Despite a promising beginning, the book wasn't for me.
To tell you the truth I have a hard time revieiwing it because the universe was well constructed. I easily managed to imagine the places but unfortunately, the story itself was too dramatic and the characters way too predictible.

The cover for The English Wife is absolutely stunning, I just had to get that out of the way because I’ve looked at it a gazillion times! This was the perfect book to be my first review of the new year as I’m hoping to add more historical fiction to my TBR and I had heard wonderful things about Willig’s books so this was an easy pick for me. This was a beautifully rendered tale of love, betrayal and sacrifice all shrouded in a dark gothic mystery that swept me away to the gilded age.

This is told via dual timelines, but there isn’t a huge gap between them, one is in 1899 and the other begins just a few years before and details the events that lead to the murder of Bayard. Janie is his sister and she narrates the parts after his death and I really connected to her. She was an outsider in her own family, always just on the fringes of society despite being part of a prominent family and her insecurities made her easy to relate to.

This was so well written, Willig is a gifted writer who uses rich details to conjure up images that really came to life. There was drama and scandal aplenty, especially for the era, there were some taboo topics and surprising turns that I didn’t predict. I do want to add that it moved at a slow pace at times but I believe your patience will be rewarded if you keep reading, part of the charm is the attention to detail but it can be slightly verbose.

The story takes place in 1899 and begins with a murder and a disappearance. Janie is the quiet, wallflower sister who finds her brother murdered. She sets out to find the truth with the help from a journalist and in the process discovers hidden secrets in the aristocratic world she lives in.
The story is told in flashbacks as seen through Janie's brother and the girl, Annabelle that he falls in love with and later marries. Later, Annabelle is blamed for his death, but she too has disappeared.

This story was a fun read with twists and turns that kept me wanting to find out more.

It seems like since Downton Abbey there is been a resurgence in books set in the Edwardian era and the Gilded Age. I'm very glad that this is the first book that I have read in this time period, because it has really encouraged me to dive into this sub-genre. The English Wife is an historical fiction with mystery novel set in high society New York & London and opens with the murder of Bay Van Duyvil, son of wealthy New York family and the death or disappearance of his British wife Annabelle. From there the story splits into two parts: the tale of his sister Jane in the aftermath of the shocking murder and the story of Bay's trip to Europe, five years earlier.

This story captivated me from the shocking opening and kept me reading to find out what happened, through several twists and turns. The story is a sad one (opening with a murder), but also a bit hopeful at the same time. Lauren Willig does a good job of creating a world of opulence and restriction that these characters both inhabit and battle against. It was also interesting to see her portrayal of a 19th century court inquisition (I do love a good court case). This story had all the things I really like: a dual timeline, mystery, and a little romance.

I did get this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, and my recommendation is to read it if you enjoy historical fiction and mysteries. In fact, I enjoyed this story so much, that I plan to go back and read an earlier book of Willig's that had gone on my DNF pile, The Other Daughter. I am looking forward to her next novel, for sure.

Willig takes the reader on a journey back to late nineteenth century New York, a time when the descendants of wealthy Dutch settlers ruled New York society. One of those such families, the Van Duyvils, suffer scandal at their very core when Bay Van Duyvil is murdered at a lavish house party at his estate, and one of the primary suspects is his missing wife, Annabelle.

While police initially think that Annabelle may have also been a victim of crime, they eventually start to believe that she may have been the perpetrator of Bay's murder. Annabelle is nowhere to be found despite numerous unsubstantiated reports of her subsequent appearance at various locations. But Bay's younger sister, Janie, is determined to find her brother's killer and breaks out of her shell to defy her mother's wishes and go to the press for assistance. She seeks the help of brash young Irish reporter James Burke, a man who seems to have disdain for her social class even as he is unwittingly attracted to her. 

Janie places her trust in James to find the truth about her brother's death. But as James gets closer to discovering who murdered Bay, he uncovers carefully hidden secrets about the Van Duyvil family and discovers that the killer may be closer at hand than he previously thought. As he seeks to protect Janie from danger, he begins to see her for the caring woman she is and realizes that she is  uncomfortable with the constrictions of her social status and seeks to find real love rather than an a marriage arranged to satisfy her difficult mother.

