Review: Indigo

When people talk about Beverly Jenkins' books some common threads always appear.  They talk about her use of history in the context of developing a romance arc.  They talk about her stellar heroines.  They talk about her manly heroes who, generally speaking, fall hard for the heroine.  And they talk about Indigo - her third published book and a favorite for many, many of her fans.  After listening to it on audio?  I can see why.  There is so much to unpack in this story.

Hester Wyatt's father was a free man who sold himself into bondage to be with Hester's mother.  After his death, Hester and her mother were sold (separately) and after 6 years Hester, still a young child, was spirited away from the South Carolina indigo plantation by a man posing as a slave trader.  Turns out he was working for Hester's aunt, her father's sister, a free woman living in Michigan.  Hester was no longer a slave.  She learned at her aunt's knee, and continued her abolitionist work after her death.  Hester's home near Ann Arbor, Michigan is part of the Underground Railroad.

It's on a dark, stormy night that Galen Vachon arrives on her doorstep, severely beaten.  Galen is known as "The Black Daniel," so infamous for helping runaway slaves that the bounty on his head is astronomical.  Galen firmly believes that there is a traitor in Hester's small town, which nearly led to his capture by vile slave catchers, whereas Hester cannot fathom such a notion.  She lives in a town of good people, many of them heavily involved in the Railroad and other abolitionist causes.  Surely Galen is mistaken.

That's how the story opens - with Hester nursing a wounded (and cantankerous) man back to health while hiding the fact he's living in her cellar when slave catchers come knocking on her door.  Then, about halfway through, Galen's true identity is revealed.  He comes from a very wealthy Louisiana Creole family with some dramatic family dynamics and enough money and power at his disposal to aid the abolitionist cause.

So this is really the tale of two books.  It starts off one way (Galen is just some ordinary bloke doing extraordinary work) and finished another (Galen is a rich man whose money makes life easier - in some respects - for the romantic couple).  I could see some readers being disappointed with this turn of events reading the book for the first time in 2018 - because, to be honest, we hit Peak Billionaire Saturation Point about 5 years ago.  But it's a very smart authorial choice by Jenkins as it allows her to address a lot of -isms in relation to the developing romance.

Besides racism, Jenkins also addresses classism and colorism into the conflict of the romance.  Galen's grandmother is a piece of work, and the Creole's have their own rich, vibrant history within the framework of US History at large.  But that doesn't mean they were immune to -isms.  Galen falling for a dark skinned former slave, whose bondage is branded on her in the form of her permanently indigo stained hands and feet, would be painfully unacceptable to someone like his grandmother.  Add to this that Galen's grandfather left his grandmother for his dark-skinned mistress and yeah.  Hester would be seen as less than nothing.  It would be the equivalent of a Duke falling in love with a scullery maid.  It just isn't done.

Then, of course, there's the racism.  The Underground Railroad and the work of abolitionists features prominently and per Jenkins' modus operandi, she creates an entire community around the primary romance and larger story.  I've read probably a handful of Jenkins' work now (4 or 5?) and my usual quibble is that I wish her plotting were tighter.  Well, turns out - that's not really my quibble.  Indigo finally has helped me to articulate what Jenkins does so well: she creates Community Based Romance.  Basically she's writing Small Town Contemporary except her books aren't always in small towns or contemporaries.  She doesn't just give readers the romance.  She gives readers a whole community.  And, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know that that's not really my "thing" in the romance genre.  It's why I love category length romance so much - that intense, hyper-awareness of the romance. I basically want to be claustrophobic in the romance with no outside distractions.  So yeah. Jenkins' plotting is not "too loose."  She's building a world - which is what 95% of what readers want and I'm simply contrary.  Seriously, do you love small town contemporaries?  Jenkins' historicals are PERFECT crossover. Turns out Wendy is not too old to learn.

