“Maggie Molinaro survived a hardscrabble childhood in the downtrodden streets of Manhattan to become a successful businesswoman. After a decade of sacrifice, she now owns a celebrated ice cream company, but when she offends a corrupt banker, she unwittingly sets off a series of calamities that threaten to destroy her life's work.
Liam Blackstone is a charismatic steel magnate committed to overhauling factory conditions for the steelworkers of America. Standing in his way is the same villain determined to ruin Maggie. What begins as a practical alliance to defeat a common enemy soon evolves into a romance between two wounded people determined to beat the odds.
A spiraling circle of treachery grows increasingly dangerous as Liam and Maggie risk their lives and fortune for the good of the city. It will require all their wit and ingenuity to navigate the dangerous waters ahead, but their crusade could cost them everything.”
Series: Book #3 in “The Blackstone Legacy” series. Review of Book #1 Here! And #2 Here!
Spiritual Content- A couple Scriptures are quoted & remembered; Prayers, Thanking God, Crossing one’s self, & reciting Hail Marys and rosaries (both Liam & Maggie; including Maggie sending up “prayers to Jesus and God the Father, to all the angels and saints”); Going to a chapel to pray; Bible reading; Talks about God, Him calling us, & Bibles; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Mentions of God, Jesus, His plan, & being our Heavenly Father; Mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, crossing one’s self, saying Hail Marys, & saying rosaries; Mentions of a Bible, Bible reading, books of the Bible, & those and events in the Bible; Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of churches, chapels, & going to them; A few mentions of Christians, Jews, & Catholics; A few mentions of blessings; A few mentions of a cathedral; A couple mentions of “the invisible thread of energy that pulled [Liam] toward God’s will” (someone else would call that the Holy Spirit and another would call it basic Christian compassion); A couple mentions of hymns; A mention of a priest; A mention of a theologian; A mention of someone getting a free college education from the Catholic Church (Book #1); A mention of holy water (from a church); A mention of the Holy Grail; A mention of wishing someone Godspeed; A mention of Maggie believing that “frittering away money” is a sin; A mention of a Madonna statue;
*Note: A mention of someone not being a fortune-teller; A mention of the phrase “speak of the devil”.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘hurts like the dickens’, a ‘what in tarnation’, three forms of ‘idiot’, three ‘stinking’s, four ‘dumb’s, eight ‘stupid’s, and nine forms of ‘shut up’; A few mentions of curses (including ones said by Liam; said, but not written out); A bit of eye rolling & sarcasm; Pain, Throwing up, Being punched/beaten, Being attacked, Being locked in a freezer, Fighting, Punching, Stabbing someone (in self-defense), Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (semi-detailed); Being threatened & blackmailed (including by dirty cops which later causes Maggie to be on edge when seeing other police officers, up to semi-detailed); In the Prologue, teenaged Maggie is mugged, punched/beaten, & injured by a gang of boys (semi-detailed); Liam was kidnapped as a child & raised by a man who was physically and verbally abusive (up to semi-detailed in recalling past events and beatings; Liam wasn’t able to see his real parents again); Liam wants to punch a man at a few different times & does pummel a man once (which feels guilty that he liked punching the man, semi-detailed); Liam smokes a cigarette (once; even though his doctor orders him not to); At one point, Liam says he hates his life; All about many mentions of crimes/illegal (business) dealings, thugs, threats, blackmail, bribes, & dirty cops; Many mentions of fights, fighting, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of cheaters, cheating, & bullies; Mentions of heatstroke, bodies, & deaths; Mentions of prisons, arrests, criminals, & a charge of attempted murder; Mentions of a man hitting a (teenaged) servant; Mentions of vandalism; Mentions of ships capsizing, injuries, & possibly having to abandon ship; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors (including some being giddy over someone’s lurid person life and scandals); Mentions of alcohol (beer, wine, champagne), drinking, social drinking (at dinner/events), drunks, & pubs; Mentions of cigars, cigarettes, smoking, & tobacco; Mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of prejudices (such as someone implying that there’s “quite the criminal element” in a group of Italians; A few mentions of fires (used as threats); A few mentions of divorces; A couple mentions of stealing & stolen items; A couple mentions of poker/gambling; A couple mentions of hatred; A mention of Maggie recalling sleeping in a back alley as a child; A mention of telling someone to take a leap off of a tall building;
*Note: Mentions of an ulcer, pain from it, & possibly dying if it gets worse (semi-detailed); A mention of wanting to tell someone to stick something in a certain place.
