Blog Tour Review: A Bloomsbury Affair by Anita Davison

A Bloomsbury Affair by Anita Davison

Published: 20th November 2018

Publisher: Aria

Pages: 333

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 5/5

Blurb

1905 London is a heady mix of unimaginable wealth and simmering political tensions, and with war looming Flora Maguire wants to keep her family safe.

So when her beloved charge Viscount Edward Trent is accused of murder, she’s determined not to leave the investigation to the police. Flora has trodden the path of amateur sleuth before, but with so much at stake, this time it’s personal.

Slowly the body of the victim found stabbed on a train bound for Paddington starts giving up its secrets, and Flora and her husband Bunny become mired in a murky world of spies, communists and fraudsters. And with the police more sure than ever that Edward is their murderer, Flora must work fast to keep him safe.

Anita Davison’s compulsive story-telling, combined with the irresistible mix of historical drama and gripping mystery, make this unputdownable.

Review

Anita Davison is back with a fifth Flora Maguire mystery in The Bloomsbury Affair. This time its her younger cousin Viscount Edward Trent who the one being investigated. While on a train to Paddington to visit his sister, Ed shares a compartment with a young gentleman, when it’s time to leave the train Ed finds the man dead and the police think he’s to blame. Panicked he runs to Flora’s house where he hopes her, and husband Bunny will help clear his name before he’s sent to jail.

As the mystery and Flora encounters a haberdashery in a Cheltenham, an elderly army officer and a trendy new hotel its clear that Ed hasn’t been totally honest with them about his connections to the dead man. Can Flora solve the mystery without putting herself in danger again?

I loved the latest Flora Maguire novel I read which introduced me to Flora, her husband Bunny and her estranged parents and other members of her family and household. The book continues the storylines from that book, so it gave the mystery a comforting feel as many of the characters I had previously connected with were involved. Don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous books though you’ll soon figure out who’s who and the storyline so far.

I did find the mystery part of this book slow to get going but Flora soon finds herself in a tangled mess as Anita Davison slowly lets the story unfurl and more and more connections are made between the characters we are introduced to. Each of her characters are well developed and I can clearly visualise them.

If you’re a lover of historical mysteries then I can highly recommend this novel, it has realistic characters a great storyline and plenty of historical details.

About the Author

Born in London, Anita has always had a penchant for all things historical. She now lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, the backdrop for her Flora Maguire mysteries.

Follow Anita

Twitter handle: @AnitaSDavison

Any blogs/website: @AnitaDavison

Buy links

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2JFuXGd
iBooks: https://apple.co/2AMsVkR

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QkuPOK
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2DnmcR0

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

Blog Tour Review: Wilde in Love by Eloisa James

Wilde in Love by Eloisa James

Published: 31st October 2017

Publisher: Piatkus

Pages: 416

Available in Paperback and Kindle

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Rating: 4/5

Blurb

Lord Alaric Wilde, son of the Duke of Lindow, is the most celebrated man in England, revered for his dangerous adventures and rakish good looks.
Arriving home from years abroad, he has no idea of his own celebrity until his boat is met by mobs of screaming ladies. Alaric escapes to his father's castle, but just as he grasps that he's not only famous but notorious, he encounters the very private, very witty, Miss Willa Ffynche.
Willa presents the façade of a serene young lady to the world. Her love of books and bawdy jokes is purely for the delight of her intimate friends. She wants nothing to do with a man whose private life is splashed over every newspaper.
Alaric has never met a woman he wanted for his own . . . until he meets Willa. He's never lost a battle.
But a spirited woman like Willa isn't going to make it easy . . .

Review

Wilde in Love in the first book in Eloisa James’ new series surrounding the Wilde family.  This is the first book by Ms. James that I have read so wasn’t really sure what to expect, what I found was a beautiful enchanting romance between two very headstrong characters.

Lord Alaric Wilde has spent the last few years traveling the world and engaging in daring and dangerous adventures, he has now returned home a celebrity after writing about his adventures in a couple of books. At home he finds himself surrounded by adoring women declaring their undying love for him and falling at his feet. That is all except the beautiful Miss Willa Ffynche, who can scarcely bring herself to even smile at Alaric. Never been one to resist a challenge, Alaric is determined that Willa shall be his, however he underestimates her and soon falls madly in love with her.

Willa Ffynche is a beautiful young orphan with her own fortune, she has been living with her ward Mrs Gray and her best friend Lavinia for the past few years. Willa and Lavinia are not your typical society girls and have brains and beauty, a combination many men have found off-putting as they want a docile wife. Both girls seem to resist the charms of handsome Alaric when they first meet but even Willa struggles to control her feelings around this man, something that has never happened to her before. Despite rebuking him at every opportunity Alaric doesn’t give up on his quest for Willa and eventually she begins to feel that this handsome adventurer might just be the man for after all.

At first I struggled to get into this book, I can’t put my finger on quite why, perhaps the number of characters being introduced or the notion of people wearing wigs, this is still something that I can’t seem to get my head round, which is probably a sign I need to read more of this genre. However after a couple of chapters I was totally drawn into the budding romance of Willa and Alaric. What starts out as two characters who seem to repel each other soon turns into a passionate romance and the journey getting there was full of witty conversations and minor incidents which all add to the magic of this romance.

This was a great read with everything you want in a romance novel and I’m really looking forward to the next book in the Wilde series.

Thank you to Piatkus for sending me a copy to review and inviting me on this blog tour.

