Catherine McGreevy

THE JEWELRY CASE
By Catherine McGreevy
People have been enamored with jewels for more time than recorded history can report. That love affair includes enjoyment as well as maliciousness.
Catherine McGreevy blends the eternal love of and quest for jewels with fascinating characters in her entertaining romantic mystery, The Jewelry Case. Set in rural Northern California, Ms. McGreevy brings us a small community of realistically portrayed people. Readers will enjoy these colorful people familiar as friends, relatives, and acquaintances of everyday life. Underlying a story of relationships is the mystery of finding jewels of European royalty, children fleeing the holocaust, inheritance greed, murderous theft and romance. The author blends all these aspects together in a well written, readable story appropriate for all ages of romantic mystery readers.
Young opera singer, Paisley Perleman, inherits a charming but run-down house in River Bend, a small town in the delta area of California near Sacramento. Her loss of husband and voice in an auto accident left her bereft of a meaningful future. A used-bookstore owner befriends Paisley and pulls her into helping produce a local, amateur musical. A winery owner, a handyman, and an ex-marine, real estate agent provide dramatic and romantic conflicts in Paisley’s new life.
Paisley discovers she has inherited jewelry originally owned by Polish royalty. The jewels were smuggled out of Poland by a Jewish child escaping the holocaust. She also discovers multiple people are searching and contending for these mysterious jewels.
Paisley becomes involved in the community and intensifies her own search for the jewels. At the same time a variety of conflicting conspiracies emerge that complicate Paisley’s need to find a satisfying life.
The author skillfully overcomes an issue that many readers find annoying in romantic and cozy novels: inclusion of detail and characters that are superfluous to the drama of the story. Ms. McGreevy skillfully includes people and detail that are interesting and colorful and are necessary adjuncts to the development of the story.
A dramatic and exciting ending with complications of malice, murder, friendship, romance and family relationships provide ‘page turning’ reading at the conclusion of the novel.
Readers of mystery, thriller, and romance novels will appreciate this well-written book.… (mehr)

“A Place Called New Hope” by Catherine McGreevy is not your typical Victorian romance. In fact, the story and characters are quite different from what one would expect. Ms. McGreevy weaves some interesting characters into this unconventional story!

I think the characters are well written, especially Letty’s character. Letty, our heroine, is unconventional and a little eccentric. Instead of thinking of going to balls, marriage and raising children, Letty thinks about how to help the poor and is very smart and well informed. I like that Letty truly wants to help others, even if I didn’t always agree with her ways of doing that. I admire how Letty shows mercy toward others even when they are unkind to her.

Patrick, the main male protagonist, is also a little eccentric, passionate, independent and unconventional. Patrick accepts Letty for who she is and doesn’t try to change her. He doesn’t completely believe in Letty’s experiment, but still encourages her to make a difference in the world like he is trying to do. Both Patrick and Letty have big dreams that others doubt they will be able to accomplish.

The story line of a woman setting up a utopian society in Victorian England is unique. I was definitely hoping for more romance and more of Letty and Patrick’s relationship. Sometimes the pacing was a little slow for me. I did enjoy how the story deals with the issues of class—if the poor are lazy, if poverty is a sin and how to best help the poor.

Overall, this is an interesting book, but it just wasn’t quite for me. It has some great characters and themes, like the fact that all are equal in God’s eyes and that a man shouldn’t always be judged by his circumstances in life.

Content: This is a clean read with some minor content. Some examples are the content are: the word “hell” is used; talk of a man gambling; characters drink alcohol; a man tries to attack a woman but she gets away; descriptions of the harsh conditions of places like the slums during this time; a boy will be beaten if his father finds out what he did; there is the smell of alcohol on a man’s breath; the word “bleeding” is used as a kind of curse word; a man swears but the word is not written; a reference to “fallen women;” rumors that a woman is a witch and consorts with the devil; mention of whether a marriage is consummated; a man smokes a pipe; a man uses snuff; references to witchcraft and devils; a man is accused of attacking a woman.

Rating: I give this book 3 stars.

Genre: Historical Fiction

I want to thank Singing Librarian Books Tours, Catherine McGreevy and Cedar Fort for the complimentary copy of this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are my own. This is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR 16, Part 255.… (mehr)

A Victorian story with a bit of a twist. In fact, I wasn’t really sure what to think about this book when I first started it. In a way, it sounded almost too dream-like or maybe too fairytale-ish.

Boy, was I wrong. Well, unless the dream is kind of a nightmare.

A Place Called New Hope is told almost completely from Letty’s point of view so readers rarely get a glimpse of what the other characters are thinking or feeling. But this gives the story a stronger air of mystery. Especially where Patrick (Letty’s husband) is concerned. And I really wanted to know what was going on in that head of his.

This heroine is young with strong ideals and a desire to make a difference in lives of those less fortunate. At first, this almost makes her seem callous as she plots to get ahold of her marriage settlement to fund her dream. But with a man who agrees to her proposal, she’s set. Or so it seems. Her plan doesn’t quite go as she’d hoped. And when her autonomous settlement starts to function as she’d dreamed it would, she finds herself adrift with the people no longer needing her.

With plenty of tension for the nearby town, Letty’s not unwelcome but curious thoughts and feelings about her adventuring husband, and a few squabbles at New Hope mean there is plenty of friction and tension to keep the story moving most of the time. There was a point or two where the details dragged on and the chapters were extra long.

But the message of this book—that everyone can make a difference, no matter how small—is one that rings true today.

Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.… (mehr)