Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Review: Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark by Donna Lea Simpson

When Lady Anne Addison's fiance dies in the war with the American colonies, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Though rather plain, Lady Anne is smart and independent and finds that she much prefers her life as a single, wealthy spinster to a marriage foisted upon her by society's expectations.

She receives a troubling letter from her fiance's sister, Lydia, in Yorkshire, who is a good friend. Lady Anne leaves London immediately and quickly makes her way to Lydia's new home, since her recent marriage, Darkefell Castle. Unfortunately, scatterbrained Lydia has failed to have anyone meet Anne, or even tell them that she has invited her, and Anne ends up walking to the estate as evening falls.

Before she even reaches the house, she trips over the newly murdered body of a servant. Chaos ensues as she tries to explain her presence to Lydia's in laws, including her brother-in-law, Anthony, the Marquess of Darkefell.

Anne is disturbed by her attraction to Anthony, who is darkly good looking and confident. But she is more intrigued by the mystery of the body and recent sightings in the area of a creature that sounds remarkably like a werewolf. She is compelled to investigate, incurring the displeasure of the family, the taciturn villagers, and of course, the Marquess.

I so enjoyed this mystery introducing Lady Anne. The author does a wonderful job of expressing the consternation of logical, serious Anne when she encounters the sizzle of passion for the first time in her life. Her feelings leave her bewildered and unsure, her practical mind has trouble reconciling with her wild emotions.

The ending leaves loose ends. While the mystery is successfully solved, the relationship with Anthony is not. There are two more Lady Anne mysteries that will be published this fall. I'll be tuning in to see what happens next!

Many thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks for sending this book to me for review.

Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark is published by Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-1791-3

Check out some other reviews of this book:

Medieval Bookworm
Peeking Between the Pages
Marta's Meanderings

6 comments:

Meghan said...

I'm looking forward to the sequels too!

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to reading this one.

Darlene said...

Nice review. I really enjoyed this novel and I can't wait to read more about Lady Anne. She had me laughing more than once. Thanks for linking my review. I'm going to add yours to mine too :)

Ladytink_534 said...

Never heard of this author before but this sounds like something I would really enjoy! Thanks for the great review :)

Becca said...

I love the title and usually the word werewolf in the description is enough to get me interested but judging by the cover this is more romance than I can handle. Ah, well, it probably isn’t a real werewolf anyway. Besides my TBR list is quite long enough as it is.

Valerie said...

werewolf? That seems like an interesting twist
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Bibliophile, Anglophile, Traveller... I have been an avid reader all of my life, since I took the Dr. Seuss Dictionary away from my Mom when I was less than a year old because I wanted to read it myself. In college, where I earned my degree in English Literature, I was often asked "What are you going to do with it?" Now I finally have the answer to that question!!! Being employed as a Flight Attendant for twenty years has given me a lot of life experience and, better still, a lot of time to read. I love to travel for fun, too.