Promise Not To Tell

Promise Not To Tell- Jayne Ann Krentz
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: January 2, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Seattle gallery owner Virginia Troy has spent years battling the demons that stem from her childhood time in a cult and the night a fire burned through the compound, killing her mother. And now one of her artists has taken her own life, but not before sending Virginia a last picture: a painting that makes Virginia doubt everything about the so-called suicide—and her own past.
 
Like Virginia, private investigator Cabot Sutter was one of the children in the cult who survived that fire...and only he can help her now. As they struggle to unravel the clues in the painting, it becomes clear that someone thinks Virginia knows more than she does and that she must be stopped. Thrown into an inferno of desire and deception, Virginia and Cabot draw ever closer to the mystery of their shared memories—and the shocking fate of the one man who still wields the power to destroy everything they hold dear.

______________________________

When a friend and artist sends Seattle art gallery owner Virginia Troy a photograph of a painting, then burns her house down and throws herself into the ocean, Virginia isn't willing to accept that there isn't more to the story.  Hannah's paintings always showed the nightmares of the past, a fiery inferno with a group of children watching a demon walk out of the flames.  Virginia was one of those children.  She turns to private investigator Cabot Sutter, another one of those survivors, for answers.  Cabot and Virginia quickly find themselves involved with embezzlement, murder, and arson as past and present come together to create a mystery just as deadly today as it was all those years ago.

Promise Not to Tell is the sequel to last year's When All the Girls Have Gone, as Krentz follows three brothers who escaped a fiery death at the hands of cult leader Quinton Zane.  All three- Max, Cabot, and Jack along with their foster father Anson- are convinced that Zane is still alive.  In Promise Cabot is brought firmly into the hunt for Zane as former cult members/victims keep popping up- then dying. Virginia is convinced that her friend Hannah saw, or believes she saw, Zane shorty before her death and tried to warn Virginia through a painting.  What might seem like a string of coincidences to someone else looks sinister to anyone who survived Zane's cult.  The coincidences keep piling up when a woman shows up dead in Virginia's art storage room with Hannah's paintings.  Jayne Ann Krentz keeps the suspense going throughout Promise, ensuring that even when the reader thinks they know what is happening they are still caught by surprise.

Virginia and Cabot are well-written, likable, and complex characters written in Krentz's normal style of hero: each has some flaws and hang-ups from their past, each deals with them in different ways.  Virginia isn't content to hire Cabot and then sit back and let him do all the investigating, but is right in the mix with him the whole way and isn't afraid of saving herself when she needs to.  The writing is fast-paced, full of Krentz's trademark dry humor, quick wit, and suspenseful twists.  Secondary characters are as well fleshed out as the main characters and provide some fun alternate view points.

While I would recommend reading When All the Girls Have Gone before Promise Not to Tell in order  to get the most out of the series, both are stand alone books and a new reader doesn't have to have read one to enjoy the other.  But since Krentz is clearly setting up the next book to follow brother Jack and (hopefully) conclude the Quinton Zane mystery, and since both books are wonderful reads, I definitely recommend rereading Girls and Promise before next year's book comes out!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Barreled Over

Barreled Over (Trinity Distillery #1)- Jenna Sutton
Jenna Sutton/Amazon Digital Services
Release Date: December 26, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: Ava Grace Landy’s music career is humming along until a shakeup at her label jeopardizes her recording contract and curses her with the world’s worst boss. Determined to satisfy him, she partners with Trinity Distillery to access a larger male audience. To her surprise, she’s the one who’s satisfied—by none other than Jonah Beck, the gorgeous, yet gruff man behind the bourbon. 

No doubt about it, bourbon runs in Beck’s blood. But it’s audacious Ava Grace who makes it run hot. When she signs on as the spokesperson for his craft distillery, he doesn’t plan on hoisting her onto an oak barrel and rocking the rickhouse. Though he’s convinced their lives don’t mix—like a terrible cocktail—he can’t keep his hands off the alluring country star.  
Ava Grace and Beck try to keep their intoxicating relationship private, but the glare of her fame is too bright, revealing secrets they both want to remain hidden. With a spotlight shining on his tumultuous past, their future is at risk. Now they must decide if being together is worth sacrificing the career she loves and the company he’s poured his heart and soul into. 

