🍎🍎🍎🍎
My weekend binge of the Maiden Lane series continues! Book 4, by Elizabeth Hoyt, is Thief of Shadows. In my previous review I mentioned that this series could be broken up in 3 book chunks. This is the start of what others are terming the "Batman" section, but I will call it the Ghost of St. Giles chunk. Update: I have retroactively applied this book to the Romancing Summer Challenge for the outside the USA prompt.
If you haven't read the first three books in the series, this book with have some major spoilers, so warning. Our heroine is Lady Isabel, one of the new patronesses of the foundling home. This book starts right away in the timeline, with the escape of the Ghost after saving Mickey from getting hanged. Lady Isabel is on her way to the new home (that's finally finished getting built) and runs across the injured ghost. She decides to save him from the mob (can't have our entertainment [the hanging] spoiled). She nurses him herself and finds herself really drawn to his wit and demeanor towards her. I should also mention, she is a widow. Our Ghost is none other than the manager of the home himself... Winter Makepeace.
I really enjoyed this book, once again. I absolutely adored Lady Isabel and how she was so drawn to Winter and the Ghost but didn't push him. We also have a virgin hero in Winter, which is something meh to me. I don't really mind that he's a virgin, but I just don't get excited about it as other readers. I did love that once they finally got intimate, Winter couldn't hold "the beast" (his term) back any longer. While I really enjoyed the push and pull between them, I did feel like Winter was a little too push and pull in the beginning, but then Isabel was at the end. It just felt like neither of them were on the same page at all until the very end of the book. Once again I felt the wrap up was a little rushed, especially with the non-romance plot. Once again it felt like the mystery plot of the missing girls took a little too much away from the romance.
I liked the idea of Isabel giving Winter society lessons, but it just really bothered me that he didn't really need them but chose to act rudely/uncouth intentionally. I understand that was his point, but I feel like he could've been a little nicer and aware of how he was making the patronesses feel, especially Isabel. Also, I really disliked Lady Penelope and felt her whole pushing Winter out as the manager was unnecessary. Especially since it was made a point multiple times that nothing was to be decided until Lady Hero and the elder Lady Caire returned from the country.
Another reason I feel like this ended up as 4-stars for me is the hype. I know this books is a favorite for a lot of readers, but I wasn't quite 100% there. I also got a little bit frustrated (like I had with first book) about how much the religious aspect was pushed. I went into my thoughts on this in my other review, but I just wanted to mention it since it was another thing that I didn't connect with. On a more fun note, we find out that there's more than one Ghost of St. Giles! I immediately jumped into book 5, especially after the epilogue and am thoroughly enjoying my binge so far!
Have you read Thief of Shadows?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Thief of Shadows, Elizabeth Hoyt, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 360 pages, published in 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment