A review by leighannsherwin
City of Schemes by Victoria Thompson

5.0

In the forth installment of this series Elizabeth is planning her wedding. The war is over, I believe it's early 1919, soldiers are returning home, some with brides they met in Europe in tow. In this book Elizabeth and her family return to their grifter roots which they haven't focused on as much in the last few books. There are two main cons going on that sort of end up overlapping toward the end of the book but the whole book is really a twisted web of many different plots and schemes which lines up with the title of the book. First up Gideon's old friend Logan has returned from war. He fell madly in love with a young French woman named Noelle, but had to leave her there due to his engagement to Rosemary back home. Not long after getting home he gets a letter from Noelle begging for a large sum of money to escape post war France. Gideon suspects a con and calls in Elizabeth to help fish out what's really going on. Meanwhile eager to keep her name out of the papers Elizabeth, Gideon and his mother are horrified to see their engagement announced in every single gossip column in New York. Unfortunately for them a blast from the past, Oscar Thornton from I believe book one? Has returned to the city just in time to see the notice and he wants revenge. After learning that Rosemary leaked the story Elizabeth sets out for revenge of her own against the snobby debutante setting up a hilarious scene between Elizabeth and Gideon at a dinner party. There's spies, Bolsheviks, and plots galore in this very entertaining addition to the Counterfeit Lady series. I love that it's so unique and unlike any other series I have read and continues to be enjoyable and I look forward to following Elizabeth and Gideon in their married life.