Books like Indigo make me wish someone could pay me a livable wage to sit around and talk romance novels all day.  It's the kind of book that scholars should study - because what Jenkins creates is amazing.  How she addresses slavery, classism, colorism, and even sexism (some of Hester's male counterparts working on the Railroad are dismissive of the work the women are doing - because OF COURSE they are).  There were moments where I felt the history Jenkins infuses into the story wasn't always seamless (John Brown's Raid comes into play at the end, and it felt like a clunky insertion), but having read some of Jenkins' later work, I think this is more a by-product of her getting stronger as a writer over time (remember, this was only her third published book!).  Also, I "get" why some of those less-than-seamless historical elements were included in the story - they make sense given the lives the characters are living.

I feel like I can ramble on about this book for days.  There's just a lot here and now usurps Topaz as my favorite Jenkins book.  The heroine is simply dynamite (she is so, so good - even by Jenkins' stellar heroine standards) and the larger themes the author explores are just so incredibly well-thought out without weighing down the romance.  A tour de force.

Final Grade = A-

Mini-Reviews: Age Appropriate

I'm convinced these kids today don't realize how good they have it.  I LOVED mystery/suspense as a kid, which meant once I outgrew Lois Duncan and Nancy Drew I basically had to run to the adult area of the library to get my fix.  There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins is basically a teen slasher movie in book format.  The heroine, Makani Young, was living with her worthless parents in Hawaii before Something Happens and she's shipped off to grandma's in Nebraska.  Needless to say, she hates it. But she's made a couple of friends and has a blossoming romance with the loner kid (Ollie) who dyed his hair pink because it was "something to do."

But something sinister is lurking in the corn fields.  A serial killer is murdering her classmates.  Before he brutally knifes them to death?  He toys with them.  He breaks into houses, moves things around, and has the victims' thinking they're losing it.  I now know that egg timers are sinister and knives that you leave in the sink that magically end up in the dishwasher are OMG SCARY!!!!!

This starts out great but ends up losing steam.  For one thing, I grew up in a town like Makani.  My high school graduating class was around 170 kids.  I knew everybody in my class (even if I didn't "hang out with them") and a decent chunk of the kids in the grades higher or lower.  Was I BFFs with everybody?  Of course not. But I knew what type of students they were, what clubs they were in, who their friends were etc. etc. etc.  If a police officer were to show up and question me, I could give them something even if it was bare bones info.  The author skirts this by making Makani a newcomer but I still didn't buy it.  When you're a kid in a small town you just KNOW 99% of the student body.

The town's and the adults' response to a serial killer brutally murdering teens strains credulity more often than not.  The town never goes into lock-down mode. School isn't cancelled immediately after the second kid is MURDERED IN A LOCKER ROOM!!!  I don't expect 100% realism in a slasher story but c'mon!

Also the author decides to reveal who the killer is around the halfway mark and this goes from mystery to thriller.  That's fine until the SUPER rushed ending.  If ever a book needed an epilogue, this one did.  It's good, but dagnabit, it could have been great!

Final Grade = C+

Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries world is my happy place.  It's like flying unicorns farting out rainbow sprinkles while I'm gorging myself on cupcakes with pink frosting.  You will pry this world out of my cold dead hands!  Royal Crown is the fourth book in the middle grade series that follows Princess Mia's half-sister, Olivia.  In this book Olivia is dealing with her frenemy and cousin, Louisa being...well, Louisa and her BFF from New Jersey, Nishi, visiting.  The drama here is that her friends are "maturing" faster than she is (OMG, Olivia hasn't kissed her friend-who-is-a-boy yet?!  OMG, Olivia doesn't have her period yet?!?!?).  Added to this is drama surrounding Mia's coronation ceremony and the girls deciding to start a Royal Babysitting Service.

This started out a little slow and bumpy for me, but it picks up steam.  Look, is Cabot rehashing some ground she covered in the earlier Mia books?  Yeah. But some things are just universal when it comes to tweens/teens and the whole "my friends are more 'grown-up' than I am" is definitely one of those things.  It all conveniently works out in the end (a bit too conveniently but heck, this is a story geared towards a tween audience not a cranky old lady like myself!) and I had a great time revisiting this world because...of course I did.  Lemon Drop needs to get maybe another year older and I'm so going to be starting her on this series.

