In Good Company by Jen Turano

 

Everett Mulberry has recently, and very unexpectedly, been named the guardian to three young children, which is severely curtailing his courtship of the elegant Miss Caroline Dixon, and his latest nanny just quit. Now what is he going to do? He could hire the fun-loving Millie Longfellow, who was just let go from her latest nanny job, but the thought of taking Millie to Newport with his three wards for the summer has him hesitating. 

"...and it had absolutely nothing to do with her lips. It all had to do with the lady's eyes. That they were a perfectly ordinary shade of green was not in dispute. But that ordinary green, framed by dark lashes, always held a distinct trace of...mischief."

"That mischief exactly explained why he wouldn't, or couldn't, consider hiring Miss Longfellow to watch after his wards, because everyone knew that where there was mischief, trouble was certain to follow. (And) ever since he'd become the unlikely guardian to three unruly children over five months before, Everett had witnessed more trouble than he'd ever thought possible."

This is a delightful romance! Turano's books are cute and clean and always have a lot of humor in them; and I love that Gilded Age time period. The banter between Everett and Millie was fun, and the way she handles his three wards had me laughing out loud. There's even a nod to Pride and Prejudice in their romance that I enjoyed. Plus, Millie carries a pocket dictionary around with her and is always looking up words like execrable and disparage. What's not to love?

Happy Reading!

Woman 99 by Greer Macallister

A Gilded Age historical fiction novel

First line:  "Goldengrove devoured my sister every time I closed my eyes."

When Charlotte's parents have her older sister, Phoebe, committed to Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte decides to channel her inner Nellie Bly and get committed to the asylum herself in order to rescue her sister. Only she doesn't tell anyone her plans. And it only dawns on her once she's locked up in the asylum as just another anonymous indigent 'madwoman' that it might not be so easy to find Phoebe, or to get back out.

"I'd planned to find Phoebe, then inform the doctors that we were both sane, there had been a mistake, and we were leaving....I would save my sister the way she had saved me. But I could see now that what I'd imagined was only one of many, many possibilities and far from the likeliest one. Like Nellie Bly, I'd found it relatively simple to get in; how hard would it prove, I now wondered, to get out?"

I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would when I first started reading it. Probably because I found Charlotte's voice, as well as many of her actions, frustrating. She never would have succeeded in her quest to rescue her sister without the help of the other women in the asylum. I mean, who decides to get herself thrown in an asylum without a good plan of how to get back out? But maybe Macallister's main point was to show how unfairly women were treated back then, and how easy it was for the men around them to deem them mad and have them locked away for the rest of their lives. She certainly does an excellent job of portraying life in the asylum! Charlotte's personal life, and romantic drama, were less interesting to me. And I thought it all wrapped up a bit too neatly at the end. But the things that bugged me about this one might not bug you. And there were things I liked about it. So if you're interested in this time period, or in the stories of the women who were put in these asylums, definitely give it a try.

Happy Reading! 

Bookish Gold...

Looking for some bookish gold? 

Try one (or more!) of these eight "gilded" reads:

1. The Gilded Lily by Helen Argers

(Think Edith Wharton but with a happier ending!)

2. A Gilded Grave by Shelley Freydont

(This is a very fun mystery set among the moneyed elite of Newport, Rhode Island.)

3. The Gilded Cage by Lucinda Gray

(Set in 1871, this YA gothic revolves around two American siblings 

and the grand estate they unexpectedly inherit in England.)

4.  The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe

(Anita Hemmings must pass as white in order to attend Vassar College

in this well-researched historical fiction novel.)

5.  The Gilded Shroud by Elizabeth Bailey

(This is the first book in Bailey's 'Lady Fan' mystery series.)

6.  In a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen

(Spunky Molly Murphy is back to solve another mystery.)

7.  Gilded by Christina Farley

(This YA fantasy is set in modern-day South Korea and has 

an engaging heroine named Jae Hwa Lee.)

8.  The Gilded Age by Mark Twain

(No one makes fun of America and Americans like Twain!)

Happy Reading!

A Gilded Grave...

This mystery by Shelley Freydont takes place in 1895 among the extravagant mansions of Newport, Rhode Island's elite. It is Deanna Randolph's first summer season at Newport.  She's excited to meet Lord David Manchester, the visiting Barbadian sugar magnate, and his beautiful sister, Madeline. But things get complicated when, at her very first ball, her friend's maid is found dead. At first it looks like the maid accidentally fell from the cliffs, but then the police conclude she was pushed. And Deanna is determined to help figure out who murdered the young maid and why.

I love books set during the Gilded Age, and the Newport setting of this one makes A Gilded Grave even more fun. Then there's Deanna Randolph and her maid, Elspeth; this fearless duo love to read dime novel detective stories at night, but they soon discover that real sleuthing is a little more dangerous than they thought, especially when a second maid ends up dead. I liked them. I also liked that Deanna is a bit of a tom boy who chafe's under the constraints that Newport society places on her as a "proper" young lady. She's smart and funny and very determined. Then there's Joe Ballard. His father and Deanna's are in the sugar business together, and at one time everyone thought he and Deanna would get married. But they didn't. And Deanna isn't sure if they're even friends any more. Though they once were. Their relationship is my favorite part of this novel, though the mystery itself is nicely complicated with more than one twist and turn. Freydont's writing is not only enjoyable, but entertaining, too. If I rated stories with stars, I'd give this one four out of five.

Happy Reading!

A bookish bonus:  A Gilded Grave also fulfills the Rhode Island category for the 2016 Reading New England Challenge hosted by Lory of The Emerald City Book Review.