Willig uses flashback to go back in time to when Bay and Annabelle met in England. As the past and present of the novel slowly converge, secrets harbored by both Bay and Annabelle come to light, thereby increasing their list of enemies who might have wished them harm. 

The English Wife is rich with historical details especially in reference to class distinctions which created such a cavernous divide not to be crossed. These historical details add realism to the novel as Willig breathes life into it with her excellent character development and engaging suspense with the addition of romance between  orphaned James Burke and heiress Janie Van Duyvil. sherimelnick.wordpress.com

I received this book as an ARC from Net Galley.
This book is right up my alley taking place at the end of the 19th century in New York and England. It had a mystery woven into it and while there were no major twists in the story it was interesting and a page turner. I liked the characters and how they were developed.
Additionally, part of this story took place in NYC during a cold winter spell and one of the worst snow storms ever. It was very easy to imagine being there as it was so vividly written.
This was a good book and I plan to read more by this author!

This book was an easy pick for me. I love historical fiction and have read many of the books in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation Series. It took me a little while to get into the story -- and to keep the flashbacks straight from the main story, but it definitely intrigued me as I got further along in the book. It had murder, mystery, family drama and romance -- what more could you ask for? Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with this sneak peak!

I was really looking forward to reading this historical fiction set in New York's Gilded Age when I first found out about it.  I had put off reading it for awhile during my reading slump and I'm so glad I waited until I was out of it.  The book starts off rather slowly and jumps around the timeline a bit so it was a little confusing until I got the characters in order and the timeline.  Janie at first seems really mousy and timid, but she gradually comes out of her shell and becomes a really interesting character.  I found myself rooting for her to be successful in uncovering the truth about Bay and Annabelle with Mr. Burke, the reporter.  As with any mystery novel, I had my own suspicions about what the truth was but the twists were revealed to be quite different than my original ideas.  I really enjoyed that because it adds more to the mystery when the reveal leaves you shocked.  And there were many twists in this story!  What I really loved was that each little twist ended up being woven into what the BIG reveal was about what had happened to Bay and Annabelle.  This whole story ended up being an intricately woven piece of tapestry and the final image was fantastic and shocking.  While I struggled a bit with the book in the beginning, it was well worth the read.  I will be looking at reading more from this author.

If you are a fan of historical fiction told with a twist of mystery you will not be disappointed in The English Wife. Lauren Willig relates a compelling story told from two very different viewpoints. Readers won't unravel the carefully knotted mystery until the very end. Ms. Willig includes subtle commentary on the power and persuasion of great wealth through the narration of two young women who grew up under the influence and shadow of wealth, reputation and prestige. Georgie is a young actress, struggling to survive by acting in a disreputable theater. Janie is a seemingly colorless spinster, recently publicly humiliated by the defection of her fiance who chose to marry her cousin instead. Breaching continents, social strata and oceans these two narrators are united through a violent murder that permanently reshapes their lives and the lives of their families. Ultimately readers will ask the question, "Do wealth and reputation protect us or are they in fact the threat we should fear?" Intrigued? Don't miss The English Wife!!

4.5 stars...

The wait for a new Lauren Willig book was so worth it! (Most of you probably know of my love for her books) I loved this book full of twists and turns and rich with period detail. Set around the turn of the century, we get a slice of life in an aristocratic American family: the good, the bad, the ugly. Our main characters of Bayard Duyvil, his English wife Annabelle and his unmarried sister Janie start out at a grand party where things have definitely not gone as planned, and have in fact derailed with one person dead and another missing. It's full of atmospheric writing and characters that come alive. I was fully drawn in and was thoroughly immersed in the story. I felt as if I was there experiencing it all along with them. Secrets abound here-who will be able to unravel them and what will be the price for those left behind? The English Wife is juicy and dark, but also had a great focus on gaining confidence and standing up for oneself. Also how love comes in many forms and ways. Wonderful page turner that I can't wait to recommend to all my historical fiction fan friends!

