Sweet Revenge (A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery, #1)

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Sweet Revenge (A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery #1)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 222 ratings · 41 reviews

Deception with a dash of murder is a recipe for disaster…

England, 1813: Lady Arianna Hadley’s desire to discover her disgraced father’s murderer has brought her back to London from exile in the Caribbean. Masquerading as a male chef, she is working in one of London’s aristocratic households in order to get close to her main suspect. But when the Prince Regent is taken ill...more

Mass Market Paperback, 317 pages

Published April 5th 2011 by Signet (first published February 23rd 2011)

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Apr 06, 2012 Rane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cozies-mystery-suspense, keeper

I was happily surprised how much I adore Lady Arianna's mystery, Sweet Revenge. With a mix of cozy and hard political mystery and a dash of romance, the book was a great mix that was hard to put down.

Unlike other cozies and mysteries it's told in third person then the more popular first person. This gives you a better understanding of all the players in the game. From the main characters Arianna and Saybrook to the villains.

I found the characters to very appealing almost at times putting the...more I was happily surprised how much I adore Lady Arianna's mystery, Sweet Revenge. With a mix of cozy and hard political mystery and a dash of romance, the book was a great mix that was hard to put down.

Unlike other cozies and mysteries it's told in third person then the more popular first person. This gives you a better understanding of all the players in the game. From the main characters Arianna and Saybrook to the villains.

I found the characters to very appealing almost at times putting the mystery to shame.
Arianna is out to get revenge for the death of her father, by the hands of his so-called friends. Hard-shelled and at times hard-headed, Arianna at times is a hard character to truly like due to her actions and keeping clues back from the case. Arianna grew up knowing and seeing others make pawns of people playing with their lives, and trust very hard to her, but Arianna has the grace to know when she's been acting dumb and childish and when to finally let the barriers down.

I loved Saybrook, a mix of gentleman and crafty fox. He holds to his own morals that are true and knows how to play the game without being an asshat but willing to get his hands dirty if need be. He tries to help Arianna out, and at times wants to lock her up and throw away the key just to keep her safe, he understands her way of thinking better then she does. He goes out to prove there are good people out to Arianna, and slowly breaks down the barriers that Arianna has around her, while having her drag him out of his own personal hell he put himself in.
Everything between them is a believable with a slow build in their relationship.

While the crime and mystery bring these two together, it's their love of cooking and chocolate that bind them even closer. Penrose added the cozy element at the beginning of each chapter with a delicious chocolate recipe and a little snippet from Saybrook's grandmother's diary. These sometimes have a small clue or a foreshadowing.

The rich history had me reading more of the financial swindle that played a big part of the story, the author did an amazing job of interweaving everything so nicely that the book was a perfect balance. Plus had my sweet tooth crying to try one or two of the recipes!

History, Mystery, Chocolate, and Romance Sweet Revenge had everything that made this a very sweet keeper. (less)

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Sep 20, 2011 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book after skimming the back cover...murder, mystery AND chocolate? sign me up!

Lady Arianna Hadley's had a rough life...traveling to the West Indies with her father after his "banishment" from England, she grew up with little money and then lost her father when he was murdered. She gets back to England with the determination to find the scoundrels behind her father's downfall and murder. Posing as a French chef, Arianna is staying "under the radar" until the Prince becomes ill w...more

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Sep 11, 2011 A. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Series: 1st in Lady Arianna Hadley Mystery

Sensuality: light romance, heavy innuendo and period cursing

Main Character: Lady Arianna Hadley, although a lady, her father was disgraced and died when she was 15 and she had to make her way alone and penniless in the world.

Setting: 1813,England

Obtained Through: from publisher for an honest review

Since her father was murdered when she was fifteen, Lady Arianna lived through hellish times to survive, with her driving goal to find her father's killer and...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Gail rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries-historical, mysteries

Regency England, 1813, is a time of intrigue, war with France, and exquisite manners and honor -- at least if you are born to it. Lady Arianna must come to England in disguise because of her father's disgrace and her desire for revenge.

Disguised as an eccentric French chef, she's a master of chocolate delights and innovations. One of her sweet desserts ends up poisoning, Prinny, the Prince Regent. What follows is an intricate mystery and political intrigue with an edge of the seat conclusion.

Com...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Tina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, mystery

Overall a pleasant intro to a new mystery series. I think people who like Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily series will like it. Reminiscent of that series, except I think Alexander is the better writer.

The political intrigue in this book is very much evident, which I usually adore. However, I found myself impatient at points in the story. I think the shenanigans the villains were up too and all the betrayals and counter betrayals felt a tick over-plotted.

I also think the dialogue came off as too cle...more

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Jun 16, 2012 April rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cozy, historical, mystery

Really 3.5 stars. It would have been only three because the main kept holding back information for no good reason but she redeemed herself before long and the book ended well. I ended up really liking the characters after being very hesitant to do so for the first half of the book.

It was an intriguing mystery, all the chocolate information was definitely fascinating too. I doubt I'll use any of the recipes (though one is for my favorite cookie and I already use it) but quite a few sounded intere...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Mary Gramlich rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

SWEET REVENGE written by Andrea Penrose
A Lady Arianna Hadley Regency Mystery
04/11 - Penguin Group (USA) - Mass Market Paperback, 336 pages

Can love be as decedent at chocolate?

Lady Arianna Hadley has a mystery to solve, a meal to prepare and a bullet to dodge all before breakfast.

Arianna is trying to solve the mystery of who framed her father for a crime he did not commit that caused his death. Posing as a French male chef in a house where mystery abounds seems like a good idea until the Prince...more

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Nov 04, 2012 Jeannie and Louis Rigod rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lady Arianna Hadley seeks to revenge the death of her father. Bringing a wealth of survival skills learned since her parent's death in the West Indies, she becomes a master in costume and cooking. Skills that will gain Arianna entry into the background of the Ton set in London, 1813.

This novel is the first in the series that is a mix of Regency romance and intrigue. I found it very interesting as The South Sea Bubble resembles our own Wall Street Collapse of 2008 and somewhat the same shell game...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 22, 2011 Mickey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Well! I just read this in one delighted sitting. Combine several of my favorites- in this case, the Regency era, chocolate, and a thumping good mystery with an unconvetional heroine and a broody dark hero- and watch me be entertained! Arianna is a former young lady of Quality, living under an assumed name, disguised as a male French chef. Someone poisons one of her dishes at a party and nearly kills the Prince Regent. Saybrook is drafted to find the attempted murderer- and discovers Arianna's se...more

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May 03, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't usually read "period books," but the concept of this one intrigued me. The main character, Arianna, pretends to be a man so that she can be hired as a chef in an high society home in London. She plans to use her disguise to learn more about the aristocracy because she is convinced that one of her employer's friends murdered her father. But when a prince is poisoned after eating one of her chocolate dishes, Arianna is forced to flee. She ends up helping the earl who was hired to investiga...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical_fiction, mystery

Lady Arianna Hadley has returned to England from a life of poverty and strife in the West Indies where she has been fending for herself ever since her father was murdered years earlier. Yet she returns to England, not to reclaim her place in the ton, but to seek revenge on those who are responsible for her father's death. Posing as a male French Chef in a dubious yet aristocratic household, she is able to spy on those she plans to take down. Her plans go wildlyawry when, upon eating one of her c...more Lady Arianna Hadley has returned to England from a life of poverty and strife in the West Indies where she has been fending for herself ever since her father was murdered years earlier. Yet she returns to England, not to reclaim her place in the ton, but to seek revenge on those who are responsible for her father's death. Posing as a male French Chef in a dubious yet aristocratic household, she is able to spy on those she plans to take down. Her plans go wildly awry when, upon eating one of her chocolaty confections, the Prince Regent ends up poisoned. Suspected of attempted regicide, she is soon under scrutiny by the Earl of Saybrook, Alessandro De Quincy, who has been assigned the case of the poisoning due to his knowledge of chocolate. Sandro quickly notices that "he" is a she, but an attempt on their lives and a murder soon throws them together.

Trying to work with each other, while not quite understanding or trusting the other, and therefore not believing in full disclosure, they slowly start to ferret out the truth. The lovely smells of cacao seem to be hiding a labyrinthine financial swindle, the likes of which have not been seen in years, the likes of which Arianna's father was involved in. Constructing an elaborate undercover operation, Arianna enters society as a wealthy widow and soon starts to put the puzzle together. But rakes and rogues are everywhere, and soon there are even more dead bodies. Will Arianna be able to sink to the depths she needs to in order to get her revenge? Or will she succumb to the lures offered to her in the pantomime she is living out?