__________________________________________

Country music star Ava Grace Landy needs a way to access a larger male audience.  Craft bourbon maker Jonah Beck needs a way to access a larger female audience.  Partnering up sounds like the perfect solution- until they find they can't ignore the chemistry between them.  Beck doesn't want to live in the spotlight, Ava Grace's job keeps her in the spotlight nonstop. Now they have to decide if being together is worth the uphill battle against outside forces?

Ava Grace is the kind of character you love right away.  She's always upbeat and positive, hardworking, intelligent, and goes for what she wants.  After winning a major TV singing competition she may have rocketed to stardom but she hasn't forgotten the people who helped her or let the fame go to her head.  When her new boss wants her to appeal to a larger male audience Ava Grace turns down his demeaning ideas (provocative magazine covers) in favor of some creative ideas of her own.  Mutual friends suggest she become the spokesperson for Trinity Distillery and Ava Grace takes the idea, adds bourbon themed cookbooks and is off and running.  She isn't one to back down from a challenge and doesn't expect anyone to do anything for her.  While she's never applied this approach to life with men, when Ava Grace meets Jonah Beck and the chemistry between them is instant, she decides to go for it.  Beck is a solid guy and she thinks he could be the one for her.

Beck had enough bad experiences with fame as a kid when his father was accused of embezzling from his own company to know he doesn't want to live in the spotlight. As attracted to Ava Grace as he is, he doesn't want to be attracted to her.  He's convinced their lives can't mix and Trinity should be the only thing they have in common.  I have to admit, Ava Grace saw his potential way before I did. Beck has plenty of moments where he's a jerk, tries to push Ava Grace away, but gets upset if there's any distance between them.  For a good part of the book he seems to be more than happy to have her be the one doing all the compromising in the relationship.  While that may be because of his previous experiences, it was still more work for Ava Grace than I'd have put into the frustrating relationship.  Each is afraid to be the one to say "I love you" first and they have plenty of communication issues that need to get worked through (though personally I blame Beck for most of them. I'm not as nice as Ava Grace).   But Ava Grace's fame is the big hurdle.  It's exactly what Beck needs for Trinity bourbon, and exactly what he doesn't want in his daily life.  When Ava Grace winds up in the hospital after an accident and her medical records get leaked to the media, they put the worst possible spin on the situation.  Beck can't handle the negative press and in a move that may be understandable from the selfishly personal point of view but is a cowardly jerk move from the relationship point of view he leaves Ava Grace to deal with everything by herself.  It's only after friends point out that he isn't good enough for her that Beck realizes that he is so miserable without her that he's willing to work hard to become good enough for her.

Ava Grace was the shining star of Barreled Over as far as I was concerned. She handles everything life throws at her- from fans to her father's Alzheimer's- with a grace and strength that is inspirational.  You're cheering for her to get her happy ending from page one.  Beck is a lot harder- I liked him, but he took a lot of work to like.  Sutton does a great job with these two, giving them an instant chemistry that makes the relationship worth the work.  Barreled Over is a fast-paced, fun start to a promising new series and I can't wait to read more!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Enchantress of Numbers

Enchantress of Numbers- Jennifer Chiaverini
Dutton/Penguin Group
Release Date: December 5, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚

Synopsis: The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada’s father, who was infamously “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Ada’s mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes.
 
When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize that her delightful new friendship with inventor Charles Babbage will shape her destiny. Intrigued by the prototype of his first calculating machine, the Difference Engine, and enthralled by the plans for his even more advanced Analytical Engine, Ada resolves to help Babbage realize his extraordinary vision, unique in her understanding of how his invention could transform the world. All the while, she passionately studies mathematics—ignoring skeptics who consider it an unusual, even unhealthy pursuit for a woman—falls in love, discovers the shocking secrets behind her parents’ estrangement, and comes to terms with the unquenchable fire of her imagination.
 
In Enchantress of Numbers, New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini unveils the passions, dreams, and insatiable thirst for knowledge of a largely unheralded pioneer in computing—a young woman who stepped out of her father’s shadow to achieve her own laurels and champion the new technology that would shape the future.

