PUBLISHER: Lake Union Publishing, 7/2019GENRE: Fiction/Historical Mystery
SETTING: New York, 1924
SERIES: Julia Kydd, #1
PURCHASE: link
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: A-
FROM PUBLISHER: In 1924 Manhattan, women’s suffrage is old news. For sophisticated booklover Julia Kydd, life’s too short for politics. With her cropped hair and penchant for independent living, Julia wants only to launch her own new private press. But as a woman, Julia must fight for what’s hers—including the inheritance her estranged half brother, Philip, has challenged, putting her aspirations in jeopardy.
When her friend’s sister, Naomi Rankin, dies suddenly of an apparent suicide, Julia is shocked at the wealthy family’s indifference toward the ardent suffragist’s death. Naomi chose poverty and hardship over a submissive marriage and a husband’s control of her money. Now, her death suggests the struggle was more than she could bear.
Julia, however, is skeptical. Doubtful of her suspicions, Philip proposes a glib wager: if Julia can prove Naomi was in fact murdered, he’ll drop his claims to her wealth. Julia soon discovers Naomi’s life was as turbulent and enigmatic as her death. And as she gets closer to the truth, Julia sees there’s much more at stake than her inheritance…
MY THOUGHTS: Julia's a couple weeks away from turning twenty-five. She's been living in England for the past five years and has a married boyfriend, David, there. We didn't get much background on her. The info we got on her ex-boyfriend was pointless and did nothing for the story. I'm not sure what to make of her. She was likely motivated to investigate the death of Naomi so she could get her inheritance more so than to find out the truth.
I like her old school acquaintance, Glennis Rankin. She's the opposite of Julia in personality. I've read reviewers calling Julia "feisty" but she's not at all; Glennis is. They weren't really friends in school and only knew each other for a year and are the same age. Glennis is the youngest sister of dead woman, Naomi, who's forty-years-old.
There was some unnecessary stuff regarding her stepbrother, Philip, and his mother at the very end that was also pointless. Enough was already going on so there just was no reason to add that.
I don't think there was a physical description, hair color, eye color, of anyone at all, other than her friend Glennis having wide-spaced eyes and not getting the looks in the family.
It seems to me that author wanted Julia to be British so she should have made her be from there. Julia uses the nonAmerican term "cheeky" and says "round" instead of "around", and uses the European form of writing the date, like 24/7/2019 instead of the American way, 7/24/2019.
This story held my attention from the start and there was never a dull moment. The story spans a few weeks, possibly as much a month. A little too much went on at the end, revelations regarding Naomi's death, and was slightly hard to follow, due to too many characters. I'm not entirely happy with how it played out.
The book has a pattern printed onto it, which you can view here.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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