This Regency romp by Andrea Penrose is sweet and frothy with a little bit o'spice, just like delicious hot cocoa done right. We have somewhat typical protagonists, with Sandro and Arianna, him being a grizzled war veteran addicted to opiates and her being the orphan girl trying to reclaim a semblance of life. Yet together they make each other better people, aw, Regency Romance indeed. The tropes aren't stale though because of the added lure of chocolaty confections and the two leads fierce intelligences. You don't get many mathematical geniuses who are female in Jane Austen now do you? Though, I think this book also demonstrates why you don't get mathematical geniuses in books too often, the jargon and the financial swindle where so confusing and detailed that it leaves you a little confused and feeling more than a little stupid, but that's just an aside. The spice here is the overused Hell Fire Club... ah, what I wouldn't give for Dashwood's Medmenham Abbey and their depravities, or offshoots thereof, to just take a break from literature. Why does it always go to Medmenham? It has become on of the most stale tropes. Luckily it was in the first book in this new series, so hopefully it won't return. Got that Andrea? No more Hell Fire. This goes for anyone else planing on writing about the Monks of Medmenham. Don't.

While the book is a quick fun read, it did have one major flaw, which is a cute gimmick, but at the beginning was a real hindrance and led to me struggling to get into the book. At the beginning of each chapter there is a little journal entry from Sandro's grandmother and a recipe. Now, the journal entry is fun and reflects the tone of the story, the recipe, not so much. This isn't because I don't want chocolate recipes, good God, I want as many as I can get, and many of these looked really tasty. The fact is, that they take you out of the story because of modern terminology. Having to read about setting an oven to 350 degrees makes the Regency feel a little less real. While I think it would be cool if the recipes could be written more Mrs. Beeton like, I think the olde tyme would drive people around the bend trying to update to modern cooking terms. SO how about just a nice selection of recipes at the back? They wouldn't pull you out of the story or distract you, and you'd still get all that chocolaty goodness. Mmm... chocolate.(less)

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Apr 20, 2011 SOS Aloha rated it 5 of 5 stars

No chocolate lover can forget Forrest Gump’s memorable observation at the bus stop, “Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get.” Gump’s quote is an apt tag line for Andrea Penrose’s debut mystery, Sweet Revenge, as it offers the wide variety of a Whitman’s sampler – mystery, adventure, romance, history, humor, and chocolate recipes.

And like the unknown fillings underneath the chocolate shell, Andrea’s characters reveal a certain sweetness of their personalities to...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Marcie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love a good mystery, and I love anything set in the Regency era. And Lady Arianna and the Earl of Saybrook are both interesting characters with a lot of potential. That being said, I found this book to be a little dull. When there was action, it was great! Sadly, there wasn't a lot of action. And there was WAY too much discussion of shipping companies and trading and financial entanglements with the aforementioned shipping companies - I found those parts just plain tedious. But - the series ha...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Christina Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars

A quick and quirky cosy set in 1813 England with Continental intrigue and personal revenge as the motivating factors of the prime characters. The plotted romance from beginning to conclusion is a little trite, but the heroine is still moderately convincing when one considers her life up to that point. Only took a couple of hours to read what with trips to refill the tea cup. I will be reading the next one!

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Jun 13, 2011 Alison added it

Shelves: cozy-mystery

This is the first in a new series set in Regency England. I will say up front that I don't normally read historical mysteries, usually preferring contemporary settings. However, I am so glad that I picked this book up. The author has written a well-researched mystery and introduced some fun characters. The main character, Lady Arianna, is certainly no 'proper' lady and her interactions with the investigator, the Earl of Saybrook, are quite amusing.

The book also features plenty of recipes featuri...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Shanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-mystery, 2012

I was quite pleasantly surprised by this book. I expected a fun frothy period mystery and what I got was well developed multi-dimensional characters and a well plotted mystery. I loved the bits of chocolate history and adored the bickering between Arianna and the Earl. This is a great start to a series and I can only hope that the author continues to produce such quality in the future.

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Jun 30, 2012 Drianne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, mystery

This was okay. It's not the best historical mystery/romance I've ever read, and I was sad (but not surprised) that there was almost no play with the 'Lady Arianna is dressed up as a boy' plot. Also, the recipes are just silly. Bad enough in a modern mystery, but they're ridiculous and out of place in a period novel.

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Apr 07, 2012 Beeface rated it 2 of 5 stars

Cozy mystery/Regency era/chocolate... what was there not to like about this? Well, there wasn't much for me to like. I didn't care for the recipes at the beginning of the chapter but they were easy enough to skip. The story was not bad but not good either.

I don't think I'll be picking the second one up.

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Jul 07, 2012 Shelley rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who love Cozy Mysteries and some romance.

It was a fast read. Can't say much as don't want to give away any spoilers. I found myself really enjoying it to start, but then in the middle there was a bit of a lull, and almost a bit of a confusing end to the mystery. Although it did start moving fast again at the end and I am intrigued enough to look at continuing on to book #2.

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Oct 21, 2012 Erin Knuth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: swasey-book-club

I was looking for a new historical mystery/romance series to fall in love with but this wasn't it. It was decent, and the recipes were fun, but I didn't find the characters relatable or realistic and I didn't think their chemistry was that great. Still on the hint for a new series!

