“Detective Daniel Swann and debutante Juliette Thorndike once again team up to solve a dangerous mystery--while trying to keep their growing romance secret.
Someone is preying upon the street children of Regency London. They seem to think no one will notice when urchins go missing--and even if they are noticed, who will care?
Daniel needs to do something about the missing children. But with recent revelations about his past and an unexpected, somewhat unwelcome inheritance to deal with, this is a terrible time to dive back into the seedy underbelly of the crime world. Nevertheless, he's still a Bow Street runner, and his partner Lady Juliette is sensitive to the plight of these wayward youngsters. They're on the case, searching shadowed alleys and coal-drenched streets to find the missing.
But the tangle of expectation and the dynamics of power cannot be easily ignored, even if there are children in danger. When Daniel's past threatens to overwhelm his future, he will need a miracle and the help of his friends to both apprehend the villain and unravel his tangled family web. And it may be that his new responsibilities demand that he leave the children of the shadows to their terrible fate--or lose everything.”
Series: Book #3 in the “Thorndike & Swann Regency Mysteries” trilogy. Review of Book #1 Here and Book #2 Here! (It is best to read them in order as they are connecting and about the same characters.) Mentions characters and events from the author’s other series “Serendipity & Secrets” and the novel collection “Joy to the World”.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are remembered, mentioned, & quoted; Prayers; Talks about God, His will, praying, & callings; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Daniel has recently come to terms with the idea that God is a benevolent Father (Book #2) but thinks that following God isn’t easy; Mentions of God, Jesus, His will, & callings; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, services, & clergymen; Mentions of blessings & being Blessed; Mentions of abbeys & monks; A few mentions of Bibles & prayer books; A few mentions of Easter Sunday; A few mentions of sins; A couple mentions of miracles; A mention of a shelter for women where the women are taught Scriptures and a goal of the place being to “save their souls along with their bodies”; A mention of some scientists believing that “God and science are separate and science is the greater” (and a man who is challenging that view); A mention of Jesuits;
*Note: A mention of a place looking haunted; A mention of a place being cursed.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form of ‘shut up’; A mention of damning evidence; A few mentions of curses (said, not written); Some sarcasm & eye rolling; Being thrown into jail; Many mentions of murders, murderers, seeing murders happen, the weapon used, & bodies (including in Book #2, up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of crimes, crime scenes, criminals, arrests, prisons, hangings/gaols, & pickpockets; Many mentions of missing children, kidnappings/abductions, & kidnappers (including in Book #1); Mentions of gangs/street mobs, thieves, stealing, & stolen items; Mentions of robberies, burglaries, & break-ins; Mentions of fights/brawls & fighting; Mentions of being drugged (children) & laudanum; Mentions of threats & blackmail (including a criminal threatening to kill a child if he doesn’t listen and the child being terrified, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of rumors & gossip; Mentions of alcohol, pubs/ale houses, drinking, & drunks; Mentions of pipes, cigars, tobacco, & smoking; Mentions of gambling & debts; A few mentions of a man being beaten to death; A couple mentions of an almost drowning (Book #2); A couple mentions of treason; A mention of a war; A mention of a massacre; A mention of assassins; A mention of a shooting & death (Book #2); A mention of a death of a woman’s first husband; A mention of the high mortality rate amongst those who live in the streets; A mention of a fire; A mention of child labor; A mention of a child (not) being beaten; A mention of jealousy;
*Note: Daniel has a strained relationship with his mother because she sent him away with a mysterious patron when he was young to a school (He always thought that she was paid for him to go away and that it solved her “problems” (See Sexual Content Note); He recalls his thoughts when he was a small child wanting to beg her to take him back and then angry words in university); *Spoiler* They have harsh words and Daniel tries to hang on to his old hurt, but towards the end, they have a conversation that is healing *End of Spoiler*; A man talks about a woman’s “delicate sensibilities”; Mentions of some in society believing they are better than commoners (including a man telling Daniel that he is his better); A mention of a cabbie possibly not liking a dark-skinned person riding in his cab (thought by a main character, and while never said one way or the other, I believe it has to do with the person’s place of employment instead).
