Sherry > Recent Status Updates

Ivy has just had it sink into her: "There must be more to life than this." Jack already knows many of the things that he needs and has just met Anthony. Anthony dreads when he inherits since the tenants are in bad shape. They have gone to buy horses together. When Jack inspects the stables, he realizes his horses are abused.

The preacher who was also the sister's father was the one who took the documents and killed the captain in a struggle over the documents. He wanted the money for the girls' doweries. The original lord & boss is the actual villain who was trying to sell the government secrets to pad his own retirement and using his secretary as a fall-guy.

During the traveling and being under attack in a fort for 5 days, they worked through the bumps and enjoyed one another every chance they could get. Although they parted ways after the fort, they arranged to meet up when they both returned to England.

It has been a drill postmortem of their marriage. He had always loved her but felt rejection since she could not accept his physical love. She proposed to him since his kiss drove her to want more. She sees him as her addiction, her hair a strip of white as a result and annulled their marriage then fled around the globe.

She gave him a unrecognizable pillow containing the deed to his club weeks before her own set deadline. After rejecting her for arranging a potential job for his sister, he gifted her the property next door. In the end they made his and her clubs that connected. Cloven hoof for gambling by all and arts and conversation at the crooked Halo.

She escaped for a third time and made it to Duncreiff. Alec followed and got severely injured by Kate's kin. They nursed him back to health, but now he needs to leave and she needs to stay. What hope for them?

She has dyslexia and can't read well because of it. Instead, she is great at drawing and sketching caricatures to send to her family. Her brother gave them to an intermediary and they were published and paid 5 pounds each which is staggering compared to a salary of 8 pounds a week as a companion. She split lemonade on Heath at a party and he wanted to dance with her. He is drawn to her lack of artifice.

She is hooked on him but knows she needs to get away. She has no idea he is a secret Jacobite plotter. She let him know he is the only one she has ever been interested in.

The pages are flying by as I get to know Sophie and Connor better and understand the situation in the highlands during this time which is 1728. The last uprising was 1715. He is a rebel, but there will not be another major uprising until 1745 so this time period should reflect the simmering feelings of these highlanders who are not allowed to have weapons or even knives. (They still do, of course)

"He made her human or as human as she was capable of being. And being human was possibly her least favorite aspect of life." She describes the mix of pleasure and pain when he is near.

Narberth is framing lady Holmes for the murder. Is she the only minion on board? Why was Ark killed?

Usually, these stories tie all the disparate threads together into one cohesive yarn and most details are important in the end.

With Mr. Arkwright's murder now being investigated by the police inspector on board, can Charlotte stay disguised? These book are good partly for the elegant message delivery of the dialogue in such flat tones which is how Charlotte thinks. Who is Moriary's minion. Is it the inspector who is travelling 1st class to do training? Is it Lady Holmes' maid who's hiring timing and unexpected appear are suspect?

Charlotte shows a more playful character in her depiction of Mrs. Ramsey. She is also tearing down emotional wall between her and Ash, much to his shock. There is the overriding fear the Charlotte will be discovered by one of Moriarty's minions and she is unsuccessful at finding the information that Remmington has tasked her to find in return for some protective shielding from Moriarty.

Droll and drawn out. He is on way to see corpse of Lydia's sister.

There were some plot inconsistencies about where her knife was during the maze scenes. One moment, it's in her hand. Another, she doesn't have the opportunity to bend down to get it (because she dropped it??) then at the end of the scene she pulls it out of the sheaf to throw it.

When he learned she was his wife, it totally devastated him and to him, it was the ultimate betrayal. She arrived at his house party where he couldn't throw her out and they had a huge fight that revealed everything and fixed nothing. Then the French spy tried to rape and murder Diana in the maze. Their son ran for help and Gervase came to the rescue almost... She killed him by throwing one of her knives.

Overall, the story pacing is slow.

The initial chapter is challenging to keep up with multiple characters with entirely separate story lines.

Ellison is set up to be translator to get Glenbrae whiskey for the king since it is one of his favorites. I am excited to see how this will play out. 6 weeks until the king's visit.

Rowan and Ellison introduced. Rowan's actions the night he was arrested are not illegal. It was someone else, and they were done. Only did it in memory of those killed. Ellison went to the dungeon to view. Came away with appreciation for lairds' humanity. Instant spark between these two.

Farilane's meeting with Proust revealed that she indeed was potentially looking for ways that she could be emperor instead of her brother.

Had to listen to the Tim Gerard Reynolds rendition of this story. Now seemed like to right time. I still appreciate Farilane's character and her journey. She is just getting to know Kile and is about to head off to the Dibbin Monastery. She has been forbidden to leave the city, but of course she intends to sneak out. The opening scene does an amazing job of depicting Farilane's drive for truth.

Millicent attracts Shoffer at the masquerade. He realizes who she is and she becomes his mistress when she can get away from being Mr. North. He realizes he loves her. At dinner for Mildred engagement, Dowager & bad duke arrive, Shoffer declares he will only marry his mistress, by a fake name, if circumstances change. When leaving Shoffer's carriage leaves without him and Beth is not to be found.

bad Duke spread rumor that North is gay forcing Shoffer to put distance between them to protect Beth's reputation. Shoffer tells North to get a mistress publicly and he will do the same to fight against the rumor. Millicent decides it's time to leave London. She chose to wear the new dress she had bought for a mistress and go to the masquerade as herself before leaving.

In the end, Sebastian and Silke were the real heroes aided by Shelly and Jake. The binding spell on the evil mage at the end was a very nice touch so she will stay in prison instead of disappearing like so many of the arrested in the novel.

The other assistant is the murderer, and she is a powerful mage. She and one of her thugs grabs Shelly thinking it is Silke. She also set up a block to her psychic communication and magically bound her. She blamed Sebastian for her brother's death.

There was another murder, this time by fire, and Somebody set fire to her apt and magically sealed the doors and windows so she couldn't get out. She sent out a psychic SOS and Jake appeared. He had to bash a wall to get Shelly out. Then she realized her sister Silke was likely to be the next victim and swapped places with her.

Banshee portends another murder at the site of Sebastian's act. She tries to save Sebastian, but he is fine. She stakes out the roof, bad guys drag handcuffed man up there. She tries to save him, but he and one of the bad guys fall through the skylights into the garden.

This is turning out to be a pretty good book. The characters are interesting and have depth. Shelly is dealing with a murder, coming to terms with the supernatural, and dealing with her panic and inability to move forward with Jake.