Final Grade = B

Unusual Historicals for September 2018

Oh, so hey - the world is on fire. I know, it’s been on fire, but instead of singed around the edges I kind of feel like my hair has erupted into an inferno. It’s been a struggle for me to read for a while now but I’ve hobbled along in large part thanks to audio books and finding comfort reads where I can. Unfortunately this has not extended to historicals, my first love in the genre. I’m in a historical slump. But I’m nothing if not stubborn. I know this slump will break the minute I sink my teeth into an amazing book - which means it’s time to browse! Here’s what’s catching my eye for September.

A Sinner Without a Saint by Bliss Bennet

An honorable artist  

Benedict Pennington's greatest ambition is not to paint a masterpiece, but to make the world's greatest art accessible to all by establishing England's first national art museum. Success in persuading a reluctant philanthropist to donate his collection of Old Master paintings brings his dream tantalizingly close to reality. Until Viscount Dulcie, the object of Benedict's illicit adolescent desire, begins to court the donor's granddaughter, set on winning the paintings for himself . . .

A hedonistic viscount  

Sinclair Milne, Lord Dulcie, far prefers collecting innovative art and dallying with handsome men than burdening himself with a wife. But when rivals imply Dulcie's refusal to pursue wealthy Miss Adler and her paintings is due to lingering tender feelings for Benedict Pennington, Dulcie vows to prove them wrong. Not only will he woo her away from the holier-than-thou painter, he'll also placate his matchmaking father in the process.  

Sinner and saint--can both win at love?  

But when Benedict is dragooned into painting his portrait, Dulcie finds himself once again drawn to the intense artist. Can the sinful viscount entice the wary painter into a casual liaison, one that will put neither their reputations, nor their feelings, at risk? Or will the not-so-saintly artist demand something far more vulnerable--his heart? 

I do like English-set historicals but must admit that the endless parade of matchmaking mamas and Season/Almack’s/White’s talk tends to wear thin for me after 20+ years of reading historical romance. So when I want England, I tend to look for historicals that give me something a little different. Yes, this fourth book in The Penningtons series features a Viscount, but the other hero is a renowned artist and art plays an important role in the story. Sign me up!

A Lady in Need of an Heir by Louise Allen

She needs an heir…  

But not a husband!  

Gabrielle Frost knows that marrying any man would mean handing over control of her beloved family vineyard in Portugal to her new husband. She won’t take that risk. But she needs an heir! So when Nathaniel Graystone, Earl of Leybourne, arrives to escort her to London, Gabrielle wonders—what if this former soldier, with his courage, strength and dangerous air, could be the one to father her child? 

This one intrigues me for a variety of reasons. First, it takes the popular “hero needs an heir” trope and flips it with a role-reversal. Second, we have an independent and successful businesswoman who loves her life and doesn’t want to marry because...well, the life and business she built would then become the property of her husband. And third? The story opens on a vineyard in Portugal. Let’s be honest, I don’t need an excuse to crack open a bottle of wine while I’m reading but basically this book is telling me a have to.

Reclaimed by the Knight by Nicole Locke 

He left to save his family…  

Now he’s back!  

Nicholas of Mei Solis swore to do anything to protect his home—even going away to fight for it. This meant leaving beautiful Matilda, too. Now Nicholas has returned briefly to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. But one look at Matilda, now widowed and with child, changes everything. Suddenly Nicholas is compelled to stay…and to take back the future they both thought they’d lost… 

Locke continues her Lovers and Legends series with her seventh book for Harlequin Historical. I love, love, love the reunited lovers trope and the angst is practically oozing out of this description. A widowed and pregnant heroine who confronts a past she thought buried after the hero, who ran off to fight, comes home.

If Wishes Were Horses by Curtiss Ann Matlock

A remarkable woman, a hard-luck cowboy, and an unlikely race horse. No one thought they had a chance.  

From USA TODAY bestselling author Curtiss Ann Matlock comes the story of a woman with spunk and resolve to rise above poverty. At the death of her cheating husband, Etta Rivers is not only left pregnant and alone, but facing that Roy’s betrayal extends to everything being repossessed: the fancy Cadillac, the big John Deere tractor, and, worst of all, the barn full of precious horses. The house and land are next, unless Etta can find a way to save them.  

Help arrives in the unlikely form of well-worn, ex-rodeo star Johnny Bellah, who has come to collect on one of Roy’s many IOUs. At the outset Etta commandeers Johnny and his truck to take her where she needs to go. Afterward, she allows him to stay for meals and a room in the barn in exchange for doing chores, and breaking the single rangy colt left in the corral—Little Gus. Johnny has ideas that promise hope for the future, but can Etta ever again trust a man with her heart or her life?  

Welcome to Oklahoma of the 1950s—Elvis on kitchen radios, bootleg whiskey, and wild bush-track horse races—and to a story of the many faces of love and grace for two wounded hearts longing to make dreams come true. 

Originally published in 1998 by Avon (That’s right kids - once upon a time Avon did publish books other than Fluff-and-Stuff Costume Regencies. Yeah, I said it!) Matlock has gotten her rights back and self-published. This back cover blurb reads very LaVyrle Spencer to me and an old RT review provides another little nugget of angst. Not only did the heroine’s husband leave her heavily mortgaged up to her eyeballs, he also had the gall to die in another woman’s bed. 

Note: at time of this blog post the Matlock title was only available via Amazon

What unusual historicals are you looking forward to this month?

#TBRChallenge 2018: Private Places Anthology

The Book: Private Places by Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, Allyson James and Shiloh Walker

The Particulars: Historical erotic romance anthology, Berkley, 2008, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I'm fairly certain I got this at a SoCal Bloggers Lunch / Book Swap (back when we used to read print we'd have these epic book swaps - I gotta say I kinda miss them!)  Anyway, I like anthologies because it's a good way to try new-to-me authors without investing a lot of time and energy and this was historical erotic romance so I snagged it.

Review: The anthology kicks off with The Decidedly Devilish Duke by Allyson James and it didn't go well.  Amelia Lockwood is a widow who is at the mercy of her dead husband's heir for her care and well-being.  Naturally he's been stingy with her allowance and naturally it's because he wants to debauch her.  She goes to his estate to confront him, he challenges her to a game of cards (you win you get your allowance, I win you do every debauched thing I can think of...) and she accepts because she knows she can trounce him.  Of course it doesn't enter her bubble head that a guy like this would cheat.  Anyway, Michael Beaulieu (a Duke, because of course he is) witnesses the exchange and manipulates Amelia's late husband's cousin (or whatever he is) to let him play the game in his stead.  Michael and Amelia once had "a thing" before she threw him over for her late husband and he took off to more exotic locales.

Yes, exotic.  It's rumored that Michael spent time in the Middle East (Turkey is specifically mentioned), that he had his own harem, and naturally he's spent an inordinate amount of time outdoors so he's all bronzed and "exotic" looking.  Yes, the word "exotic" is used a few times over the course of the story.  So yeah, none of this is good.  But making it worse is that Michael is the kind of hero who literally says to the heroine, "It doesn’t work that way. I might not be able to stop until too late. A wise woman would leave now.”  Does the heroine pick up the slack?  No, she does not.  Because even though she's a dang widow, the sex with her husband was of the "lay back and think of England" variety.  Because of course she should still be "innocent" so Michael, he of the harem rumors, can "teach" her.  Shoot. Me. Now.

No.  No, no, nopity, no, no.  I really disliked this story.

Grade = D-

On to the next story which is A Night at the Theater by Claudia Dain, a clever idea for a story that suffered mightily on execution.  Two courtesans go to the theater.  Sophia is beautiful, experienced, and knows how to protect herself.  Zoe is young, desperate and looking for a protector.  But as the evening unfolds, the drama happening in the audience is more riveting than the play happening on the stage.