Blog Tour Review: The Forgotten Children by Anita Davison

The Forgotten Children by Anita Davison

Published: 1st November 2017

Publisher: Aria

Pages: 544

Available in Paperback and on Kindle

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Rating: 5/5

Blurb

The forgotten children of London are going missing, apparently being sold by their own families. Can she save them before it's too late...

Flora Maguire’s life is perfect – a beautiful home in Belgravia teeming with servants, a loving husband, and new baby Arthur to enjoy.  But when she is invited to tour St Philomena’s Children’s Hospital in deprived Southwark, she gets a harsh insight into the darker side of Edwardian London.

Shocked by the conditions people are living in, she soon uncovers a scandal with a dark heart – children are going missing from the hospital, apparently sold by their own families, and their fate is too awful to imagine. With the police seemingly unable or unwilling to investigate, Flora teams up with the matron of the hospital, Alice Finch, to try to get to the bottom of it.

Soon Flora is immersed in the seedy, dangerous underbelly of criminal London, and time is running out to save the children. Will they get to them in time, or was their fate decided the day they were born poor…

Review

The Forgotten Children is the forth novel by Anita Davison in the Flora Maguire series, something I wish I’d known before I started reading this book as I would have loved to have read this series from the start as I enjoyed The Forgotten Children immensely.

Flora and her husband Bunny are invited to visit the St. Philomena’s Children’s hospital in a less desirable part of London. While on their visit one of the young student nurses Lizzie Prentice is found dead in the hospital courtyard, many are quick to assume she slipped and hit her head but Flora’s investigative nature feels there’s something not right about the young woman’s death. Later Flora meets with hospital Matron Alice Finch who confides in Flora that some recent patients from the hospital have not returned for check-ups and she fears they have gone missing.  Loving a mystery Flora vows to help Alice find out what happened to these missing children and if there is any connection to the young nurse.

I loved Flora as a main character, she tries to appear as a woman of the world with all her investigation skills but her she still showed some naivety, especially when visiting the homes of the poor children who have gone missing. This made her more real for me as showed she has some things to learn and isn’t perfect like many society ladies are portrayed to be.

There is also a real mix of other characters from both ends of society and it was surprising just how many of them had their own secrets to hide. This added more enjoyment to the already twisty mystery which Anita Davison has written.  She has also managed to bring all aspects of the story to a suitable conclusion, which is good but I hope that this is not the end of Flora as I would love to go on another investigation with her.

For me this was a fantastic read and one I can’t fault, it had great characters a good sense of place and a believable plotline that flowed well and was resolved completely. It would be a great read for fans of Frances Brody or Lindsey Hutchinson.

Thank you so much to Aria for sending me a copy to review and inviting me on the blog tour. I look forward to reading more from Anita Davison very soon.

Book Review - The Last Kiss Goodbye by Tasmina Perry

 

The Last Kiss Goodbye by Tasmina Perry

Published: 10th September 2015

Publisher: Headline Review

Pages: 383

Available in Hardback and on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

 

Blurb

Everyone remembers their first kiss. But what about the last?

1961. Journalist Rosamund Bailey is ready to change the world. When she meets explorer and man about town Dominic Blake, she realises she has found the love of her life. Just as happiness is in their grasp, the worst happens, and their future is snatched away.

2014. Deep in the vaults of a museum, archivist Abby Morgan stumbles upon a breathtaking find. A faded photograph of a man saying goodbye to the woman he loves. Looking for a way to escape her own heartache, Abby becomes obsessed with the story, little realising that behind the image frozen in time lies a secret altogether more extraordinary.

 

Review

The Last Kiss Goodbye is the latest novel by Tasmina Perry and I think it is her best yet. This novel like her previous novel The Proposal (I’ve still to read this one yet…my bad) is written with a dual time aspect, which is a different style to her previous high glamour novels but done in the usual addictive Tasmina Perry writing style.

The Last Kiss Goodbye starts in 1961 with Rosamund Bailey, a young activist set on changing the world, until she meets Dominic Blake political journalist and born explorer. As two fall in love and begin to plan a future together tragedy strikes the unlucky pair.

Fast forward to 2014 and Abby Gordon an archivist is putting together an exhibition of British explorers when she discovers a photograph of two young lovers saying goodbye. Deeply moved by the photograph Abby sets out to discover who the people in the photograph are. She then meets Rosamund Bailey, the woman in the photograph and sets out to discover what exactly happened to Dominic Blake after that last kiss goodbye.

Abby was a character who instantly made her way into my heart, she’s suffering from heartbreak after discovering husband Nick has an affair and I think she was determined to use the photograph as proof of everlasting love to sooth her broken heart. I was longing for her to give Nick another chance and let them become a family again.

Rosamund came across as slightly harsh with her opinions in the 1961 chapters. After she meets Dominic you can begin to see her soften a little as she falls in love and who can blame her – if a handsome man whisked me away to Paris I’m sure I’d fall for him in such a romantic place.

I found this novel to be beautifully written and the romance in it is subtle but so moving, I think it will be hard to read without feeling a little pull at the heart strings. The ending was perfect and I think captured the overall essence of the story wonderfully.

I’m really excited to see that one of my favourite authors has taken the leap into historical fiction as dual time frame novel are my favourite to read and The Last Kiss Goodbye is a perfect example of this. I’m quite glad I still have The Proposal to read as I know I’m going to love it! I can’t wait to read Tasmina’s next novel as I’m sure it will be brilliant.

Thank you so much to Headline and bookbridgr for sending me a copy to review, I adored this book and give it 5/5.