**Many, many thanks to Lauren Willig, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC to read and honestly review. I was thrilled to get my hands on this book!**

The English Wife combines mystery and historical fiction in a masterful way. The details of a nineteenth century, privileged life, the character development and setting enhance the suspense until the very end. I highly recommend reading this book.

This is the first book that I have read by Lauren Willig. She is well known for her Pink Carnation Series and has also written standalone novels. The English Wife, (a standalone), was a page turner. To me, the book was like Jane Eyre crossed with Rebecca. If those are novels that you enjoyed, you may well enjoy The English Wife too!

Bayard is from a knickerbocker family but this doesn't stop him from marrying an actress with a past. These two live a charmed life until Bayard is murdered and Annabelle's past reveals itself.
I enjoyed the time setting of the rich and powerful during the Knickerbocker years. A perfect setting for this murder mystery. I also liked Annabelle. She is no nonsense and could care less about what most people think. She does not fall into the norm of the rich and powerful. Her spunk leads her to be an endearing character. Then there is Bayard. Bayard has a large secret as well. You need to read the book to find this out! "What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." This is the quote which comes to mind when thinking about Bayard.
The story is drawn out and way too long. That being said, I still enjoyed it, for the most part. I kept trying to figure out "who dunnit". I really like being stumped and the author did a fabulous job keeping me stumped till the very end.
With mansions, secrets and family drama, I felt very much like I was reading a gothic mystery. A nice change from plain historical fiction.
I received this novel from the publisher via Netgalley.

I liked this in the beginning, and the nugget of the story is good, but there was just too much melodrama and confusion for me by the end. I liked Georgie and Janie both, though I could have lived without just about every man in the story, especially as their presence contributes to all kind of red herrings that are more confusing than plot-enhancing. I was still mostly enjoying the book (albeit with a bit of head scratching as to why a lot of the information given to me was relevant to the plot at all), but the climax was more penny dreadful than Shakespearean. Could have liked it. Could have loved it. But sadly, not my favorite Willig. In fact, thinking back I'm wondering if I always find this thwarted potential in all the books of hers that I have read...

I haven’t read a lot of historical fiction. Historical romance, yes. But historical fiction, no. So when I saw that The English Wife was up for review, I figured….why not. I am glad that I did read this book. It gave me a good idea on how the “polite” society was during the turn of the century.

There are two plotlines in The English Wife. One plotline focuses the murder of Bayard Van Duyvil. It also focuses on the disappearance of his wife, Annabelle. The other plotline focuses on an actress named Georgianna. There is also a major subplotline about Bayard’s secret and the strain it put on his marriage. All those plotlines are brought together at the end of the book for a spectacular finish.

It took me a while to realize that Georgie and Annabelle were the same people. I catch on to stuff like that but for some reason, I didn’t here. I did feel bad for Georgie/Annabelle. She went from one bad situation to another. I do think that she handled Bayard’s secret with unusual grace for that time. She dealt with vicious rumors to protect Bayard and his secret. But, when her secret was found out, Bayard was upset with her and there was talk of divorce. He did forgive her, which made me go “WTF“. Her secret wasn’t as bad as his and he acted like it was the end of the world. Now, if his secret came out, that would have been a whole different story. So yeah, I felt bad for her.

I thought Bayard was a bit of a wuss. He couldn’t or wouldn’t stand up to his mother. His only act of defiance was marrying Georgie and that went over well. When Georgie confronts him after the party with what she saw, he didn’t deny what she saw. But he also didn’t confirm either. Actually, he deflected the blame to the other person involved in what she saw. When they were building their house, he finally came clean with her. Then moved the architect into their house for a little over 2 years. He didn’t see or ignored the rumors that started circulating. He was all about himself. He drove me nuts when he showed up in the book.

