Friday, November 19, 2021

"Carved in Stone" by Elizabeth Camden

About this book:

  “After years of tragedy, Gwen Kellerman now lives a quiet life as a botanist at an idyllic New York college. She largely ignores her status as heiress to the infamous Blackstone dynasty and hopes to keep her family's heartbreak and scandal behind her.
   Patrick O'Neill survived a hardscrabble youth to become a lawyer for the downtrodden Irish immigrants in his community. He's proud of his work, even though he struggles to afford his ramshackle law office. All that changes when he accepts a case that is sure to emphasize the Blackstones' legacy of greed and corruption by resurrecting a thirty-year-old mystery.
   Little does Patrick suspect that the Blackstones will launch their most sympathetic family member to derail him. Gwen is tasked with getting Patrick to drop the case, but the old mystery takes a shocking twist neither of them saw coming. Now, as they navigate a burgeoning attraction and growing danger, Patrick and Gwen will be forced to decide if the risk to the life they've always held dear is worth the reward.”


Series: Book #1 in “The Blackstone Legacy” series.


Spiritual Content- A couple Scriptures are mentioned & discussed (in a courtroom); Prayers, Saying the rosary, & Hail Marys; Talks about God & faiths; ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God; Patrick was in seminary to become a priest but stopped before talking his vow (he thought that best way to show his devotion to God was to aim for the highest rank which meant priesthood, but really wanted a wife and family); Patrick gives the impression of being a devote Catholic (though he does call himself a Christian one time); Patrick goes to the nearest Catholic church to give a confession & their discussion is shown; Patrick crosses himself (once); Many mentions of priests, being a priest, churches, church going, rosaries, & confessions; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers, praying, & a blessing over food; Mentions of infants’ baptisms; Mentions of saints, nuns, monks, & monasteries; Mentions of sins & sinners; A few mentions of those & places in the Bible; A few mentions of a famous Bible (the Book of Kells); A few mentions of blessings; A few mentions of miracles; A mention of the cross; A mention of a godsend;
             *Note: Mentions of a man being called the spawn of the devil and tales about terrifying demons that suck blood and marrow from humans; A mention of a man being the devil and all Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in one person; A mention of someone’s past demons; A mention of a man with a devilish gleam in his eyes; A mention of a man who thinks he will go to hell because of a crime he committed; A mention of a mother that “suffered the agonies of the damned” when she delivered a large baby; A mention of a godforsaken city; A mention of an untrue story someone told about smuggling a piece of the true cross and guards chasing him; A mention of Zeus; A mention of children looking at Gwen like a goddess.
 
 
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘bull hockey’, a form of ‘dumb’, a ‘give a fig’, an ‘idiot’, five forms of ‘stupid’, and five ‘shut up’s; Mentions of curses (Patrick also lets a string of profanities out as well, said, not written); Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Killing a man in self-defense & the body (barely-above-not-detailed); Pain, Injuries, Broken bones, Fighting, Seeing someone in extreme pain, seeing someone stabbed, being shot at, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Social drinking (both Patrick & Gwen, but mainly him, around five times); Many mentions of a kidnapping, kidnapper, & death of a child (Gwen’s older brother); Many mentions of attacks/assaults, blood/bleeding, injuries, fighting, being shot, & being shot at (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of crimes, criminals, pickpockets, arrests & jailtime; Many mentions of drinking, social drinking, alcohol, pubs, alcoholics, & drunks; Mentions of murder & someone ordering a murder; Mentions of assassination attempts on Gwen’s family, the assassins, bombs, deaths, & injuries (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a child/teenager being beat up (by his father, but also the cops when he did a crime, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of tetanus, giving an injection in the spinal column, & major pain (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of gangs & fighting for money; Mentions of thieves, stealing, & heist/robberies; Mentions of cigarettes, cigars, smoking, & tobacco; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of poker, gambling, & bets; Mentions of hunting & hunters; A few mentions of wars; A few mentions of setting fires & breaking windows, causing a baby to be hurt; A few mentions of child labor; A few mentions of divorces; A few mentions of bullies & bullying; A few mentions of prejudice against the Irish; A couple mentions of a possible drowning; A couple mentions of deaths from a vaccine’s trials; A couple mentions of sending someone to the gallows; A couple mentions of blackmail; A couple mentions of urinals (Gwen’s perspective) & Liam’s comment about “letting one rip” in the bathroom; A mention of a child being shown autopsy photos of people killed in factory accidents; A mention of shooting noisy children (that woke someone from their sleep, doesn’t happen); A mention of throwing up; A mention of nightmares; A mention of telling someone to put something “where the sun doesn’t shine”;
             *Note: A couple mentions of authors (Mark Twain and Charles Dickens); A mention of Marxist sentiments.
 