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Aug 10, 2012 Calli rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-mystery, favorites

Includes chocolate recipes and chocolate history at the top of each chapter, so how could I resist? And I wasn't disappointed. Excellent series, in the line of St. Cyr mysteries, although I think I may still like St. Cyr a tad bit better. Don't be fooled by the cover, this is not a cozy.

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Jan 13, 2013 Mary rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-mystery, mystery, regency-england, lady-arianna

I found the main character sort of annoying, which is never good if you want me to read a series about them. Also, it seemed like just about any time the plot started to get going, there'd be another recipe to start a chapter.

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Jun 06, 2011 Deshay rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not into cooking and recipes so those were a nuisance to me at the beginning of each chapter - but easy to skim over. I liked the 2 main characters, the setting and the mystery. I look forward to the next book.

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Dec 17, 2012 Rosario rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: feisty-heroines

I found this book really entertaining. I liked the characters and I also loved the chocolate recipes. Also the historical background is well described and does not feel to 'heavy'. I will definitely read the other books in the series.

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Dec 21, 2011 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-copy

I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series. The chocolate recipes are wonderful. Who knew chocolate had such an interesting history, and it is yummy too!

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Jun 15, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book. I'm a huge fan of regency mystery and this book had all my favorite elements. Mystery! Murder!! Danger!!! A dash of romance and a feisty heroine to boot. The plot moved along at a great pace and the characters were well developed. The author has a very enjoyable writing style and I can't wait to read the next in the series. I was a little disappointed at the ending. I don't want to give anything away so all I'm gonna say is that I thought the earl's suggestion at the very end wa...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Harriette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lady Arianna and her hubster are chocolate fans in this period mystery. Not only
are the chocolate recipes good, the story and characters are too. Treason, Enlish spies,
a Peace Congress in Vienna, a rare book of botanical engravings on chocolate.....it's all good. Oops.....this goes with the Cocoa
Conspiracy. lol ! Sweet Revenge is equally good, I"m in a hurry and will get this settled out later. Sorry.

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Feb 03, 2013 Alexandra Van caloen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Didn't much like the ending, but the characters and the plot are really good!
Besides, De Quincy is irresistible :)

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Jan 15, 2012 Lpage1479 page rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy reading books that take place in the Regency Period (think Jane Austen).

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About Andrea Penrose

I began my writing career at age five, creating a number of Westerns lavishly illustrated with crayon drawings of horses and cowboys. However, I have since moved on to Regency England, an era that has fascinated me ever since I picked up a copy of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice.

Books have always been an important part of my life. I have always been a voracious reader, and I have always had a ve...more I began my writing career at age five, creating a number of Westerns lavishly illustrated with crayon drawings of horses and cowboys. However, I have since moved on to Regency England, an era that has fascinated me ever since I picked up a copy of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice.

Books have always been an important part of my life. I have always been a voracious reader, and I have always had a very vivid imagination . . . so much so that I think at times it worried my parents that I was so happy in my own little world, drawing pictures and creating stories. My teachers will also tell you that I was the class history geek, even in grade school. I don’t really know why, but I have always been fascinated with the past.

As an undergrad at Yale, I majored in art—though I took enough history courses to have majored in that subject as well—and went on to get a MFA in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, concentrating in publication design. So I guess you could say I have always had a left brain-right brain sort of love affair with the printed page.

So why did I choose the Regency time period for my mysteries? I love the era because it was such a fabulously interesting time and place—it was a world aswirl in silks, seduction and the intrigue of the Napoleonic Wars. Radical new ideas were clashing with the conventional thinking of the past, and as a result, people were challenging and changing the fundamentals of their society. For example, you had Beethoven composing emotional symphonies, Byron composing wildly romantic poetry about individual angst, J.M.W. Turner dabbling in impressionistic watercolors and Mary Wollstonecraft writing the first feminist manifestos . . .

In so many ways, it was the birth of the modern world, and for me, its challenges, its characters and its conflicts have such relevance to our own times . . . and hey, who can resist men in breeches and boots!

In Lady Arianna Hadley and Allesandro de Quincy, the Earl of Saybrook, I've sought to create two individuals who embody the the intellectual curiosity—and courage—of the times. They'll be setting off on some devilishly daunting adventures. So lace up your corsets, tweak the tails of your cravat and let's enter a world of glittering ballrooms and deadly intrigues . . .
(less)

More about Andrea Penrose...

Books by Andrea Penrose

The Cocoa Conspiracy (A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery, #2)

Recipe for Treason: A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery

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