Books for Christian Girls: "A Gilded Lady" by Elizabeth Camden

About this book:

“Caroline Delacroix is at the pinnacle of Washington high society in her role as secretary to the First Lady of the United States. But beneath the facade of her beauty, glamorous wardrobe, and dazzling personality, she's hiding a terrible secret. If she cannot untangle a web of foreign espionage, her brother will face execution for treason.

Nathaniel Trask is the newly appointed head of the president's Secret Service team. He is immediately attracted to Caroline's quick wit and undeniable charm, but his job leaves no room for distractions. Anarchist plots have led to mounting threats against the president, forcing him to put duty before his growing love for Caroline.

Amid the glamorous pageantry of Gilded Age Washington, DC, Caroline and Nathaniel face danger and heartbreak that shakes them to their core and tests all they know about love and sacrifice.”

Series: Book #2 in the “Hope and Glory” trilogy. Review of Book #1 Here!

Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, read, remembered, & thought over; Prayers; Church going & going to churches to pray for someone; Visiting a Jewish synagogue; Talks about God, being unconditionally loved, & being forgiven; ‘H’s are capitalized when referring to God; Nathaniel wonders why God allowed something bad to happen and struggles with finding the reason; Mentions of God, Him knowing best, & Jesus forgiving our sins; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of Bibles, Bible reading, & books of the Bible; Mentions of being a good Christian (& even when you don’t feel like it) and Christian duties; Mentions of churches, services, sermons/messages, & pastors/ministers/priests; Mentions of a Jewish synagogue, Torah scrolls, & rabbis; Mentions of those from the Bible; A few mentions of a man reading the Bible and swearing that he’s a changed man; A few mentions of an engraving of the prodigal son; A couple mentions of Heaven; A couple mentions of godsends; A couple mentions of Puritans like Jonathan Edwards “threatening sinners in the hands of an angry God”; A couple mentions of a man wearing (no shirt and) angels wings while holding up a Bible and preaching doom to a crowd; A couple mentions of men living like a monk; A mention of a chaplain; A mention of a book of sermons; A mention of a rosary; A mention of someone being as guilty as sin.

*Note: A few mentions of two different men’s demons & one battling them; A mention of a devilish smile; A mention of a talisman.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘[didn’t] care a fig about [something]’, a ‘drat’, a ‘oh my word’, three ‘idiot’s, three ‘shut up’, and three forms of ‘stupid’; A couple mentions of curses (said, not written); Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Seeing someone shot & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); An assassination, assassination attempts, gunfire, & fighting the shooters (up to semi-detailed); Being shot, gunfire, fighting, pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Caroline is trying to quit smoking, but craves cigarettes when under stress to calm herself or when she sees someone else smoking (she smokes cigarettes twice); All about many mentions of assassinations, assassins, trying to keep an assassination from happening, shootings, shooters, gunfire, guns, bullets, knives, blood/bleeding, injuries, pain, & how they happened (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of treason, traitors, a possible hanging/execution, trials, jails/prisons, & arrests; Many mentions of alcohol, social drinking, drinking, & drunks (Nathaniel says he doesn’t drink; Luke drinks once); Many mentions of smoking, tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, & pipes (Caroline struggles with quitting smoking); Mentions of nightmares of a death of a loved one (drowning), their body, & a family member grieving them (including recalling it, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Mentions of deaths, illnesses, & injuries (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of wars, battles, fights, fighting, & deaths; Mentions of beatings & torture; Mentions of rebellions, violence, & threats; Mentions of bombings & bomb threats; Mentions of gangs, criminals, & crimes; Mentions of embezzlement; Mentions of con-artists, forgers, forgeries, & counterfeit items; Mention of fires & burns (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of break-ins & breaking in; Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of eavesdropping; Mentions of gossip & rumors; A few mentions of a family member dying from falling down the stairs (barely-above-not detailed); A couple mentions of possible kidnappings; A couple mentions of robberies; A couple mentions of members of someone’s family being arrested to pressure them to turn themselves in; A couple mentions of hatred; A mention of blackmail;

*Note: Mentions of Mrs. McKinley’s seizures & terrible headaches (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of a family grieving the deaths of their young daughters; A couple mentions of a mother leaving her family to run off with a traveling salesman.

Sexual Content- A palm kiss, two cheek kisses, a forehead kiss, a barely-above-not-detailed, and four semi-detailed kisses; Remembering a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss someone & wanting to steal a kiss; Touches, Embraces, Electricity, Hand Holding, Nearness, & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); When Caroline’s shawl slips and show bare skin, Nathaniel is tempted and asks her to pull it back up; Caroline bumps Nathaniel’s ankle on purpose & he says he is “impervious to temptation” but notice the electricity; Mentions of kisses & kissing (including a few conversations about kissing someone and women wondering if a man is a good kisser); Mentions of a man swearing to God that he not taking liberties with a girl besides a peck on the cheek; Mentions of flirting (including Caroline & Nathaniel’s flirtatious conversations, and Caroline pleading, bargaining, and flirting to get something done for her job); Mentions of blushes & winks; A few mentions of sibling betting who will get kissed first (which Caroline won when she asked a minister to kiss her and he did); A few mentions of a man being told to keep his hands off of a woman & her teasingly saying that she will keep her hands to herself; A few mentions of crushes & being teased about having one; A couple mentions of affairs; A couple mentions of Caroline flinging herself to Nathaniel; A mention of a man looking up and down Caroline’s body (which she is used to and doesn’t mind if it snags this man’s attention because she needs something from him); A mention of getting an eyeful of married couple being affectionate; Love, attraction, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A mention of someone saying about a tradition about taking off their clothes, drinking, & dancing around a bonfire (not really, said to annoy someone else).

-Caroline Delacroix, age 28-29

-Nathaniel Trask, age 38-39

P.O.V. switches between them

Set in 1900-1901

356 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{ Add a ½ star for girls interested in American Political History. }

I truly enjoyed the different style of pacing for this historical romance novel. Based on an interaction we see of Caroline and Nathaniel from “The Spice King”, I was really expecting this to be have the enemies-to-lovers trope between the two of them. I was pleasantly surprised that it did not and that this book covered over a year of their lives. While, yes, they were attracted to each other very quickly, because of their work keeping them very busy, I would call it more of a slow-burn romance.

I really liked Caroline. She’s good at damage control; She goes after what she wants in a strong (almost in a polite but forceful?) way; She’s interested in fashion and high society but she’s not shallow or ditsy. To describe her in a word: vibrant. I felt kinship with Annabelle from the first book, but I admired Caroline. I honestly enjoyed that they didn’t really get along (mainly Caroline towards Annabelle for her past actions) because it was different from the typical new sisters-in-law fawning over each other and because their personalities are so vastly different. I’m so eager to read the third book and finally learn more about Luke.

Like normal with an Elizabeth Camden book, I kept pausing reading to look up different historical facts and events that were taking place and upcoming, waiting in suspense for different events to happen.

While this one didn’t enthrall me quite like “The Spice King” did, I still found this second book to be very interesting and I enjoyed learning more about an administration that I didn’t know much about. Definitely looking forward to reading the third and final book soon.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!