Gwendalyn's Books posted: " Hello Gracious Readers Today is my stop on the book tour for Lady Odelia's Secret by Jane Steen Lady Odelia's Secretby Jane Steen Publication Date: March 7, 2022Aspidistra Press Genre: Historical MysterySeries: Scott-De Quincy Myster"
In the 1880s a sixth daughter learns not to ask for much, even if she's the daughter of an earl. Even if she married the richest man in her corner of Sussex. Even if she's now a widow with a splendid Georgian mansion.
Lady Helena Whitcombe is still trying to adjust to widowhood and reconcile her family loyalties with her desires when her artist sister Odelia makes a startling suggestion. Why not make her mark on the house that's now all hers, by commissioning a magnificent work of art from one of London's most celebrated painters?
Lady Odelia invites Helena into the seductive world of medieval fantasies and fairy tales she has inhabited since Helena was a child. But when a shocking series of events exposes the destructive reality of a great artist's unusual lifestyle, Helena and her lady's maid Guttridge are called on to help—or is it to interfere?
Looming danger, the risk of scandal, and competing loyalties force Helena to re-evaluate her relationship with the sister she's always loved the most.
What is Lady Odelia's secret? Find out in this gripping continuation of the Scott-De Quincy Mysteries, a story that blends mystery and historical detail with Downton Abbey-style saga as the truths about Helena's aristocratic family unfold. Read it now before the secret gets out!
This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.
This is a non spoiler review, because you as reader need to read this book. Also, I feel sometimes I have in the past gave away to much of the plot line. This has diminished the pleasure for would be readers.
Lady Odelia's Secret By Jane Steen
A stunning dramatic continuation of the Scott-De Quincy Mysteries by Jane Steen.
Epic family drama infused with scandal and mystery. A character driven storyline that features what could be a slow to start romance. Once again readers will find themselves caught up in a twist and turns of a family who holds their share of tantalizing secrets.
Lady Helena has been adjusting to her widowed life quietly in her country home. Her year in morning is fast approaching when her older sister Odelia, comes to visit.
Free spirited Odelia, suggest that Helena commission apiece of art that would help to update her drawing room. A very talented artist who goes by Sir Geraint, has a subject idea for her. After arriving in London things take an interesting turn that leads to a Helena realizes that she really doesn't know her family as well as she thought she did. Also while there Lady Helena runs into Fortier. I wished this part of the book would have taken off more than it did, but that is just me being impatient.
The book is a solid read that features family loyalty along with intricate family dynamics. The characters are well drawn out, and readers along with the main POV, Helena, are given an insightful look into her older sister Odelia well guarded secret. Lady Helena along with her lady's maid, Guttridge make for excellent partners in crime.
1881, Sussex. Lady Helena Scott-De Quincy's marriage to Sir Justin Whitcombe, three years before, gave new purpose to a life almost destroyed by the death of Lady Helena's first love. After all, shouldn't the preoccupations of a wife and hostess be sufficient to fulfill any aristocratic female's dreams? Such a shame their union wasn't blessed by children . . . but Lady Helena is content with her quiet country life until Sir Justin is found dead in the river overlooked by their grand baroque mansion.
The intrusion of attractive, mysterious French physician Armand Fortier, with his meddling theory of murder, into Lady Helena's first weeks of mourning is bad enough. But with her initial ineffective efforts at investigation and her attempts to revive her long-abandoned interest in herbalism comes the realization that she may have been mistaken about her own family's past. Every family has its secrets—but as this absorbing series will reveal, the Scott-De Quincy family has more than most.
Can Lady Helena survive bereavement the second time around? Can she stand up to her six siblings' assumption of the right to control her new life as a widow? And what role will Fortier—who, as a physician, is a most unsuitable companion for an earl's daughter—play in her investigations?
AUTHOR
Jane Steen writes series set in the late Victorian period, with an unputdownable blend of mystery, family saga, romance, and the real-life issues facing women of the era. She is an indie author who began her career while living in Illinois, later moving with her American husband to her native England. When not working, she can be found walking through the green and muddy Sussex countryside, getting her cobwebs blown away on the nearby beaches, lovingly tending her garden, or sticking her nose into yet another book.
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