Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily Ashton series
And Also To Decieve
A Poisoned Season
A Fatal Walz: a Novel of Suspense
I found Tasha Alexander under the "if you bought this, you might like" on Amazon in response to the Deanna Raybourn books I've read. I decided to give them a try since they were well reveiwed by readers and bought them used.
Lady Emily Ashton is a strong headed young woman in the 1800s who marries to get away from her overbearing mother; at the time of her marriage she didnt' really care who she married and had little interest in getting to know her husband. When he's killed a few months later, she grudgengly mourns, because she didn't really know or love him. The first book "And Also To Decieve" chronicles the process of a woman falling in love with a husband she barely new, over a year after he dies. In the process she solves a series of art theiveries and the answers some questions she didn't know needed answering.
"A Poisoned Season" is Lady Ashton coming out of mourning and embracing her own independence. In this story, she finds herself victim to a jewel theif who is stealing from London's wealthy at the same time that a new pretender to the thrown of France has made himself a hit in London society. We again follow her as she begins to unravel one mystery and find herself solving another she hadn't intended on solving.
"A Fatal Waltz" follows the political intrigue that ensues when a much disliked, but very powerful politician is murdered during a hunting party weekend. Lady Ashton's best friend's husband stands accused and Lady Ashton makes a promise to prove him innocent and find the real killer. With some close, very wealthy friends in tow, she goes to Vienna to try and track down a message that was sent to the victim before his death, in the process finding herself endangered and those close to her threatened.
Overall, I really enjoyed Alexander's writing. It's everything Raybourn's is not... it's got depth, it's meaty, the characters feel much more like real people. Lady Ashton is very independent and a bit of a free spirit (for the time) and it comes across comfortably. She has relationships, but she's not dependent on others to get information for her, she doesn't fear seeking it out herself. The first two books, where for the most part the mysteries being solved were fairly local in scope with a touch of political connectedness really work well, the twists and turns keep you turning the pages and caught up. The third takes on political intrigue on the whole, and for me it actually doesn't work nearly as well. The books are roughly about 350 pages in length. It feels like she got really invovled in coming up with a plot and a story, then realized at about page 300 that she was nearing her "end point" and had to do a wrap up. The story goes from being full into a really meaty and invovled situation, and suddenly the most mundane aspect of the story is the resolution and the story is over... but it doesn't feel like it should be.... and not in a good way. I was actually left dissatisfied with the way it ended.
A Poisoned Season
A Fatal Walz: a Novel of Suspense
I found Tasha Alexander under the "if you bought this, you might like" on Amazon in response to the Deanna Raybourn books I've read. I decided to give them a try since they were well reveiwed by readers and bought them used.
Lady Emily Ashton is a strong headed young woman in the 1800s who marries to get away from her overbearing mother; at the time of her marriage she didnt' really care who she married and had little interest in getting to know her husband. When he's killed a few months later, she grudgengly mourns, because she didn't really know or love him. The first book "And Also To Decieve" chronicles the process of a woman falling in love with a husband she barely new, over a year after he dies. In the process she solves a series of art theiveries and the answers some questions she didn't know needed answering.
"A Poisoned Season" is Lady Ashton coming out of mourning and embracing her own independence. In this story, she finds herself victim to a jewel theif who is stealing from London's wealthy at the same time that a new pretender to the thrown of France has made himself a hit in London society. We again follow her as she begins to unravel one mystery and find herself solving another she hadn't intended on solving.
"A Fatal Waltz" follows the political intrigue that ensues when a much disliked, but very powerful politician is murdered during a hunting party weekend. Lady Ashton's best friend's husband stands accused and Lady Ashton makes a promise to prove him innocent and find the real killer. With some close, very wealthy friends in tow, she goes to Vienna to try and track down a message that was sent to the victim before his death, in the process finding herself endangered and those close to her threatened.
Overall, I really enjoyed Alexander's writing. It's everything Raybourn's is not... it's got depth, it's meaty, the characters feel much more like real people. Lady Ashton is very independent and a bit of a free spirit (for the time) and it comes across comfortably. She has relationships, but she's not dependent on others to get information for her, she doesn't fear seeking it out herself. The first two books, where for the most part the mysteries being solved were fairly local in scope with a touch of political connectedness really work well, the twists and turns keep you turning the pages and caught up. The third takes on political intrigue on the whole, and for me it actually doesn't work nearly as well. The books are roughly about 350 pages in length. It feels like she got really invovled in coming up with a plot and a story, then realized at about page 300 that she was nearing her "end point" and had to do a wrap up. The story goes from being full into a really meaty and invovled situation, and suddenly the most mundane aspect of the story is the resolution and the story is over... but it doesn't feel like it should be.... and not in a good way. I was actually left dissatisfied with the way it ended.