Ugh. So basically the author tries to sell readers on the fact that Zoe and the man she ensnares is this great love match even though he's married and she becomes his mistress.  But it's OK because his wife ends up dying and they live happily ever after in the end.  Sophia seeks revenge on a guy she thinks is a jerk (he is) and uses that revenge as a means to finally bag herself a husband.  None of this is helped by the fact that every blessedly character talks in circles to the point where I wanted to stab my eyes out.  Clever plot idea populated with characters I wanted to run over with a team of stallions.

Grade = D-

So yeah, this is not going well.  Next up is Hunter's Mercy by Shiloh Walker and Praise Jeebus!  Write this down, the paranormal story is the one that saves this anthology from being a complete waste of my energy.

Jack Callahan is coming home after fighting in the Revolutionary War to keep a promise to his BFF, who died in battle.  The promise is, of course, to look after his BFF's little sister, Mercy.  Mercy was a tomboy and tag-along, and unlike her brother, has no idea Jack is a shapeshifter.  Jack is also a Hunter, which means he basically disposes of feral shapeshifters.  He happens across a pair of red coats who fit that bill accosting a slight young man.  Except it turns out the young man is Mercy in disguise.  Ever since her husband was brutally murdered by "monsters" she taken to becoming an amateur hunter - being able to shoot and track thanks to all those years tagging along with her brother and Jack.  And she's gotten good - because she manages to wing Jack with a silver bullet.

The conflict in this story is good.  There's a past between Mercy and Jack, Mercy LOVED her husband, has this amazing amount of guilt over his death because of a Big Secret, and she has NO CLUE that Jack is "a monster."  Walker isn't a historical writer by trade, but she does an OK job with the colonial setting and she populates the story with likable secondary characters.  This didn't wow me (the ending is rather abrupt), but I'm also not a big paranormal reader, so the fact that I liked it says quite a bit (in my opinion).

Grade = B

As incredible as this is going to sound, I've never actually read Robin Schone before.  Her story, The Men and Women's Club, was eye-opening.  It's also part of a series, which made it kind of a mixed bag because I do feel like I "missed" some stuff being completely unfamiliar with the previous book in the series.

Joseph Manning is a professor and Ardelle Dennison the first female publicist for the London Museum.  They are also members of The Men and Women's Club, which Joseph founded for inquiring adults to discuss their desires and intimate secrets.  Something happens in the previous book and there's a trial coming up, leading Joseph and Ardelle to a confrontation.  Ardelle is complicated, a bit standoffish, some say cold, and two years previously she divested Joseph of his virginity.  It's been two years, he's been celibate since, and practically burning for her.

This whole story is basically one giant trigger warning, so I'm going to include spoilers.  Ardelle is career-driven and ambitious, and she's the first female publicist in the history of the London Museum.  To get this plum job?  Yeah, sexual harassment.  It's also later revealed that her father sexually abused her (no penetration and clothes stayed on, but yes it was abuse) and her mother basically made Ardelle feel dirty for her husband's vile behavior.  So yeah, Ardelle has issues.

But Schone doesn't spare Joseph who also has his own dark secrets involving boarding school (because of course he does).  Basically Joseph likes a bit of pain with his pleasure.  There's also some mild humiliation going on between Ardelle and Joseph that they both get off on.

Look, I'm making this sound really unsavory - and it is.  But Schone writes with a maturity that's hard to ignore.  She also writes the most challenging story in this anthology and part of the reason I've always been drawn to erotic writing in general is because I like to be challenged.  I like it when authors explore societal mores and norms, challenge those mores and norms, and in turn challenge the reader.  Is this story one I would recommend?  Lord, I don't know.  But there's a captivating quality to it that I cannot deny.  I'm going to ding this one mostly because it doesn't stand-alone (at all) - but it had that deer in the headlights effect on me, so that's a win.

Grade = C+

This was a completely mixed bag for me, most of it falling on the not-good end of the spectrum.  Howver, the Walker story was engaging and the Schone story reminded me that, more often than that, when erotic romance works for me it's written by someone with that Old School joie de vivre.

Overall Grade = C

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day Is September 19!

Hey, hey, hey!  For those of you participating in the 2018 #TBRChallenge, a reminder that your commentary is "due" on Wednesday, September 19.  The theme this month is Historical.

Ah, my first love when it comes to romance sub genres - although admittedly this theme seemed like a better idea 8 months ago before I hit a historical slump.  So what to do if you either 1) don't feel like reading a historical or 2) just don't care for historicals?  Hey, no problem!  Remember that the themes are optional and really, you can read whatever you want.  The whole point of the TBR Challenge is to read something that has been languishing in your TBR.

Reminders:

1) If you're participating via social media, remember to use the #TBRChallenge hashtag

and 

2) You can get further details and links to all the blogs participating on the 2018 TBR Challenge Information Page.

Review: A Dark and Stormy Murder

When most romance readers were cutting their reading teeth on Woodiwiss, Rogers, Roberts, Deveraux and Garwood - I was reading mysteries and Gothics (for the suspense, not for the hints of romance).  I read my fair share of gore (hello, Patricia Cornwell), but I tended to naturally gravitate towards "less graphic" authors like Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller - and cozies.  I used to love cozy mysteries.  But over time either cozies changed or I did and I basically stopped reading them (outside of one or two authors).  But nostalgia, it gets the better of me and in a bid to find new cozy writers I might enjoy I downloaded a few from NetGalley - only to leave them languishing.  My romance reading being lackluster of late, and mysteries being the one thing keeping my attention at the moment, I decided to unearth A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley, the first book in her Writer's Apprentice series.

Lena London is an out-of-work 20-something who has just broken up with her boyfriend. So you can't really blame the woman for rereading her favorite Camilla Graham Gothic with her cat, Lestrade, by her side.  That's when she gets a phone call from her BFF Allison, who is now married and living in idyllic Blue Lake, Indiana.  Turns out Allison is in the same knitting group as Camilla Graham and after reading Lena's dissertation on her work, Camilla offers her a trial job as her brand new assistant!  Say no more!  Lena packs her bags, and her cat, and heads to Blue Lake.

It doesn't take long for Lena to set the local gossip mill into overdrive.  First, she befriends the local police chief, the most eligible bachelor in town.  Then she's seen chatting up the local recluse, a man whose wife "disappeared" and everyone suspects he murdered her.  As if that weren't enough?  The dead body of a directionless local man is found on Camilla's property and Lena had seen him arguing with another man in the local hardware store that very morning.  Oh the shenanigans!

Let's start with the good.  I really liked the premise of this series.  Lena has her own ambitions to write, and Camilla needs someone to do all the regular "personal assistant" stuff along with some collaboration work.  Lena knows her work so intimately, it's really the perfect arrangement.  It would be like Teenage Wendy getting to live and work with Barbara Michaels.

While the book is easy reading, and I plowed through it in a day, I realized that cozy mysteries haven't changed all that much, rather, I have.  I also had the epiphany that cozy mysteries are to the mystery genre as small town contemporaries are to romance.  They occupy an idealized (and white bread) world view that doesn't exist.  Reading this book was a bit like reading about an alternate universe.  Lena just instinctively KNOWS that her reclusive new neighbor didn't kill his wife and leaps to his defense faster than you can say Pollyanna.  Everything is very cutesy and quaint to the point where the only thing missing from the town of Blue Lake is a cupcake shop or a yarn store.  I can take this sort of thing in small doses but in single titles it gets on my nerves.  Even the idea that a secondary character is rumored to have experimented with pot smoking is written in a wide-eyed gasping sort of way (I went to college, I've lived in California for over a decade, pot stopped being scandalous to me over 20 years ago).

But, look, I get it.  There are some who judge readers harshly for reading books of this ilk, but I'm not one of them.  Hey, when the world is literally on fire all around us, with fresh new horrors served up daily (heck, in some cases hourly!) - there's something oddly comforting about escaping to Mayberry RFD.  Putting their head in the sand?  Maybe.  But if it brings readers some small measure of escape and enjoyment, by all means - have at it.  Don't mind me, I'll be over here reading a Tropetastic Harlequin Presents.

