Author: Kelley Armstrong
Published: December 3, 2024 by Subterranean Press
Format: Kindle, 176 Pages
Genre: Time Travel
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: A Rip Through Time #3.5
First Sentence: On the first of December, I walk into the town house library and announce, “I believe it’s time to discuss Christmas.”
Blurb: It’s Mallory Atkinson’s first Christmas in Scotland. Victorian Scotland, that is. Also, as the twenty-first-century detective learns, Christmas really isn’t a thing in Victorian Scotland. It’s all about Hogmanay. But her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, treats her to an early gift of tickets to the event of the season: a Charles Dickens reading. There, they bump into Lady Inglis—the lovely widow who has sent Gray sexy letters trying to entice him back to her bed.
Lady Inglis introduces Mallory to Dickens—the meeting of a lifetime—but in return she wants their help. She’s being blackmailed. Someone stole letters she wrote to another lover and is threatening to publish them.
Mallory isn’t sure what to make of Lady Inglis, but no woman deserves that, so she insists on taking the case with or without Gray’s help. Growing tension between them soon tells Mallory that Gray is hiding a secret of his own. She has until Hogmanay to uncover the blackmailer…and, hopefully, to put things right with Gray so they can enjoy the holiday together.
My Opinion: For a novella, Schemes & Scandals by Kelley Armstrong is unexpectedly wordy and, at times, feels like it's dragging. A tighter edit could have transformed this novella into a more compelling short story.
Mallory Atkinson finds herself spending her first Christmas in Scotland, grappling with the unfamiliar customs of the time. But adapting is key when you're inhabiting another person’s body and centuries out of your comfort zone. The only bright spot in her holiday is an unexpected encounter with Charles Dickens, who reads his works and adds a touch of literary magic to her experience.
When a friend of Dr. Gray’s arrives with a salacious problem, Mallory seizes the opportunity to put her 21st-century investigative skills to the test. This novella, part of Armstrong's time travel series, requires readers to embrace the convenient plot devices and the notion that people living in the Victorian era would so easily accept a woman claiming to be a time traveler and rarely question the uses of unfamiliar words and science. The humor woven through the narrative helps make these leaps of faith more palatable.
While the story could benefit from a more concise approach, Schemes & Scandals offers intriguing elements that keep the reader engaged, especially with the unique blend of time travel and historical fiction.
Blurb: It’s Mallory Atkinson’s first Christmas in Scotland. Victorian Scotland, that is. Also, as the twenty-first-century detective learns, Christmas really isn’t a thing in Victorian Scotland. It’s all about Hogmanay. But her boss, Dr. Duncan Gray, treats her to an early gift of tickets to the event of the season: a Charles Dickens reading. There, they bump into Lady Inglis—the lovely widow who has sent Gray sexy letters trying to entice him back to her bed.
Lady Inglis introduces Mallory to Dickens—the meeting of a lifetime—but in return she wants their help. She’s being blackmailed. Someone stole letters she wrote to another lover and is threatening to publish them.
Mallory isn’t sure what to make of Lady Inglis, but no woman deserves that, so she insists on taking the case with or without Gray’s help. Growing tension between them soon tells Mallory that Gray is hiding a secret of his own. She has until Hogmanay to uncover the blackmailer…and, hopefully, to put things right with Gray so they can enjoy the holiday together.
My Opinion: For a novella, Schemes & Scandals by Kelley Armstrong is unexpectedly wordy and, at times, feels like it's dragging. A tighter edit could have transformed this novella into a more compelling short story.
Mallory Atkinson finds herself spending her first Christmas in Scotland, grappling with the unfamiliar customs of the time. But adapting is key when you're inhabiting another person’s body and centuries out of your comfort zone. The only bright spot in her holiday is an unexpected encounter with Charles Dickens, who reads his works and adds a touch of literary magic to her experience.
When a friend of Dr. Gray’s arrives with a salacious problem, Mallory seizes the opportunity to put her 21st-century investigative skills to the test. This novella, part of Armstrong's time travel series, requires readers to embrace the convenient plot devices and the notion that people living in the Victorian era would so easily accept a woman claiming to be a time traveler and rarely question the uses of unfamiliar words and science. The humor woven through the narrative helps make these leaps of faith more palatable.
While the story could benefit from a more concise approach, Schemes & Scandals offers intriguing elements that keep the reader engaged, especially with the unique blend of time travel and historical fiction.
