Jennifer Ashley

There was just something about the first book that did not interest me as much as the characters in this book. I think I got bored, but I kind of want to revisit the first book. This book was delightful it had a scarred hero, werewolves, a love spell, pirates, political intrigue it ran the gamut. It is also interesting that the Nvengaria books are apparently in a shared universe with another series the pirate next door. it was kind of self indulgent when the story stopped to remind us of these characters. It only annoyed me because there is no depth to how much I don't care about other characters in the series like penelope, who thankfully does not appear until the epilogue.… (more)

Fieldnotes:
Portman Square, London, 1880

1 Talented and No-Nonsense Cook
1 Charming Man-of-All-Work/Jack-of-All-Trades
1 Useful Urchin

1 Despicable Aristocratic Weasel
2 Unexpected Deaths
2 Unfortunate Illnesses
1 Vengefully Placed Carving Knife
1 Soupcon of Poison

1 Thankfully Brief Sojourn in Newgate
Observational Skills
1 Sudden Resolution

The Short Version:
A prequel to the other Death Below Stairs/Kat Holloway mysteries - a charming introduction to both our cook heroine and her circumstances and the charming Daniel McAdam and urchin James. The mystery itself I enjoyed working out the how-dunnit, but found the who-dunnit a bit more frustrating as we didn't really get enough information to solve alongside Mrs. Holloway. Nevertheless, I thought the story was clever and I enjoyed it as a prelude to diving into the first full novel in the series.… (more)

There wasn't anything that aggravated me but just the general package was subpar.
The cop and his entire demeanour is total bs. At first, it seems he is just carrying out a personal grudge by abusing his power but later the story tries to make us believe he is just very diligent. He is described as following strict procedure but in reality, he does everything but. Basically, all his actions are just there for plot reasons and giggles. The same is true for the stormwalker business. The outcome of basically all fights is dependent on random weather phenomenons that of course are always just as they are needed. Convenience much?
This is generally the biggest sin of this book. Plot convenience.
Towards the end, the smut gets out of hand and started to just annoy me especially because most of it was just constant repetition almost word for word of earlier scenes.
The finale makes no sense whatsoever or is at least not explained in the least (and a lot of explanation would be necessary to explain this mess).
Lots of facts are made up as they are needed in general and there is almost no prescient setup.
All in all, subpar in all disciplines.… (more)

There was just something about the first book that did not interest me as much as the characters in this book. I think I got bored, but I kind of want to revisit the first book. This book was delightful it had a scarred hero, werewolves, a love spell, pirates, political intrigue it ran the gamut. It is also interesting that the Nvengaria books are apparently in a shared universe with another series the pirate next door. it was kind of self indulgent when the story stopped to remind us of these characters. It only annoyed me because there is no depth to how much I don't care about other characters in the series like penelope, who thankfully does not appear until the epilogue.… (more)