So while this doesn't seem to be "my thing" anymore, I can appreciate that it's a good idea for a series premise and if you like cozy mysteries (in other words, you're not excessively grumpy like me), then you might like this one.

Final Grade = C

Review: From Governess to Countess

From Governess to Countess by Marguerite Kaye is the first book her Matches Made in Scandal series and, on paper, it's loaded with Wendy Catnip.  There's a heroine hiding away, licking her wounds following a scandal; a hero bowing under the weight of obligation he thought he had dodged; the political shenanigan-laden backdrop that is Russian politics (seriously, it doesn't matter the time period - although this book is set post Napoleonic Wars); and what should have been a compelling mystery.  And yet somehow, after a really intriguing set-up, it all falls strangely flat.

Allison Galbraith was raised by her grandmother and is a skilled herbalist.  She had a thriving practice - until the death of a child and a doctor determined to protect his reputation and standing threw her under the proverbial bus.  Being a woman, making her own way in the world, has meant Allison has had to scrap and fight for her livelihood and now the scandal rags are painting her as a Jezebel harlot of loose morals.  So yes, she's hiding.  Then a mysterious woman, only known as "The Procurer," knocks on her door with a business proposition.  Her client has need of a skilled herbalist who can also pose as a governess to his brother's three orphaned children.  Allison, hearing the voice of her chastising Scottish grandmother in her ear, takes the opportunity presented and runs with it.

She arrives in St. Petersburg to meet her new employer Count Aleksei Derevenko.  Up until recently Aleksei was fighting Napolean, a military career something he could indulge given he's "the spare."  Then he gets word that his older brother has died and a few short days later is followed in death by his wife.  His two nieces and nephew are now orphans, and against all logic his brother has named him the children's guardian - a task Aleksei is completely unsuited for.  Adding to his troubles, Aleksei is convinced his brother's death was no accident and he's not sure who he can trust in the gossipy hot-bed that is St. Petersburg society.  He suspects his brother may have been poisoned and he needs an outsider with a good cover story to help him investigate.  So he turns to The Procurer who in turn offers up Allison.

I loved the set-up of this story.  The Procurer is so mysterious we never learn her name (she will get her own romance down the road!) and she's this intriguing cross between Regency-era concierge and "fixer."  She doesn't get her hands dirty in this story - she's the one who makes the introductions, pairing up two people who can mutually benefit each other.  It's really a clever idea for a series.

However after the intriguing set-up things start to bog down.  Kaye falls a bit in love with her setting, which is understandable, but it all tends to slow down the pacing of the story.  The simplest way to put it would be it lacks urgency.  As romance readers we're well versed in gossipy London drawing rooms and snide comments at balls - trust me when I saw it's child's play to the intrigue that surrounded the Russian Czarist court.  And there's very little of that here.  Outside of Allison and Aleksei attending a ball at the Winter Palace, most of this story takes place at Aleksei's palace with him taking off to talk to people and investigate while Allison reins in the kidlets and tackles the mystery of the possible poisoning.  For a book set in St. Petersburg, it's a rather insular story with very little courtly shenanigans to spice up the proceedings.

And that's probably where my disappointment lies.  Because while the mystery itself is fairly straight-forward I think the promise of St. Petersburg as a setting had me expecting something "more."  More cloak and dagger.  More "who can you trust?"  More subterfuge.  And, in the end, while the author writes the more realistic denouement, my desire to see high treason and political shenanigans is thwarted.

The romance itself is nice but never really elevates itself to high passion, but I did appreciate how the author paired up two people bowing under the weight of expectations and societal norms.  I liked that the hero understood the heroine's drive and "calling" in her chosen profession and I liked how the heroine helps the hero find a little bit of himself.  It isn't the most compelling romance Kaye's written, but it's...nice.  Though I realize that sounds damning with faint praise.

In the end this was a pleasant if not entirely memorable read for me.  The premise of the series is dynamite however, and the concept that a woman in the Regency era could fill the role that The Procurer does hits all of my sweet spots.  This wasn't love at first sight, but I'll be reading the next book in the series.

Final Grade = C+