 
Sexual Content- Two almost kisses, not-detailed kisses, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and four semi-detailed kisses; Touches, Embraces, & Nearness (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Gwen secretly teases Patrick by taking her foot and running it along his ankle and higher while with other people (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing a man greet with wife with a hearty kiss & a tacky grope her (which causes her to have to fix her blouse, no true details); Mentions of Patrick having a secret tryst with a woman during his priesthood training that made him realize that he wants a wife and family; Mentions of temptation (& Patrick saying that temptation was nothing new to him as girls tempted him since he “developed a healthy appreciation for anything a skirts when he was thirteen years old”); Mentions of Gwen’s (fifteen-years her senior) husband’s affair, his mistress, and their child born out-of-wedlock (and how Gwen tried to make herself look and act more like the mistress to get his attention); Mentions of conceiving a child (including that Gwen’s greatest disappointment of her marriage was that she didn’t conceive a child, but this was due to her husband not having an interest in her, only his mistress; Also a mention of Gwen wondering how long it would take to conceive a child); Mentions of kisses & kissing; A few mentions of wondering if a married woman has a man in her apartment (Patrick thinks that her husband has a roving eyes and wonders if the wife is balancing the scales); A few mentions of a girl (tailor’s daughter) looking at Patrick with “hot eyes and a hungry expression” and measuring him with her hands traveling in a dangerous direction; A few mentions of a rich woman’s “dolly boy” and her paying for everything for him; A few mentions of catcalls; A few mentions of flirting; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of other affairs; A couple mentions of prostitutes; A couple mentions of dreaming about someone they like (and being stopped by another that they don’t want to hear about their seedy dreams); A couple mentions of a rumor that a man ordered his fiancé to see a specialist to ensure she was able to bear children; A mention of that if a wife bears a daughter, she’ll be pregnant again by next full moon (the husband wants a son); A mention of a man pulling his wife onto his lap; A mention of Patrick wanting to kiss and hold his future wife until dawn; A mention of a married woman throwing herself at a rich man; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: When Patrick and Gwen first meet, he thinks “Mrs. Kellerman was a stunning woman, tall and willowy and fit. He wasn’t free to pursue a married woman, but admiring her seemed fair game.” (when he finds out she’s a widow, he was even more intrigued and that he shouldn’t feel guilty for noticing that she was a looker as any man with a pulse would notice that. This causes a misunderstanding from his mother thinking he’s running around with a married woman); Mentions of two babies that were stillborn (blue) and the mother grieving; A few comments from Liam on Gwen’s loose-fitting dresses (including that someone would say she looks “a wee bit knocked up”); A mention of a child streaking buck naked through a group of people;  A mention of someone butting into a conversation.
 
-Gwendolyn “Gwen” Blackstone Kellerman, age 29
-Patrick O’Neill, age 34
                                P.O.V. switches between them
                                               Set in 1900
                                                        342 pages

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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
What an interesting book and plot! I’ve read most of Elizabeth Camden’s novels and the only thing I can ever expect from them is that there will be lots of historical details that will be more than likely fascinating.

“Carved in Stone” was no exception in this. I don’t know why I enjoy reading (or watching Korean dramas) with the plot point of family politics or family business politics, but, oh, I so do enjoy those. Add in Patrick’s lawyer profession and an assumed dead family member, I was very interested in seeing how this plot would come together by the end.

I actually have lots of thoughts on this book, but let’s see if I can make it coherent.

First all, the characters: Gwen. She was cunning but not in a bad or mean way, but you could tell she’s been raised in her family’s dynamics. She was (typically, unless you pushed too much) kind in her speech but firm as well. I really liked her and that ending made her even better to me as it wasn’t the complete normal layout for a Historical Romance.

Patrick. Hmm, I liked him at first, but as he is around Gwen’s family more, I wasn’t liking how he was acting or treating others. There was the typical points of her being from a rich family and him being poor, of course, but it wasn’t in an over-the-top way that I ever though “I’ve seen this story before.” (And that might be because I truly adore this author’s writing style.) Out of the whole book, I think I liked him the most at the beginning (mainly the courtroom scene because I wanted to cheer for him and yet also smack him), but he still wasn’t anywhere near my top favorite male leads. He was sincere to his faith, which I appreciate. I’m not sure if I’ve seen a historical book show a character with a strong Catholic faith as much as this book did.

Now, the ratings. Going into these final thoughts, I thought I would personally give it a three star. However, there are certain things that are lingering with me that I wasn’t a fan of seeing in this book. To some they may be small things that can be overlooked, but they’re giving me hesitation of giving it a high rating.

Some of those things: Patrick’s attitude towards Gwen’s family in the middle and end (he was almost determined for her to realize that her family isn’t as wonderful as she thinks, when in reality I don’t see the harm in her believing the best in people—as long as it’s not a blind trust of someone. He was lackluster in the middle section and his pride really got in the way of their relationship. Also want to note that I don’t agree with a few of his thoughts about their relationship and a comment her made about maybe the hand of God brought him and Gwen together. There’s no “maybe” about it, sonny.), a few crass comments from Liam about Gwen’s choice of loose fitting dresses (including a mention that someone else would say she looked a bit knocked up), some words that sounding proper for that time period (which could just be me thinking that, it’s possible that were used in the time-period but it pulled me from the story each time they were used), quite a bit of social drinking, and personally the mentions of vaccines and medicine from that time period wasn’t something I enjoyed seeing in a book I picked up for enjoyment when I see about vaccines quite often in my normal life on social media.

Again, some of these things may not bother some readers and overall, I was absolutely enthralled in the plot-lines of this story (family politics, lawyer/courtroom events, and a missing family member that’s presumed dead? I would be instantly intrigued with anything that has just two of those topics) but little things added up that pulled away from my enjoyment of the story, which is reflected in my personal rating. The other ratings for different age groups are based on the content and comments, as always. I will probably try out the rest of the trilogy if the books interest me.

 
 
 
See y’all on Friday with a new review!


*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

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