______________________________________

As the only legitimate daughter of the famous Lord Byron, Ada was famous even before she was born.  Thanks to her mother's estrangement from Byron, Ada never met her father.  Her mother spent her entire life trying to erase any hint of imagination, fancy, poetry, or anything else that would connect Ada to her father's "bad Byron blood" and focus Ada's mind on math and science instead. But as the sheltered child becomes a woman taking her place in Society, Ada meets other likeminded people- most importantly Mrs Mary Somerville and Charles Babbage.  Living during a time of incredible mathematical, scientific, and technological advances, Ada longs to make her mark of the world and champion Babbage's computing machines as a new technology that will change the future.

I first heard of Ada, Countess of Lovelace, in a Computer Science History class my first year of grad school.  Although mentioned as the first computer programmer, Ada was little more than an intriguing  footnote at the dawn of the computer age.  As interested as I was in finding out more about this intelligent woman who must surely have fought against the accepted ideas of her day to take her place in history, the overwhelming demands of a first semester in grad school distracted me from searching out more about her.  When I saw a description of Enchantress of Numbers all my interest came rushing back and I was eager to read her story- especially since I'd developed a much better understanding of the time period, history, and social culture of early Victorian England in the meantime.

Jennifer Chiaverini's novel starts with the whirlwind relationship between Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke: giving us glimpses of Byron's mercurial temperament, his infamous relationship with Anne's cousin Lord Melbourne's wife Lady Caroline, and all the warning signs that theirs would not be a happy marriage.  No one can blame Anne when she leaves Byron and works to keep their infant daughter from ever coming under his influence.  Except for this early prologue the novel is told from Ada's point of view- meaning that many of the questions we have (especially about her mother!) are never fully answered, but only guessed at by Ada herself.  Ada's oppressively strict upbringing by what we would consider today an emotionally abusive mother, is heartbreaking- perhaps more powerful because while Ada herself knows no alternative, Chiaverini knows her modern audience will see its loneliness and rigidity for the controlling efforts they are.  The reader can't help but be amazed that Ada turns out as gentle and compassionate as she does.  We also see what Ada only realizes later- that science and imagination are inseparable if one is to be able to claim true genius and create the exciting new technological future celebrated in the Great Exhibition at the end of the book.  

Ada's friendship with Charles Babbage and her championing of his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine are clearly the high point of Ada's life (and therefore the book) and create more drama and interest than one might imagine.  Her continually difficult relationship with her mother and the constant shadow of her father and his secrets are written in ways that ensure they are always present and natural without being too overbearing or heavily written.  What I found most frustrating about the book- although probably very true to life- was that Ada's own accomplishments don't come across to the reader as the revolutionary work they are argued by historians to be.  Ada always describes her work as her 'studies', as if she is never more than a modest amateur student.  The concepts that she describes are a foreign language to a non-mathematician like me and so I was not able to fully appreciate or understand how her ideas might revolutionize Babbage's engines or even how they later come to be considered the beginning of computer programming.  Ada understood Babbage's computers in ways even Babbage did not and spent most of her adult life working to explain to a largely indifferent public both what the engines did and, more importantly, what they could do.  But when the scientific world learns it was a woman who wrote these explanations, the revolutionary work is considered not nearly as important as it might have been.  After all, if a woman thinks it is important, it can't possibly be.

A well-written and interesting book, Enchantress of Numbers leaves the modern reader frustrated that Ada lived in a time and society that felt women's intelligence was naturally inferior to men's, that study might actually be physically harmful to women, and that Ada fights her entire life without receiving the scientific acknowledgement or the unconditional familial love that she so clearly deserved.  You are also left in awe and admiration for a woman who quietly fought her entire life for the right to discover her passion and the joy she received from it, despite being surrounded by naysayers.   

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Close Contact

Close Contact (Body Armor series)- Lori Foster
HQN Books
Release Date: November 28, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: MMA fighter Miles Dartman’s casual arrangement with personal shopper Maxi Nevar would be many men’s fantasy. She seeks him out, they have mindblowing sex, she leaves. Rinse, repeat. Yet lately, Miles wants more. And when Maxi requests his services via the Body Armor security agency, he’s ready to finally break through her defenses—and protect her day and night.