The star of this book was Janie. She started off the book as a meek woman who didn’t say boo to a goose. I mean, her own cousin ran off, married her fiancée and Janie didn’t have anything to say about it. She was pushed to the background because of her meekness and the fact that her mother had no use for her. But finding Bay’s body changed her for the better. The more she dug into his death and Annabelle’s identity, the more self-confident she was. A big help with that was James, a reporter for the local paper. He pushed her to go out of her comfort zone and look for answers. It was something she needed. By the end of the book, her transformation was incredible. I loved it!!

The mystery angle of The English Wife was written wonderfully. There is more than one mystery and they were wrapped up by the end of the book. There were some endings that I saw coming, some that I had a feeling was going to end up that way and one that blew my mind. The author did a wonderful job keeping me hooked on the book. I needed to find out what led up to Bayard’s death and the aftermath.

The drama angle went with the mystery angle. I liked that the author would end Georgie’s chapter on a somewhat dramatic note and then start-up Janie’s. Like the mystery angle, that kept me hooked. There is also a slight romantic angle too but it isn’t revealed until almost the end of the book.

The English Wife is told from Annabelle’s and Janie’s 3rd person perspective. The author chose to have the book written in chapters dedicated to one person and then switch to another. I do not like that. But the author did it in such a way that it didn’t disrupt the flow of a book.

The end of The English Wife was explosive. All the major plotlines were brought together and Bay’s murderer was revealed. I was not expecting who it was. I was floored.

The English Wife is a fast-moving historical mystery/drama. The characters were very well-written. The plot was interesting and multilayered. This is a book that I would recommend to family and friends.

Will I reread: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: mild violence

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The English Wife

All opinions stated in The English Wife are mine

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

My Review of “The English Wife” by Lauren Willig

It is just so amazing that Lauren Willig , Author of “The English Wife” is able to weave a tale with different genres and a colorful cast of characters. The genres of “The “English Wife” are Historical Fiction, Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery and Suspense.There are some surprising twists and turns. This is a captivating and intriguing novel.

Lauren Willig describes her characters as complex and complicated. There are secrets, lies and betrayals. There are strange identities. Is everybody who they say they are? What is the truth? Does it take a murder or disappearance to set the truth free? There is a divide among the haves and have nots, and the rich and poor. There also is a division of American Royalty and British Royalty. What a combination. There are rumors of infidelity and adultery. There is a replica of a house in America that is also in London.

The press is known for fabricating tales, but is also sometimes regarded as the gospel of truth. Why is it that people love to gossip and look into the flaws of other people?

Can knowing the truth be better than living with a lie? Kudos to Lauren Willig for masterminding this story with so much detail. I would highly recommend this mysterious and suspenseful novel for those readers that appreciate all the above genres. I received An Advanced Reading Copy for my honest review.

With 'The English Wife', Lauren Willig does a superb job of capturing the era and setting. The characters' plights and their interactions feel real. I especially loved the dialogue, which I could almost hear being spoken.

So, yes, there are some great things about this book, but I didn't love it. I'll explain:

The story is told in alternating timelines, giving us distinctly different side-by-side stories rather than one as a whole. We have the "present" timeline, taking place in 1899, with Janie as the standout main character. In the second timeline, we go back to 1894, with Bay and Georgie as the main characters. Within these two separate stories, we have several subplots and a lot of characters moving in and out. All the activity and shifting timelines takes away from the main focus of the story. To me, it all felt scattered.

While there are a lot of separate issues taking place, the pace is actually quite slow. The two stories converge about 3/4 of the way through the book, and this is when the pace picks up. I found the last quarter of the book much more enjoyable, as the focus narrowed and we stayed within the present timeline.

If you're looking for a historical family drama, and you don't mind alternating timelines, then give this one a try. My complaints are specific to me, and it truly is well written.

This is a pretty fun read - reads like a Wuthering Heights or Rebecca. But it was a tad too predictable to be successful. And the characters were a bit overdone (mother is too hateful, cousin too flighty, husband too angelic, Jane too timid - until shes predictably not timid at all). It kept my interest though and was well written.

