daily report, I left Wapping, walking past the London Docks to Sloane Street, where the Goose and Gander stood at the corner of Hackford. 

The sight of it brought back the afternoons Pat Doyle and I would come here, our spirits buoyed by the shillings in our pockets from working on the docks. We steered clear of most public houses—like the English Pearl, a few doors down, or the Drum and Thistle—but we two Irish stevedores found a welcome here, in this low-ceilinged room with a pair of rusted swords and a Celtic Cross over the mantle. Joining in on the bawdy choruses after a few pints made Pat and me feel like men—Irish men—and, for a while, as if we belonged. I’m not proud to admit it, but I liked it when someone who wasn’t Irish was scowled out of the place. 

Life was hard on the docks. The dockmaster, named Smithson, always hired Pat and me as a pair because he knew that together we could accomplish four times what any other single man could. It didn’t keep Smithson from treating us the worst, though. If there was a swan-necked cart with a wheel that wasn’t working properly, that would be ours for the day. If we took time to fix the wheel, our wages would be docked. Sometimes we didn’t get a cart at all and had to haul the goods on our backs. If a bag of tea burst because it was roughly handled or at the bottom of a heavy pile, we’d be blamed. Pat and I kept to ourselves, mostly, though after a time we banded with a few older Irishmen who were hired regularly. We did our work, held our heads down, stayed out of people’s way. Still, most days Smithson would shout at us for being feckin’ Irish eejits, which worried me because Pat was quick to throw down whatever bag he was toting in order to free up his fists, and I’d have to remind him that we needed the money more than we wanted Smithson to pay for his spite. I hated it too. But we had no choice but to stay and take it. 

It was the docks that taught me what being Irish meant because growing up in my part of the Chapel, Irish was all I knew. Like hundreds of others during the famine years, my parents sailed from Dublin to Liverpool, making portions of that city along the Mersey River more Irish than English. My father was a silversmith, and a skilled one, but there wasn’t enough work for all the silversmiths who had landed in Liverpool, so he and my mum came down to the Irish part of Whitechapel. With anti-Irish feeling running high, shops elsewhere in London wouldn’t hire a man with black hair and blue eyes named Corravan, with an accent straight out of County Armagh. My mum never told me so, but my father did what many Irishmen had to do—plied their trade sideways. He became a counterfeiter, making two-bit coins in a cellar somewhere, with fumes that clung to him when he came through our door at night. He died when I was three years old, too young to remember him well, but old enough that the odor of suet and oil and the bitter tang of cyanide had rooted itself in my brain. During one of my earliest cases in Lambeth, I walked into a house and recognized the smell straightaway, like I knew the smell of tea or hops or onions. That’s when I realized how my father had put bread on our table. 

The rancor against the Irish grates at me sometimes. Not to say we don’t deserve some of it. Four years ago, two Irishmen in Lambeth threw firebombs into one of Barnardo’s English orphanages, to protest that Parliament had just prohibited the Irish from setting up orphanages for our own. The next morning, the corpses of twenty-six children were laid out on the street and on the front page of every newspaper in London. For weeks after, shame hacked at my insides. I could barely meet anyone’s eye. 

But we Irish don’t all deserve to be tarred with the same brush, and it’s hard to bear the ugly opinions printed in the papers. Nowadays, I stop reading if I catch a hint of hatred in the first lines, but there was a time when I would read the articles and letters from “concerned citizens” and “true Englishmen” because I wanted to know the worst that could be said of us. That was before I realized that words could be infinitely malicious. There was no worst; there was only more. I still remember the conclusion of one letter because it seemed so preposterous: “The Irish are the dregs in the barrel, the lowest of the low. They kill their fathers, rape their sisters, and eat their children, stuffing their maws with blood and potatoes indifferently, like wild beasts.” 

Well, that wasn’t true of any of the Irish I knew. Indeed, as I laid my hand on the doorknob of the Goose and Gander, I was reasonably certain that inside I’d find Irish folks sitting, eating normal food, and playing cards. 

I pushed open the wooden door, greeted the barmaid, and asked if O’Hagan had been in. She shook her head. “Not yet. He usually comes around eight.”

Chapter 4, pp. 28-30 

From Under a Veiled Moon © 2022, Karen Odden, published by Crooked Lane Books.

Advanced Praise

• “[An] exceptional sequel . . . Fans of Lyndsay Faye’s Gods of Gotham trilogy will be enthralled.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
• “Victorian skulduggery with a heaping side of Irish troubles.” —Kirkus Reviews
• “Charismatic police superintendent Michael Corravan is back in a gripping sequel about the mysterious sinking of the Princess Alice. Odden deftly weaves together English and Irish history, along with her detective's own story, in a way that will keep readers flipping pages long into the night.” —Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author of Mother Daughter Traitor Spy and the Maggie Hope series.

Purchase Links

Amazon (paid link) • Barnes & Nobel • Book Depository • Bookshop 

Add to Goodreads

FTC Disclaimer: Link to Amazon. I am an Amazon Associate. I will receive a small commission if you purchase a book through the link provided. Thanks!

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.

Connect with Karen Odden

Website • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • Bookbub • Goodreads

Author Interview

Read an exclusive interview with author Karen Odden.

Congratulations to Karen Odden on the release of Under a Veiled Moon!

Many thanks to Laurel Ann Nattress @ Austenprose PR for organizing and including me on this tour!

I enjoyed reading Under a Veiled Moon. Odden artfully blended fiction with actual events. Inspector Corravan is a thoroughly likeable guy. I recommend this story, especially if you like mysteries or Irish history.

Any thoughts? Please feel free to leave any comments below.