“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
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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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