Sexual Content- Three hand/palm kisses, four head/forehead/hair kisses, two not-detailed kisses, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, and three semi-detailed kisses; Wanting to kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Hand holding, Tingles, Warmth, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch & embrace (up to semi-detailed); Winks; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); *Spoilers for Book #2* It was revealed in the second book that Daniel is not an illegitimate child of a servant like he’s always thought, but that he is actually the legitimate son of a wealthy man and his parents were married; His biological father was threatened by his father to annul the marriage, however, he faked the papers and still got married to another woman while still legally married to Daniel’s mother (the second marriage thus being a bigamous marriage and his child from that marriage being illegitimate) *End of Spoiler*; Daniel & Juliette are caught in an embrace by one of her chaperones (the woman is very upset by this and Juliette is embarrassed by the woman making it sound like she’s a strumpet); Juliette says she would make her parents understand how important Daniel is to her if they didn’t approve of their relationship; Juliette wonders if a man was a client of a former prostitute (but then thinks that she may be doing him an injustice); Many mentions of illegitimate children & one not knowing who his father is for most of his life (also called “by-blow children” and “baseborn offspring”); Mentions of a woman who was a Cyprian/courtesan (prostitute) & now planning to help other women so they can “support themselves with selling their bodies to men in order to survive” (a couple other mentions of them selling their bodies to be able to eat); Mentions of kisses & kissing (including married and engaged couples kissing, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of reputations, chaperones, & scandals; A few mentions of a young woman running away with someone in her household’s staff; A couple mentions of seducing & not being seduced; A couple mentions of a loose woman; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a woman “getting herself into a bad way” (pregnant); A mention of when a child was conceived; A mention of a man keeping a mistress; A mention of houses of ill repute; Love, being in love, & the emotions;}
*Note: There is a conversation about there being some men who have “lascivious natures” when it comes to children, but usually being “gender-specific in their taste. If they seek to abuse boys, they don’t often have any appetite for girls” and vise-versa (This conversation sickens Daniel and he thinks that there’s “no legal punishment too harsh for men with such evil proclivities”); A few mentions of Daniel’s mother having the option to “end [her] pregnancy before [Daniel] were even born” (Daniel is hurt by hearing this, but she says she did not think about killing him before he was born, but did think about trying to find a better place for him than she could provide); A few mentions of butting into a conversation; A mention of a young girl not yet developing into womanhood.
-Juliette Thorndike
-Daniel Swann
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1816
304 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{Certain comments noted in the Sexual Content section have dropped the ratings for Older Teen Girls}
I have been greatly anticipating this book since I finished the second book over a year ago and sometimes the books you anticipated don’t meet those expectations. I’m thankful to say that this was a good conclusion to the series. *big sigh of relief*
More so in this book than the prior books, I did feel a bit left out with the mentions of characters from the author’s prior series. My fault, I know, since I haven’t read those (they’re on my ever-growing TBR!) but I felt like I was missing the excitement of seeing characters again. I’m pushing that series up my TBR to hopefully get to in the new year. And then if I just have to reread this series after that? Oh, well, woe is me. ;)
Speaking of series, can there be a spin-off series about Uncle Bertie, Rosebreen, and Rhynwock? They stole the scenes they were in, and I want to see them again!
Throughout this trilogy, Juliette and Daniel were just so cute and good together, fighting crime and falling in love. In this final book, there wasn’t much romance, more case work which I found interesting, but I did miss seeing them together more. Because of the focus on Daniel’s cases, the romance definitely took a backseat at times—which I didn’t hate because I prefer a good light romance, but I was missing their cute moments together. Juliette really doesn’t get involved in the cases until 75% in, which was a bit disappointing, because she was an equal help in the prior two books and she kind of felt like a side character at times in this book.
Like both prior books in the series, I love the vocabulary and phrases used. It gives the book such a different charm to it compared to many other regency books I’ve read.
Birth secrets were finally revealed in the prior book and now are truly coming to play. There’s different angles to it which we see in the book and it was interesting how both Juliette and Daniel thought how it would help their relationship. There was only one way this book was going to end in my mind and I felt my blood pressure rising in the last 15 or so percent because of it. Daniel being a noble idiot made me want to scream into a pillow. So needless to say, I was stressed because of the rather rushed ending and having to take deep breaths at times, hahaha!
While this book didn’t match up to my adoration of the first book (that bar is just too high!) this was still a good conclusion to a series I’m sad to see end and am overall satisfied by the ending. (Mainly not satisfied with the fact that it’s over. I like Juliette and Daniel too much!)
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment