Blog Tour Review, Excerpt, and Giveaway - - A Gift for Guile

A Gift for Guile

By Alissa Johnson

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: July 5, 2016

Esther Walker-Bales has taken advantage of the absence of her protective sister and brother-in-law to leave the safety of her cottage in Derbyshire for a visit to London. Esther understands the risks she is taking. After all, she, along with her older sister and younger brother, were removed from London and set up in Derbyshire with new identities to protect them from the enemies of their father, William Walker, a notorious thief and con man who chose the role of informer for Scotland Yard over a prison sentence a few years before his death. But Esther has a reason to be in London, and she trusts in her own skills with a knife, honed at her father’s side, and in her disguise as a widow in heavy mourning, complete with veil, for protection.

Sir Samuel Brass disagrees. Esther’s disguise is not enough to conceal her identity from him. Brass is one of the three famous thief-takers of Scotland Yard who nine years ago, in the case that claimed William Walker’s life, saved a kidnapped duchess and earned themselves titles in the process. The trio left Scotland Yard to set up as private investigators. Samuel, who has known Esther since she was little more than a child sees the good in her but is also aware of an untamed quality. He tracks her from Derbyshire to London and appears at Paddington Station just in time to interfere with Esther’s appointment with an unusual blackmailer.

Esther is determined to complete the search that brought her to London. Samuel is determined to protect her. They compromise and thus begins a shared adventure that includes some wonderfully funny moments, ample sexual tension, and real danger plus an ongoing battle of wills between the fiercely independent Esther and the stubborn Samuel. The growing intimacy between the two and painfully acquired self-knowledge on both their parts make for a rewarding and believable HEA.

The mystery element in this second book in Johnson’s Thief Taker series takes second place to a richly developed relationship story that explores the difficult pasts of both hero and heroine. The verbal battles between Esther and Samuel are a delight even though Samuel, whose characteristic clumsiness of speech is magnified by his confusion over the feelings Esther evokes in him, is consistently outgunned by the witty and facile Esther. From tense to tender, their moments together are memorable. And their badminton game just may be the best game in historical romance since the Bridgertons played croquet.

Johnson avoids the trap of misunderstanding and has her protagonists talk to one another when conflict threatens the relationship—you know, like adults are supposed to do. Esther and Samuel are sympathetic, likeable characters individually; together they are irresistible. Readers who prefer the focus to remain on the lead couple should be particularly happy with this novel. Even Gabriel Arkwright, the third thief taker and clearly the hero of an upcoming book, is not allowed to distract from the central story.

My first Alissa Johnson novel was Practically Wicked in 2012, and I fell in love with her wit, her flawed and fascinating characters. I started on her backlist immediately after finishing that first book. A Gift for Guile is just one more reason Johnson is on my auto-buy list. A preference for character-driven romance is a refrain in discussions of the genre. If you are part of that chorus but also like a touch of adventure in the mix, I think you will enjoy Esther and Samuel’s story as much as I did. I highly recommend it. And if you love historical romance and have never read Alissa Johnson, A Gift for Guile is a good place to begin. Then you can start on the backlist.

~Janga 

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Fun Fact about the Victorian Age

 “Tight-lacing,” or the practice of cinching one’s corset to produce a ridiculously small waist, was not commonly practiced in the Victorian era.  Most women needed some freedom of movement (not to mention the ability to breathe) in order to take care of their daily responsibilities. Extreme binding and squishing, or the really crazy stuff like removing ribs, just weren’t practical for the average girl.  In fact, as fashionable as the tiny waist was, it didn’t stop ladies from buying tea gowns. Donned for informal entertainment at home, these loose fitting dresses were often designed to be worn without corset.

Excerpt from A Gift for Guile

Samuel grabbed Esther and shoved her behind him just as the gig raced by, launching a great wall of ditch water over the curb and onto him.

It soaked him through to the skin, and there was nothing he could do but drag a hand down his face and flick the excess moisture from his fingers.

Esther snickered. Actually, she coughed, but it was a hide-the-snicker sort of cough. It didn’t fool anyone.

He glowered at her.

She snickered again.

“Get in the carriage, Esther.”

For once, she complied without argument. She clambered inside, one hand covering her mouth. The moment the door was closed, her laughter filled the carriage.

“Oh. Oh, Lord.” She flipped up her veil. “I’m sorry. I’m terribly sorry. But the state of you. Good heavens.” She calmed herself a bit and reached over to pat his knee. “My hero.”

Then she laughed some more.

He ought to be offended, really. Annoyed at the very least. But he couldn’t seem to move beyond amazed.

He’d never heard her laugh before. Not like this. Not with her head tipped back and the sound just flowing from her.