Bayard Van Duyvil has the perfect life. The sole male heir of an old Knickerbocker family he has a beautiful English wife, for whom he's recreated her ancestral home on the banks of the Hudson, and two beautiful children, three-year-old fraternal twins Viola and Sebastian. But there are rumors that everything isn't as perfect as it seems. Why would Bayard and his wife Annabelle hide themselves away in Cold Springs? A beautiful house is no excuse to being a recluse when New York society thirsts for your lifeblood. Soon New York society will get exactly what it craves when during a lavish ball to celebrate Twelfth Night Bayard is found with a knife in his chest and the name Georgie on his lips while his wife has disappeared. Everyone believes that the rumors about Annabelle and the house's architect at true. She has murdered her husband and absconded with her lover! The only one who doesn't believe the salacious lies all the newspapers are printing is Bay's younger sister, Janie. She is expected to keep calm and wait for the scandal to die down. But it pains her to see Annabelle's name dragged through the mud, they didn't know her like she did. A chance encounter with a reporter from The News of the World, a Mr. Burke, leads Janie to form a tenuous alliance with a man who represents the scandal rags that are pulling her world apart. Before too long Janie realizes that perhaps she didn't know Annabelle or even Bay. But with the tenacious and increasingly devoted Mr. Burke helping her she will get to the bottom of her brother's death and perhaps solve the mysteries of his life.

Having first read Lauren back in 2007 a short time after her third Pink Carnation book, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, had hit bookshelves I don't want to claim I'm an expert on her writing, but I have been along for the ride for a decade now. She's even one of the reasons I decided to start my blog! While I have loved reading every single one of her books, finding characters to love and to hate, ones to root for and ones that I long to see fall flat on their faces, the greatest joy was seeing her mature as a writer. When she wrote her first standalone, The Ashford Affair, back in 2013 she tapped into something new. Her writing started to move beyond the dual timeline narrative where despite troubles everyone gets a happily ever after. While I am a fan of this wish fulfillment in writing sometimes I feel that it's unsatisfying. That it doesn't actually reflect the world around us. Sometimes I don't want everyone to get a happy ending. This was very much showcased with That Summer, Lauren's 2014 standalone which might just be my favorite book she's written. Here Lauren had matured to a point that she was willing to kill off characters that we, the readers, had very much fallen in love with. Thankfully after going a little darker Lauren didn't reign it in. She continued this exploration of the underbelly of humanity in The Other Daughter and now in The English Wife. Sometimes good intentions lead to death. Sometimes love can't conquer all. Sometimes there are secrets that will out no matter what. As for me, I loved every second of the seedier side, it's like Gossip Girl 1800s.

If there is one linking thread through Lauren's work it would be her love of Shakespeare. Of course, seeing as he helped forge the very language we all use he could be considered important to every book ever written, but with Lauren it's special. I dare you to count the number of times her characters have had their mouth's stopped with a kiss as Benedick does to Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. Here though we've reached a whole new level wherein Shakespeare seems another character in the story. Annabelle and Bay meet in London where she is working on stage in a musical evisceration of Twelfth Night at the Ali Baba Theater. If the play's the thing, Twelfth Night is the thing in The English Wife. Bay meets his death on Twelfth Night, their palatial recreation of Lacey Hall is renamed Illyria, and Bay and Annabelle's children are named after the hero and heroine of the play. But the references aren't just about infusing The English Wife with a bit of Annabelle's homeland via Shakespeare. The play itself is filled with confusion, merriment, love, gender, orientation, romance, and thankfully not a random lion like in As You Like It. These are themes that are all seen in Annabelle and Bay's story. Lauren has mined Shakespeare to help not only create a mirror to her story but to show the universality of it. I could quote Shakespeare here, but instead I feel like quoting Battlestar Galactica, "All of this has happened before and will happen again." Humanity has a basic universality to it. The building blocks are all the same. Shakespeare knew this and so does Lauren. Sure, everything is a tale as old as time, but it's how you go about telling it that makes it unique.

