Cute story that was short and sweet. I’m not a huge fan of the “insta-love” trope in romances, but you can hand-wave it away here as a werewolf mating thing. Getting some background into the characters that I adore in The Sumage Solution was nice, however.
The plot aspect of this story felt a bit rushed, but that’s the curse of the short story. The resolution was unexpected and quite humorous.
Carriger is definitely finding her stride with these characters and their voices here, but it’s still a fun read if you enjoy the main series. Continue reading
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Part of me is kicking myself for letting this book sit unread on my Kindle for so long. The rest of me thinks there must have been a method to my madness, because now I only have an agonizing 2 weeks to wait until the sequel is released. Luckily, I have a prequel short story to read to tide me over for about 10 minutes until then.
If you’ve ever watched Downton Abbey and thought, “This show could use more espionage, blackmail, and murder,” this is the book for you! What I especially enjoyed about this book is that it is primarily a mystery/thriller with an excellent romance subplot. But more importantly, the romance subplot informs and adds to the tension of the main plot, which is a credit once again to the author’s ability to tell a seamless story. 
This short story acts as a sort of prequel to the Society of Gentlemen series, filling in the background for one of the established parings in the full trilogy. It can be read as a stand-alone.
Though I was correct in my guess that the final book in this trilogy would involve the relationship between Lord Richard Vane and his valet/spymaster David Cyprian, I wish this series had ended with more of a bang. 
First of all, this can’t be read as a stand-alone. You absolutely have to have read the first book in this series, A Fashionable Indulgence, to understand a significant portion of the larger plot. That being said, this is not a detraction to the book. In fact, I spent a lot of time admiring the plot details Charles had sprinkled through the previous book that emphasized both stories, especially where they overlap. 