Receiving a large inheritance has brought chaos and uncertainty into Maxi’s life. Her ex has resurfaced, along with lots of former “friends,” and someone is making mysterious threats. Then there’s Miles, who doesn’t ask for anything…except her trust. Pleasure is easy. Now Maxi has to give her heart as well as her body…or risk losing a man who could be everything she needs.

______________________________________

Maxi Nevar has been spooked since she moved into her late grandmother's farmhouse, but has convinced herself the incidents were nothing.  Until she wakes up outside, clearly having been drugged.  That sends her to Body Armor, where she knows MMA fighter Miles Dartman now works.  What was supposed to be a one night stand left Miles thinking about more- but he couldn't find Maxi until she walked into Body Armor and hired him.  Now he has to juggle his attraction to her with his doubt about her crazy story, and then with trying to protect her from the mysterious threat that is becoming more violent by the day.

Close Contact is a great addition to Lori Foster's Body Armor series (Under Pressure, Hard Justice) of MMA fighters who have made the move into being elite body guards. Miles is the latest fighter to change careers and he meets his match with Maxi Nevar.  After a brief, no-strings attached fling it was Maxi who walked away and Miles who found himself feeling rejected.  As hurt as he feels about that he doesn't think twice about protecting her from whatever is going on at her house. Maxi tried keeping him at a distance because between the craziness in her life and her bad track record with men, she figured this was the wrong time, wrong place.  But Miles is the whole package: smart, strong, brave, loyal, and incredibly good-looking. They have combustible chemistry and Maxi doesn't stand a chance at not falling in love with him. It was fun watching their good intentions (Miles at taking it slow, Maxi at keeping her emotions out of it) fly out the window.  There was just enough history between the two of them that it felt like perfectly picking up an ongoing story, without feeling like we were missing any backstory or getting impossible insta-love. Foster does her usual excellent job of building a relationship based on respect and a developing friendship as well as chemistry.

There's also enough of a suspense story to keep the reader on edge and without it feeling like an afterthought.  I enjoyed how Foster kept us guessing until the very end at who was responsible for the threats against Maxi- and why.  While recurring characters from other books make some cameos, you don't have to have read the other books to thoroughly enjoy Close Contact. Long-time readers will enjoy seeing Leese, Armie, and the regular MMA crew pop up, as well as Foster continuing to set up Brand and Sahara's story (Fast Burn- coming March 2018!).  

Close Contact is everything we've come to expect from a Lori Foster book: fast-paced writing; fun, layered characters; humor; and danger. Add in some sexy fighters and about a million cats and this book will keep you hooked! Warning: plan on reading in one sitting, because you won't be able to put Close Contact down once you start!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Curious Affair of the Witch of Wayside Cross

The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross (from the casebook of Jesperson & Lane)- Lisa Tuttle
Hydra/ Random House
Release Date: November 28, 2017

Rating:
📚

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Synopsis: “Witch!” cries the young man after stumbling unexpectedly into the London address of the consulting-detective partnership of Mr. Jasper Jesperson and Miss Lane. He makes the startling accusation while pointing toward Miss Lane . . . then he drops dead. Thus begins the strangest case yet to land—quite literally—on the doorstep of Jesperson and Lane.

According to the coroner, Charles Manning died of a heart attack—despite being in perfect health. Could he have been struck down by a witch’s spell? The late Mr. Manning’s address book leads Jesperson and Lane to the shrieking pits of Aylmerton, an ancient archaeological site reputed to be haunted by a vengeful ghost. There they sift through the local characters, each more suspicious than the last: Manning’s associate, Felix Ott, an English folklore enthusiast; Reverend Ringer, a fierce opponent of superstition; and the Bulstrode sisters, a trio of beauties with a reputation for witchcraft.

But when an innocent child goes missing, suddenly Jesperson and Lane aren’t merely trying to solve one murder—they’re racing to prevent another.

___________________________________

When a man falls dead at their front door, private detectives Jesperson and Lane decide to discover why he died and what brought him to their door in the first place.  The coroner says it was a heart attack but Charles Manning apparently had a great deal of interest in witches- could he have angered one into killing him?  The detectives travel to the countryside of Aylmerton where superstition and folklore live side by side with more 'modern' thinking and religion, where Manning was rumored to be courting a young witch, and where people are highly suspicious of outsiders.  Soon one questionable death turns into several and Jesperson and Lane have their hands full trying to prevent another.

Advertised as a paranormal Sherlock Holmes story, the Curious Affair promised to be full of mystery,  magic, and brilliant detectives.  I found it to contain very little of any of those.  Throughout the book you find yourself wondering if the magic and paranormal advertised are actually believed in and real, like Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, or a mere ruse with a devious but perfectly scientific explanation, like Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. Even a confirmed fairy siting doesn't really answer the question as far as the rest of the characters go.  Does Manning's friend Felix Ott genuinely believe in returning the Old Religions and gods to England or is it a way to trick money from others?  Did he kill Manning over a business disagreement? 

The mystery itself was never more than mildly interesting to me, which was surprising.  You'd think a man dropping dead of unknown causes would lead to a pretty good whodunit.  But so many other things began to get piled on to the plot that sometimes you forgot about Manning altogether.  Yet none of the other mysteries- several other unexplained deaths and then the disappearance of an infant- really kept the plot moving for me either.  The book mostly revolved around a series of unlikeable characters who went from country hospitality to chilly and insulted in an instant.  Diana Bulstrode (the supposed witch of Wayside Cross) was the only character I found at all interesting and even she had a tendency to become annoying quickly.  The main characters of Jasper Jesperson and Miss Lane never gained any depth or particular background to make them interesting, unique, or likable. Even Miss Lane, who gives a Watson-like first person account of the case, isn't much more than a cipher to tell the story.  We get a brief and politely social background to her life before becoming a detective and more than halfway through the book are finally told her first name (although after finding out what it is you understand why she doesn't advertise it).  But the reader gets no real backstory to them: no explanation of how Miss Lane met Jespserson, why they decided to become detectives, what their relationship is, or anything else about them.  Maybe some of this was mentioned in Tuttle's first book (The Curious Affair of the Somnabulist and the Psychic Thief) but I haven't read that book.  Nor, after the Witch of Wayside Cross, do I really care to.  While things get interesting at the very end, by the time everything is revealed I was left with the feeling that all the murder victims got what they deserved and only vaguely sympathetic of the lives ruined in the process.

Tuttle does a good job describing the English countryside, but neither the characters nor the mysteries stood out to me as a way to make the book enjoyable.  Doyle enthusiasts and paranormal mystery lovers alike should probably skip this addition to the inspired-by-Sherlock shelves.  Weak and unlikeable characters overshadow what could have been an interesting set of mysteries to leave a book that sounded better in the description than in the reading.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGallery in exchange for an honest review

Cherish Hard

Cherish Hard- Nalini Singh
TKA Distribution
Release Date: November 14, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Warning: Possible Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: Sailor Bishop has only one goal for his future – to create a successful landscaping business. No distractions allowed. Then he comes face-to-face and lips-to-lips with a woman who blushes like an innocent… and kisses like pure sin.

Ísa Rain craves a man who will cherish her, aches to create a loving family of her own. Trading steamy kisses with a hot gardener in a parking lot? Not the way to true love. Then a deal with the devil (aka her CEO-mother) makes Ísa a corporate VP for the summer. Her main task? Working closely with a certain hot gardener.

And Sailor Bishop has wickedness on his mind. As Ísa starts to fall for a man who makes her want to throttle and pounce on him at the same time, she knows she has to choose – play it safe and steady, or risk all her dreams and hope Sailor doesn’t destroy her heart.

________________________________________

Isa Rain knows exactly what she wants from life: a loving husband, a happy home, and a job she enjoys- the opposite of her life growing up.  No hot gardeners who are married to their business need apply.  Unfortunately the hot gardener in question, Sailor Bishop, keeps popping up and flirting with her.  There may be some serious chemistry between them, and Isa may be falling more in love with Sailor every day, but is she ready for the inevitable time when he choses business over her? 