While Shakespeare is classic, there's another author to whom this moniker belongs that The English Wife shares some DNA with and that's Daphne Du Maurier. I'm going to say this right out, there is no one like Daphne Du Maurier. Therefore when any book that is mildly Gothic and has a house starts throwing around comparisons to this unparalleled author I just want them to shut it. Because whatever they have written will be a disappointment because comparisons are nothing more than a marketing ploy. The book won't deliver and you'll spend all your time wondering why you're just not re-reading Rebecca. When I read The English Wife back in August there were obviously no reviews yet. No one proclaiming that The English Wife is in the least like Du Maurier. Nothing to taint or sully my initial impressions. Therefore I was wonderfully surprised that the denouement of the book set during the inquest and a subsequent blizzard trapping our cast of characters at Illyria felt like a modern interpretation of Du Maurier. I'm not sure if Lauren purposefully set out to do this, because most attempts fail in the execution, and yet, here she is, bucking the odds. What I think helped is that instead of going for the big similarities, she started small, with Giles Lacey, Annabelle's cousin from England, who happens to share a name with Maxim de Winter's brother-in-law. Though THIS Giles would be mortified that I called him small! Instead of reminding me of Rebecca's former in-law, he reminded me of Rebecca's cousin Jack Favell, and in particular George Sanders's portrayal of him in the Hitchcock film. From there it snowballed into other similarities to the book and Hitchcock's adaptation, but always still being Lauren's voice. How Lauren has mastered this, I do not know, but she gets a tip of my hat.

Yet that isn't the only doffing of my hat that I must do in reviewing The English Wife! Now this isn't a brag, or even a faux humble brag, the fact is I'm just really good at figuring out plot lines. Be it a procedural show or a whodunit, I will solve it so fast that you won't know what hit you. A recent example of my weird "gift" was when I was watching Big Little Lies. Now I hadn't read the book but in a seven episode miniseries I was able to put ALL the pieces together and proclaim them as fact before the end credits rolled on the first episode. Six more wasted hours later and I was proven right. Sometimes to try to make things harder on myself I'll tune into a show halfway through and see if I can figure out what's going on without any exposition. Ironically Elementary has proven to be the easiest to crack. Now I think you can see why I like character driven stories that are quirky. Humor goes a long way to fill plot holes. So why am I going on about this bizarre quirk of my analytical brain? Because when someone actually pulls one over on me I feel this need to give them a standing ovation. In The English Wife I was so involved in two of the reveals that it's like Lauren smacked me upside the head with the biggest one and I didn't see it coming. At all. Bravo Lauren! It's like there were these shining motes of dust alighting on Bay and his wife and their marital woes and I was linking a to b to c and going ah yes, I see how it is, and yet I didn't see! It was there, looming right around the corner, and it pounced and got me. If Lauren were a lion I would be a goner.

The English Wife is a tale of smoke and mirrors. It is a fable of wealth and power set during the 1890s swan song of the Gilded Age. It’s a mystery, a romance, a coming of age story and easily one of the best books you’ll read this year.

Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil have the kind of elegant, enchanting life that most only dream of: he's the head of an old Knickerbocker family, she’s the daughter of an ancient and distinguished English lineage. Their romance in London, intense, speedy, and illicit, was the stuff of which fairytales are made. Now they reside at Illyria, a fantastic reproduction of Annabelle’s childhood manor home, with their precious and precocious three-year-old twins. But there are nasty undercurrents churning in the waters of that house by the Hudson. Rumors that she is having an affair. Whispers that his relationship with his glamorous cousin Anne is perhaps closer than it should be.  The talk only adds to their allure and invitations to their costume ball for Twelfth Night are highly coveted. Then Bayard is found dead and Annabelle can’t be found at all. She is presumed to have drowned, pushed into the river by her angry husband moments before he committed suicide. Now there are more whispers and rumors, nastier stories in the papers and the gossip exchanged over drinks at all the most fashionable places destroys what little reputation the family had left.  Bay's sister, Janie, who found his body and heard her brother’s last words, determines to separate fact from fiction. To that end, she enlists the help of News of the World reporter Burke to uncover the truth; She’s certain a third party must have killed both Bay and Annabelle and she wants him to find the proof.  The more she learns, however, the less sure she is about what she believes. Anabelle and Bay were not who they seemed. But drawing strength from the memories she has of them, will she have the courage to become whom she was always meant to be?

