Lynn Messina (1)

Beatrice Hyde-Clare is now the Duchess of Kesgrave. On the morning after her wedding she overhears a conversation between two of the servants at her new home about a murder of a famous chef at the house next door by decapitation. She can’t help herself and pays a social to the family to investigate and they wanting to ingratiate themselves with the Duke allow her to interview the servants. Lots of snobbery and class distinction going on before Bea and the Duke finally uncover the murderer and the reason for it.… (mehr)

As a young girl I read a lot of the 'classics'. All of Jane Austen, most of the Bronte sisters and a fair deal of Louisa May Alcott. Little Women wasn't my favorite Alcott book, Jo's Boys was, but I did read the unabridged version several times. The sisterly warmth and support was something I sought at the time, being the oldest in my family. For me Little Vampire Women, one of the new mash-ups of classics with paranormal bent, failed in that regard. There is something more than a little disturbing in reading about previously sweet-natured and selfless Beth talking about munching on bunnies.

It's hard to ignore the pang of irritation whenever Beth would complain (vampire Beth is apparently less passive than human Beth), or Jo would grumble about 'those humans'. The charm of observing the Marchs' plight as they struggle to overcome the many obstacles they are faced with is lost because their reason for being in such a state is less because they have no choice and more because they choose to be different from everyone else and thus are treated that way.

Taken on its own, without knowledge of its source material I think Little Vampire Women is better off. It's an abridged version of the classic to begin with, so its much shorter than the original and the dialog is updated for a more modern approach. The historical 'footnotes' that Messina includes are hilarious and sometimes what the March girls get up to is highly entertaining.… (mehr)

I enjoyed this interesting, fast-paced tale better than the first entry in the series. But I knew I would because that first book had to set up all the characters, the formats, the settings, and pay the proper amount of homage to the sister series, Beatrice Hyde-Clare while still managing to set up an interesting mystery. The first book seemed to fall a tad short in the mystery department and oversell in the sister series department. This book seems to have hit its stride with its many fewer mentions of ‘Her Outrageousness’ while still presenting an excellently delivered mystery. Oh! And lest I forget – Verity Lark meets – face to face – her half-brother – the Duke of Kesgrave. I think the author handled that part of the book wonderfully and left us all to guess what will happen next between brother and sister. We get a hint of what Kesgrave might want in the 11/3/23 release of A Murderous Tryst from the Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery series, but even that doesn’t tell us for sure. We’ll just have to put on our waiting shoes and pace the floors for a while.

In the first book, we met (and loved) Lord Colson Hardwicke, the disgraced son of a Marquess. Has he redeemed himself or was he never what people believed him to be? Verity was unsure at the end of the first book, so she’s still unsure at the beginning of this book, but she knows he intrigues her – and he challenges her. How dare he! Well, he didn’t realize it was a challenge, but Verity, being Verity, took it as a challenge and set off to beat him at his own game. Yes! You will definitely love both Verity and Hardwicke.

Northern England has seen much unrest among its population with the advent of the Luddites and people losing skilled jobs to machines. The upper echelons of the British government are afraid the unrest and insurrection are headed to London in the guise of the formerly peaceful Society of Yarwellian Philosophers and have placed a spy within the organization. Of course, the government being the government, they also placed a spy to spy on the spy. 😊 Who is Arnold Fitch? Is he a true patriot?

As one does, 😊 Verity is going about her normal information gathering and comes across the body of a man who has been stabbed to death, in his own bed, in a shabby rooming house. Hardwicke is in the room as well – but Verity is sure (isn’t she?) that he didn’t commit the murder. So, who did? Was it Arnold Fitch? If not him, who? There are lots of Yarwellians out there, would they murder a defenseless old man to protect their mission? Or, are those Yarwellians just exactly the peaceful society they claim?

Goodness, such excitement! You’ll be flipping pages as fast as you can read them to see what happens next. Then, Hardwicke disappears just when Verity has vital information to impart. Where can he be? How can she pass the information along to those who desperately need it? And what, in heaven's name, is she supposed to do with the brother who has just knocked on her door? Enlist his help, of course.

This was such an engrossing, exciting, witty, and fun read! If you love intelligent, challenging, likable, and engaging characters along with a mystery that sucks you in, then you’ll enjoy this book. Happy Reading! Now, I just have to wait for what will seem like forever, for the next book to become available.… (mehr)