{"id":11194,"date":"2018-10-31T19:05:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T23:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=11194"},"modified":"2022-10-30T19:46:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T23:46:27","slug":"gilded-deceit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11194","title":{"rendered":"Gilded Deceit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilded Deceit<\/a><\/em> (2017) Tracy Grant<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Set in Europe on Lake Como in 1818<\/p>\n

This is book 13, and follows immediately upon the events of the previous novella.<\/p>\n

Malcolm and Melanie have fled England. Lord Carfax has threatened to expose Melanie’s past, so to protect her–and the whole family–they’ve left for Italy, with Raoul, Laura, and also Harry and Cordy. (I admit, I’m not quite sure why Harry and Cordy left, except to keep Malcolm and Mel company).<\/p>\n

The group is unexpectedly attacked along the way, by bandits demanding they “hand it over.” <\/p>\n

They’re rescued by another English group along the road (who must only have been a mile or two behind them) and since their villa is closer, our heroes meet Lord Thurston and his lover, the Contessa Vincenzo. As well as her husband, and all the various kids.<\/p>\n

“Kit and his sisters haven’t seen their father since he left Britain fifteen years ago.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Your brother and sisters wanted to wait up. But we weren’t sure how late it would be. I hope you’ll have time with them tomorrow.” <\/p>\n

“That will be lovely,” Diana said with a bright smile. “We’ve heard so much about them.” <\/p>\n

“Not really,” Selena said. “I mean, where would we have heard it? Except for letters from\u2014” She stared at Thurston, carefully plucked brows drawn together. “I don’t know what to call you.” <\/p>\n

Thurston hesitated a moment. “You were quite proud of yourself for having mastered ‘Papa’ the last time you saw me.” <\/p>\n

“I was three.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the things this story gives us is far more about Malcolm’s mother than we’d had in the past. <\/p>\n

Arabella had moods. It was years before I understood she was ill. I kept thinking I should be able to shake her out of them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I actually liked learning about her, and seeing her from Raoul’s eyes. It made her even more complex.<\/p>\n

I think I’ve mentioned before that one of the things I especially like about this series is that the children are not main characters, but they add a great deal of depth to the other characters and the story.<\/p>\n

Emily, Colin, and Jessica were all very sturdy, but losing children was a reality parents lived with every day. Laura felt it whenever one of them caught a simple cold.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I also appreciate the fact that this story gives us more clear look at the place of women in British society than other historicals do.<\/p>\n

“It’s appalling,” Mary said. “What a husband can do to a wife and leave her no recourse. It’s why my mother likened marriage to slavery.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mind you, they’re all still very wealthy, which makes them far far better off the most of the rest of society, but it’s clear that they way Malcolm and Harry and Raoul treat the women is unusual for the time.<\/p>\n

The characters also aren’t blind to the changes that the war caused.<\/p>\n

“I believed in what I was doing in the war. But I didn’t much care for what I came back to. Former soldiers without limbs, begging in the streets. Sleeping in Hyde Park. Corn laws that protect the incomes of those with property and deny bread to families.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The mystery was rather complicated, but it’s also tied in with the mysteries that have gone through the earlier books. I would NOT start here.<\/p>\n

Publisher: NYLA
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gilded Deceit (2017) Tracy Grant Set in Europe on Lake Como in 1818 This is book 13, and follows immediately upon the events of the previous novella. Malcolm and Melanie have fled England. Lord Carfax has threatened to expose Melanie’s past, so to protect her–and the whole family–they’ve left for Italy, with Raoul, Laura, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,33,8],"tags":[556,548,174],"class_list":["post-11194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","tag-georgian-era","tag-regency","tag-tracy-grant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2Uy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5271,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5271","url_meta":{"origin":11194,"position":0},"title":"Widow’s Gambit","author":"Michelle","date":"June 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Widow's Gambit (1998) Tracy Grant The Neville girls are of good family, but impoverished, and after their father's death are left to make their way as best they can. Claudia is the most beautiful (and Diana is not yet of age) so Livia decides to do whatever it takes to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"Widows-Gambit","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Widows-Gambit.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8973,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8973","url_meta":{"origin":11194,"position":1},"title":"Mission for a Queen","author":"Michelle","date":"March 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Mission for a Queen (2016) Tracy Grant Set in London and Europe in the summer of 1818 Malcolm and Susanne\/Melanie have fled London, along with their children, Raoul, and Laura, while the friends back on London try to piece together what happened, and keep their disappearance as quiet and boring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Mission-for-a-Queen.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5394,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5394","url_meta":{"origin":11194,"position":2},"title":"London Interlude","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"London Interlude (2015) Tracy Grant Set in London in June 1814. This is a very short story. 77 pages according to Amazon. So just be aware of what you are getting. This is the 8th book in the series, but set towards the very beginning of the overarching story, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"London-Interlude","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/London-Interlude.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5266,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5266","url_meta":{"origin":11194,"position":3},"title":"The Mayfair Affair","author":"Michelle","date":"June 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mayfair Affair (2015) Tracy Grant Set in London in 1818. Malcolm and Susanne Rannoch have had a difficult three months, after Malcolm finally learns that Susanne had been a French agent. But when their governess is accused of murder--found on the scene in fact, they hope the tenuous peace\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/the-mayfair-affair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4939,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4939","url_meta":{"origin":11194,"position":4},"title":"Beneath a Silent Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"November 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Beneath a Silent Moon (2003) Tracy Grant This series is somewhat confusing, as the author has published it under two different names (Tracy Grant \/ Teresa Grant) and the main characters have two different names (Charles & Melanie Fraser \/ Malcom & Suzanne Rannoch). It is, however, the same series.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beneath-a-Silent-Moon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Beneath-a-Silent-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5429,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5429","url_meta":{"origin":11194,"position":5},"title":"The Mayfair Affair","author":"Michelle","date":"September 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mayfair Affair (2015) Tracy Grant Set in London in 1818. This book takes place three months after The Berkeley Square Affair, and although I read it earlier this year, I went back and re-read it after finishing The Berkeley Square Affair. Although I enjoyed this book the first time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"the-mayfair-affair","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/the-mayfair-affair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}