Reviews

Really enjoying this series! I very much enjoy time slip stories, and the mystery aspect thrown in with that is a lot of fun.

The only things that made this a '4' instead of a '5' were (1) that the murderer was

Spoiler

actually one of the main suspects. The whole Weston family was under suspicion from the moment Lord Weston's and Lady Dover's affair was discovered--though granted it was Lord Weston who was under the most suspicion--and so I was really hoping it would be someone that hadn't been focused on, that had been overlooked even though the clues were there all along. BUT, maybe that is just my preference

and (2) Kendra's "I'm so tired of men trying to take care of me, I can do everything on my own, I know how to take care of myself attitude." I mean, I get it it. Women WERE oppressed, disregarded, and ill-treated in this time, and I DO like that she is not a 'damsel in distress.' Nevertheless, because of this attitude, on MULTIPLE occasions this meant she rushed off by herself, rather than getting back up, with VERY bad consequences such as

Spoiler

her and Alec getting abducted and him nearly killed by Bear, and her maid getting mistaken for her and killed

. We get it, you're not weak and useless because you're a woman; you're anything but those things. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU DON'T NEED HELP SOMETIMES!

I really did enjoy this book overall, but those 2 things were enough to knock it down a star.

ollieallison09's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

emelkay24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked it a lot! A better mystery than the first book.

Unfortunately McElwan still can’t write romance — I still don’t get what’s drawing Kendra to Alec other than his looks, especially now that he spends the whole book upset that Kendra won’t act like a stereotypical regency era woman — married (to him) with children, willingly steps aside to allow men to protect her, etc. And I get he’s a typical regency era man, I’m all for slow burn character growth, but why would Kendra be attracted to a man so keen to pin her to 19th century standards she will never ever adhere to? What’s more, why is he so insistent on marrying her? He’s known her for a month and he’s clearly okay with relationships outside of wedlock. Starting to ship Kendra and Sam instead, he at least respects her slightly more, but I think McElwan has a Rebecca/Sam endgame in mind. (Ooh, what about Rebecca/Kendra? Much to think about.) Anyway, even if I was on board with Kendra/Alec (and I did want to be on board, I still like both characters, even if Alec’s starting to get annoying), much of the romantic scenes are pretty trite to read. Romance just isn’t McElwan’s strongpoint.

My long rant about romance aside (it’s my favorite genre, so of course it’s the genre I’m most picky about), what I really enjoyed was mystery and the historical fiction. The fish out of water premise continues to be enjoyable to me personally, and I love the cast of side characters.

lornreadsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

agrinczel's review

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5.0

4.5 stars; I really like the main characters of this series

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