AAR staffers Maggie Boyd and Shannon Dyer got together to  discuss their opinions about the book.

Maggie: I have to start by saying all the words that spring to mind when I think of this tale: Addictive, mesmerizing, engrossing. The English Wife is all of those things and more. I believe this book will be the standard by which people measure all their other reading experiences in 2018.

What are your thoughts, Shannon?

Shannon:  I agree with you. I started reading, and I hated to put the book down. The stuff of daily life suffered greatly until I finished the novel.

Maggie: Yes, it should be a hit with a lot of readers. The heroines are what made it so great for me. Janie and her discovery of a backbone as the story progressed and Annabelle, who had grit to spare from the start; both totally delighted me. Who were your favorite characters in the story?

Shannon: This is definitely a heroine-centric story. I loved Annabelle from the very start, and Janie was quick to grow on me. At first, her passivity bugged me, but her evolution into a strong, self-assured woman made those early frustrations fade away.

Maggie: Yes, Janie is one of those characters that needs an arc in order for her story to have merit and the author gave her a fabulous one.

I really loved the cold, icy setting for this narrative.  The chilly, snowy backdrop echoed the knickerbocker world in which the story takes place. Anne, Janie, Annabelle and Viola seem the only spots of color in a gray and white landscape. They burned brighter because they burned alone but it also gave a sense of vulnerability to all their characters. I was always afraid someone would snuff their light.

What did you think of the setting?

Shannon: This is the perfect book for wintertime reading. I felt like I was really in the world Ms. Willig created, and I enjoyed every minute I spent there. I think the story would have had a totally different feel if it had been set in a warmer, brighter time. The wintery weather added an extra layer of tension to the narrative.

Maggie: Yes, for those of us in cold weather climes the book can certainly seem timely. I think, though, that the winter setting also reflects the frozen state of the people in the world the tale inhabits. Only Anne, Viola, Annabelle and eventually Janie move outside the lines prescribed for them. The rest are held stiffly in place by the rules of their society and the only feelings we see them express are cold ones. Even Bay is initially cold with everyone but Anne and Annabelle. He needs someone to bring fire into his life and the women do that.

One of the things that made this book so riveting for me was the mystery. I felt that almost for the totality of the tale I wasn’t sure who or what was behind it. There were so many secrets, some of which I guessed, some of which took me by surprise. I thought the author did a great job of doling out just enough information to keep the reader riveted but never giving so much you felt you had fully solved it all before the end. How about you?

Shannon: At the beginning, I thought I had an idea of where the author was taking things, and, while I was right about a few things, I in no way had everything figured out. I'm also glad the author didn't choose to have one really big twist at the end of the story that totally changed the way I viewed the book as a whole. Dramatic twists definitely have their place, but I think such a thing would have done this story a great disservice.

Maggie: I was glad about that, too. The romance could have been stronger here but in many ways, I was glad it wasn’t. I loved where the focus of the narrative stayed and given who Janie was at the start of the tale, felt the love story ended exactly where it should. A rushed HEA wouldn’t have been satisfying. How did you feel about the romance?

Shannon: The romance was perhaps the one part of the story I found less than perfect. In some ways, I would have rather Ms. Willig not included the romantic arc at all. It almost felt anticlimactic compared to the rest of what was going on. Everything else was so very satisfying, and I wanted the romance to feel the same way. And, while I agree with you that a rushed HEA would have been a bad thing, I can't get fully behind the way the author left things.

Maggie: This is definitely a DIK for me; I would give it an A. How about you?

Shannon: It gets a B+ from me. Had things been a bit different in the romance department, I would have gladly given it a DIK rating.

Buy Now: A/BN/iB/K