Cherish Hard brings us back to the Bishop-Esera family that Nalini Singh readers first fell in love with in Rock Hard, Gabriel Bishop's story and one of my most favorite books of all times.  Cherish therefore had a pretty high bar to reach and I was thrilled that it lived up to my every expectation.  Gabriel's younger brother Sailor is working hard to make his dream landscaping company a reality.  He's also working to prove to himself that he is nothing like the pathetic excuse for a man who fathered him.  Isa Rain wants to live a quiet life as an English teacher writing poetry and supporting her younger brother and sister.  But she's fought every step of the way by her mother, a shark of a CEO who plans for Isa to take an active interest in her company.  Both spend the book fighting their own preconceived notions about themselves and their futures, their plans and where they are willing to be flexible. I especially loved Isa- a smart, creative, and caring woman who refuses to give in to the cold corporate example her parents have set.  Instead of believing she is undeserving of love, Isa has vowed that she will come first in her husband's life.  She's willing to fight for what she wants and brave enough to take risks with her heart.  

Cherish Hard is beautifully written, full of heart, humor, and heat.  Sailor and Isa have incredible chemistry on every page, but are just as compelling in scenes with family or friends.  Now we just have to wait for the other Bishop boys to grow up a little so they can have their own stories!

A must read for Singh fans and a great book for new readers!

A Daring Arrangment

A Daring Arrangement (The Four Hundred Series #1)- Joanna Shupe
Avon Books/ HarperCollins
Release Date: October 31, 2017

Rating:
📚📚📚

Warning: Potentail Spoilers

Synopsis: Lady Honora Parker must get engaged as soon as possible, and only a particular type of man will do. Nora seeks a mate so abhorrent, so completely unacceptable, that her father will reject the match--leaving her free to marry the artist she loves. Who then is the most appalling man in Manhattan? The wealthy, devilishly handsome financier, Julius Hatcher, of course....
 
Julius is intrigued by Nora's ruse and decides to play along. But to Nora's horror, Julius transforms himself into the perfect fiancé, charming the very people she hoped he would offend. It seems Julius has a secret plan all his own--one that will solve a dark mystery from his past, and perhaps turn him into the kind of man Nora could truly love.

______________________________

Lady Honora Parker has been sent to New York after a scandal in London involving a man her father deems unsuitable for her.  Nora hatches a plan to get engaged to an American so outrageous that her father will have no choice but to call her home and agree that her artist is a good choice after all.  And the incredibly rich, handsome, and scandalous Julius Hatcher fits her plan perfectly.  Julius needs to get into Society to solve a mystery, but riches alone won't buy him entry.  Nora's crazy scheme of a fake engagement seems like the perfect answer.   To Nora's dismay, the scandalous bachelor turns into the perfect fiancé - and to Julius' dismay, Nora turns out to be his perfect match.

A Daring Arrangement is an entertaining story of (seeming) opposites attracting and a conveniently fake engagement turning into one both parties wish was real.  Despite very different backgrounds Nora and Julius are quite similar beneath the surface: both are intelligent, daring, and determined in all aspects of life.  One of the big themes to the book is change: circumstances change, people change, goals change, and the only way to live life is to accept that and be flexible enough to allow change to be a part of your life- sometimes at the difficult expense of pride.  Julius determined he would never marry or have a family because of the tragic, drunken ramblings of his father.  When he discovers how much he enjoys Nora's company, her wit, her conversation, and the intense chemistry between them he's still not willing to consider changing his mind about marriage. Nora was sure her artist Robert was the love of her life, and she's horrified with herself when she develops feelings for Julius.  How can she be so inconstant?  Fortunately her aunt has enough experience with life and love to explain to her the difference between a first love and a true love. 

Secondary characters like her aunt and Julius' friend Tripp don't get quite as much development or 'on screen' time as they deserve but they make the most of every second they have. It's obvious Shupe has done plenty of research into New York and the Gilded Age of the 1890s.  The city and time period are practically characters themselves, immersing the reader in the glittering life of the ballroom and the earthiness of New York dance halls with a perfection that matches her earlier Knickerbocker Club series (Magnate, Baron).

I was hoping for more to the mystery that Julius is trying to solve.  He wants revenge against the Society men who ruined his father- but he doesn't know who they are or have much of a plan on how to figure it out. Nora comes up with a scheme to draw them out, but the whole revenge idea fades disappointingly into the background.  As a plot point it had great potential, especially for the emotional dilemma Julius finds himself in on discovering one of the names, but it pretty much fizzled out.

Despite hoping for a bit more depth to the plot, I enjoyed A Daring Arrangement - especially Julius and Nora and the great chemistry between them (both mental and physical!) and am looking forward to Joanna Shupe's next Gilded Age story.