Sexual Content- Two palm kisses, three cheek kisses, four barely-above-not-detailed kisses, two borderline barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss, and a semi-detailed kiss; Recalling kisses (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Nearness, Shivers, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Noticing (up to semi-detailed); Winks, Blushes, & Flirting; Liam & Maggie toy with each other’s feet under the dinner table (borderline barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Liam walks into an office to find a woman on a man’s lap (she leaps away and fixes her blouse, no other details besides the fact that it isn’t the man’s wife; a mention of it again later); Liam & Maggie go on a couple trips together (for a noble cause), but there’s many others with them and she gets permission from her uncle after assuring him they will have separate rooms; A man tries to proposition Maggie; A ‘tramp’ and two ‘floozy’; Mentions of a man’s mistress, his cheating, & affairs; Mentions of a man trying to charge his wife with bigamy (which is illegal) to be granted an annulment; Mentions of kisses & a good kisser (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of flirting, blushes, & winks; A few mentions of a couple nuzzling & encouraging more kissing and cuddles; A couple mentions of a man’s lust (for a woman who is not his wife); A couple mentions of a woman accusing a rich man of being her child’s father but he proved he was out of the country when her child was conceived; A couple mentions of a fling (that sounded like Maggie to be far more than a fling); A mention of Liam thinking that he’s given into temptation most of his life (“whether it was women, wine, or his temper”); A mention of Liam being a “healthy red-blooded man” but restraining himself to prove he was a reformed man; A mention of a man warning that men don’t give gifts unless they want something in return; A mention of a man teasing about a woman throwing herself at him; A mention of jealousy; A mention of a crush; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Mentions of a woman (not our main character) posing in the nude for a famous sculptor (done to “renounce her mother’s stuffy ways” but later realized it was a stupid thing to do and it’s called a “youthful mistake”) & being blackmailed or the scandalous pictures will be released to the press (someone else calls her “smutty” and implies that another woman can take up nude modeling as well or “walk the streets”); A mention of a woman’s racy past; A mention of a man opening the door in just his knickers and an unbuttoned shirt (not-detailed).
-Maggie Molinaro, age 29
-Liam Blackstone, age 35
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1902 (Prologue in 1890 & Epilogue in 1909)
336 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
I’ll admit, I was nervous going into this novel. I always read this author’s books because of her fascinating historical details and plots, but her last three books weren’t my favorites and received a 2 star rating each from me due to content or characters. I was hoping that this book would be different and make the average ratings rise, and it did—for me, personally, that is.
Let’s back up a bit before I discuss the content notes in more detail. I adored both Maggie and Liam. Maggie was so strong but not in the typical “I-don’t-need-a-man-or-anyone’s-help” way that I’ve seen often and am frankly tired of seeing. Liam was rough around the edges—no question about that—but at the same time he’s so masculine in that protector way. He’s a leader and you can tell that skill set of his has been formed by leading unions. But also at that same time, he’s broken. The situation surrounding his kidnapping as a young child and not only being subject to an abusive “father”, he completely lost out to being with his actual father who never stopped looking for him. And that hurts. It hurts deeply and he wrestles with that. Liam could be described as a strong, broken hero.
I absolutely adored all the ice, ice cream, family businesses, and corporate drama parts. Which was the large majority of this book and I was so eager to see what would happen and how learn more interesting facts about my favorite time period. That’s why I always read this author’s books—while, yes, some have been misses for me, I always find the historical content and details she adds so interesting.
So, all that raving and I’m only giving it a personal rating of 3 and not even that for other age groups? Yep. Here’s why. There’s some parts that had me uncomfortable with recommending it for BFCG’s age ranges. The mentions of a woman (not our main girl) posing for nude pictures and them being leaked as blackmail, smoking and drinking being commonplace, walking in on a man fiddling with his mistress in his office, our main couple playing footsie under the dinner table. Now, of course, none of this is detailed, but it’s still there. I also have to say that the injustices because of the villain of this story and his actions drove me up a wall at a lot of times.
Overall? Hmm. As you can tell, I really liked the historical details and main characters from this novel—and I’m so glad that I enjoyed it more than the prior books in this trilogy—but I’m still going to have to go with these ratings due to some content that while added to the drama of the story, also affects the ratings for these ages.
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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