Five reasons to grab ‘Til Death Do Us Part

• Amanda Quick is a masterful storyteller with delightfully unique characters and her historical mysteries always offer unexpected twists. I delight in gathering the clues and holding my breath when the hero and heroine face down danger. In ‘Til Death Do Us Part, Quick surprised me with the reveal and I friggin’ love when that happens.


• Quick has a way with her characters and such was the case with Calista Langley and Trent Hastings. Calista and her younger brother Andrew inherited a sizeable estate in town, but sadly are house poor. Needing a way to secure income she began an Introduction agency and hosts parties in her saloon. I liked Calista. She has a head for business and delights in offering a safe gathering place for singles to meet. She is level-headed and is very careful to protect her reputation. Trent Hastings is a bit of a reclusive after a terrible accident scarred one side of his face and body. He is also a mystery writer whose stories are the talk of London. When his sister begins attending Calista’s saloons he feels obligated to check things out, and upon meeting Calista he finds himself intrigued. Secondary characters in the form of siblings, suspects and servants offered side threads that were strong and entertaining. Quick made each character memorable and I quickly became caught up in their world.


• The mystery was both macabre and suspenseful. Calista is receiving gifts meant for someone in deep mourning. The gifts include a black mirror, funeral wreath, jar to catch and hold tears, and the newest a ring with a black stone. All of the gifts come with a note, “’til death do us part” and each engraved with her initials. The whole plot had a very gothic tone to it. Hastings becomes involved when he visits Calista as she returns home with her newest gift. It has unnerved Calista and it quite alarms Hastings.


• The romance is slow to develop but filled with banter, a touch of snark, tender moments and delicious heat that had me smiling. Despite his physical imperfections, Trent made a wonderful hero. He was smart, protective and very much like the detective in his stories. Both are a little odd, a little damaged and their chemistry felt genuine.


• Secondary characters, the death trinkets and twists in this clever mystery allowed me to devour ‘Til Death Do Us Part in two sittings. From beginning to end, the story was well paced delivering a mix of dangerous moments and delightfully intimate moments with the characters. I enjoyed how balanced all the threads were and how controlled Quick was with the mystery. One of the things that made me laugh throughout the story was Londoners critiquing Hastings newest mystery book. Each week a new chapter releases in the paper before the book is bound in a book. It is one of many clever things Quick added to the story, which gave it depth and fleshed out the characters.

Copy provided by publisher, This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Too quaint and tidy

Another really interesting premise from AQ

This is a fun Victorian romance with a twisty murder mystery. Calista and her brother inherited a big, fancy house, but they don’t have the means to keep it running. For income, Calista holds weekly salons where like-minded people might meet each other. It’s not a matchmaking service, and she’s definitely not setting innocent young women in the paths of predatory men. However, if some attendees happen to fall in love, all the better.

Trevor’s sister attends these salons, and he thinks they’re a bunch of malarky, so he sets out to investigate. While he’s eventually convinced that Calista’s business is legit, he also discovers that Calista is being targeted with creepy gifts, and Trevor takes it upon himself to help her.

Here’s something that’s cool: Trevor is a writer. His main character is a detective, and Trevor himself has picked up several interesting talents under the umbrella of “research,” such as lock picking, cane fighting, and surveillance. Not to mention his connections to underground criminals. Trevor is also not ashamed to “Don’t you know who I am?” his way into places.

Calista is more than a helpless maiden. Not only did she create a thriving business to keep her and her brother out of poverty, but she also has a strong investigative sense, bravery, and knowledge that the world is full of unsavory characters.

The mystery is strong enough to keep you guessing, and the dead bodies pile up. Additionally, I learned a lot about the death business. Victorians were way into memento mori, or trinkets of death, like tear catchers, stationary with black edging, and special rings to put on a corpse that attach to a bell, just in case the dead person isn’t really dead. How great was their fear of being buried alive that those coffin bells existed?

The romance is borne out of dramatic events, like so:

“The desire to embrace you is probably a result of the recent shock to my nerves.”

“You certainly know how to take the romance out of the moment, Calista.”

There wasn’t enough gut-wrenching romance for my taste, but that’s because this is more of a mystery than romance. Still, it was a lot of fun, and very funny. Trevor’s latest novel introduces a female character, and random people throughout the book give him their opinion: “It’s all very well to insert a woman into the plot but we don’t want Clive Stone to get sidetracked with a romance. It will ruin the series.” I mean, isn’t that almost every man’s opinion on the internet? Genius.

Amanda Quick has a breezy writing style with a healthy amount of humor and inside jokes. This book should suit just about anyone.

Rating: B for romantic sexytimes, A- for everything else.

ARC provided by the publisher. This review originally posted on Red Hot Books

Meh.

This was my first Amanda Quick novel and I loved it immensely. The combination of mystery and romance was very well done and despite it being long it was very well paced and I got through it faster than I thought I would. Looking forward to reading more of her work!

Pretty cool story, I enjoyed reading it, even if I saw the plot twist coming.

La storia mi è piaciuta parecchio, anche se il colpo di scena si vedeva arrivare da qualche capitolo prima.....

Giving up after another attempt of listening to almost 80% (>_<)

Calista operates a high class introduction agency for respectable gentlemen and ladies. Unfortunately, she has attracted the attention of a stalker. A crime novelist, who was checking the agency out since his sister is using it gets drawn into the mystery and sparks fly.