Samuel wracked his brain for a single memory of Esther laughing, really laughing, and came up blank. Years ago, when she’d been little more than a girl, she had giggled. Once or twice, she may have chuckled. Certainly, he’d heard her snicker. But he hadn’t heard her laugh. Not as a child, and not since he’d known her as an adult.

The woman simply didn’t laugh in front of him.

It seemed an odd thing not to have noticed before now. Stranger still that he should find an ordinary sound so extraordinarily appealing. There was a sweet, clear tone to it that made him think of wind chimes. Not the tinny sort Mrs. Lanchor had hung in the garden two years ago (and the beast had mauled into oblivion three days ago) but the solid sort that put one to mind of woodwinds.

Her laugh reminded him of wind chimes that reminded him of woodwinds. By God, he was England’s finest poet.

“You’ve changed,” he murmured. There used to be a brittleness about her, a deep unhappiness she kept hidden away along with her kindness and honesty, all buried beneath a layer of cool indifference. He couldn’t see that brittleness anymore.

“Beg your pardon?” Her laugh tapered off slowly, and she looked at him uncertainly. “I didn’t mean to cause offense.” A spark of mischievousness lit in her blue eyes. “Well, maybe a little offense, but—”

“I’m not offended… Maybe a little offended,” he corrected with humor. “But I wasn’t implying that you’ve changed for the worse. It’s for the better.”

“Oh.” Her lips curved in a small, hesitant smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re happier, aren’t you?”

“I am,” she agreed, and so readily that he could only assume she’d given the matter some thought recently. “I am starting to be.”

“It is nice to see.” It was more than nice. It was something else, something more.

Here, he thought, was the woman he’d caught glimpses of before. The remarkable one who amazed and fascinated him. Only it wasn’t just a glimpse. He remembered her insistence that he wasn’t a hard man and her defense of the little boy. And he wondered now if the traits he admired in her had never been quite as buried or transient as he imagined. Anything could seem like a glimpse, he realized, if one looked away too quickly.

She's a liar.

She's a con.

She's a thief.

And God help him, but he'll do anything to keep her safe.

Beautiful and conniving, maddening and brilliant, Esther is everything private detective Samuel Brass shouldn't want. Esther knows she's put herself in terrible danger, but nothing will stop her from making amends—not her family's enemies, not old fears, and certainly not the domineering, interfering, and undeniably handsome former officer of the Scotland Yard. Yet whenever he's near, Samuel makes her long for a life that can never be hers…and wish she were worthy of being saved.

 

Review - - A Talent for Trickery

A Talent for Trickery

By Alissa Johnson

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: November 3, 2015

Eight years ago, Owen Renderwell was a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard who used one William Walker, an infamous thief, confidence artist, and expert with codes, to help him solve several cases. Walker, acting against instructions, was killed during the rescue of the Duchess of Strale who had been kidnapped along with her diamonds. The successful resolution of the case made public heroes of Renderwell and his two colleagues. Renderwell’s reward included a viscount’s title, and his two friends were knighted for their roles. The three of them now work together as private investigators.  When a coded letter reminiscent of a code Walker used is found at the scene where a brothel owner and known associate of Walker was murdered, Renderwell and his friends become involved in the case.

With Renderwell’s help, Walker’s three children disappeared from London and have since been living under an assumed name at Willowbend House in Norfolk. The eldest, Charlotte, refused further contact with Renderwell whom she holds responsible for her father’s death. For eight years, her loyalty to her father has remained undiminished, and her anger at Renderwell for what she believes was his betrayal of her father has simmered. She knows that she owes the secure life she and her siblings have led to Renderwell’s action in minimizing Walker’s role and removing the Walker children from the city where their father was known, but there is a disconnect between what she knows and what she feels. She is unwavering in her conviction that her father had been redeemed by his work with Renderwell.  She persists in feeling that Renderwell took credit for her father’s courageous act and denied him recognition for becoming someone better than the thief he had been.

Renderwell is aware of Charlotte’s feelings. She rejected every effort he made to communicate with her after Walker was killed, and he eventually accepted that she was unlikely to change her mind. But he needs access to the journals of William Walker and Charlotte’s knowledge of codes to help him decipher the letter found at the murder scene and those left at other crime scenes. When he and his friends show up unannounced at Willowbend House, Charlotte is just as unfriendly as Renderwell expected, but she reluctant agrees to help him. However, she is adamant that her fourteen-year-old brother, who has no knowledge that his father was a thief, remain ignorant of the purpose of the men’s visit.

Charlotte and Renderwell work furtively with Walker’s old journals to break the code used in the letters. Charlotte finds it more and more difficult to keep buried the memories of the friendship she and Owen once enjoyed and of the romantic dreams she built around him. Neither has ever forgotten the other, and their time together renews the old attraction. But with enemies pursuing them and posing a danger to everyone in the house, they have little time to work out their issues. They have to unite to fight an unknown, common enemy and to protect the most vulnerable among them. Only then can their reconciliation lead to a happy and satisfying conclusion.

Writers of romantic suspense have to walk a fine line between two genres to make their novels successful as both romance and suspense. Too often for my taste, the balance is lost and the romance gets short shrift or the suspense plot seems weak. Alissa Johnson gets the balance just right, and she does it so deftly that the reader is scarcely aware of the shifts. 

Charlotte is intelligent, fiercely loyal to those she loves, and stubborn to a fault. She knew her father’s failings all too well, but she needs to believe that he changed just as she needs to believe her brother is still a child who can be shielded from hard truth. Even the reader who wishes she were a bit more yielding in her early response to Owen will understand and sympathize with her choices. Owen is a man of honor and heart, confident of his own abilities and his role with its demands but aware that his feelings for Charlotte leave him vulnerable.

The secondary characters too are superbly drawn. Young Peter won my heart from his first appearance, and Esther, the younger Walker sister, is both a good foil for Charlotte and interesting—and surprising--in her own right. I look forward to her story with high anticipation. Owen’s friends and colleagues too are clearly defined personalities rather than standard-issue sidekicks. And although William Walker is dead when the story begins, he is very much a part of both the romance and the suspense plot and an intriguing character, in every sense of that word.

The summary makes this book sound dark, and it certainly has dark moments. But it also has wit and humor. It is one of those books that satisfy on every level. The characterization is extraordinary, the plot twists keep the reader guessing, and the prose is lucid and precise. Alissa Johnson is a gifted author who deserves to move to the next level. This is her first novel since 2012 and the first in her Thief Takers series. If you like historical romantic suspense, if you are a fan of Victorian settings, or if you just appreciate excellent storytelling, I highly recommend A Talent for Trickery. I’m betting at least some of you will replicate my experience with this author: you will read one book and immediately join the list of readers who find the novels of Alissa Johnson addictive.

~Janga

Review -- Nearly a Lady

Nearly a Lady
By Alissa Johnson
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Release Date: June 7, 2011

Since the age of thirteen, Winnefred Blythe has lived a very secluded and frugal life. Her father passed away and she was left in the “care” of Lord and Lady Engsly. Not wanting the added responsibility, they placed Winnefred and her governess, Lilly Ilestone, at Murdoch House in Enscrum, Scotland...with a measly yearly sum. After twelve years, Winnefred and Lilly have managed to get by with very little. Then one day, Lord Gideon Haverston, brother to the new Lord Engsly, comes to Murdoch House with a revelation that nearly knocks them over.

Gideon is there on behalf of his brother, Lucien, to right a wrong done by their stepmother. Before disappearing, Lady Engsly made up charities and doubled expenses so as to pocket half the funds from causes that did exist (like Winnefred) in order to filter money from the Engsly estate. Gideon is attacked upon his arrival at Murdoch House, but understands under the circumstances—Miss Blythe and Miss Ilestone live alone and aren’t used to strange men coming around. When he explains that they were supposed to have been receiving double their yearly annum—eighty pounds—they then explain that they have only been receiving five pounds a year, and not forty. Gideon is appalled and promises them that they will receive back pay and a bonus as restitution. He then hires a full staff for the house along with buying them decent clothes and food. Knowing that the family owes them that and so much more, he asks if there is anything else they’d like. Lilly immediately asks for a London season for Winnefred. Gideon agrees and states that they both shall have one under the care of his aunt, Lady Gwen. Winnefred is against the idea as she has no idea how to behave like a lady, but Lilly explains that she can teach Winnefred what she needs to know and that she won’t go to London without her. Realizing how much it means to her friend, Winnefred gives in to make Lilly happy.

Lilly tells Gideon that she’ll need three weeks to prepare Winnefred for London. He was hoping for just a couple of days (he promised himself years ago that he would never again be responsible for the welfare of another person), but sees the logic in it. And in those three weeks, despite his trying not to, he gets to really know Winnefred and admires her for being so resilient after all she’s been through. When the group finally arrives in London, Gideon finds it difficult to let Winnefred flirt and dance with other men. Will he be able to get past his demons and claim her for himself?

Nearly a Lady is a delightful historical romance featuring a charmingly headstrong heroine and a classically tortured hero. Gideon was the captain of a ship during the war and has nightmares about what he and his crew went through. He doesn’t want the obligation of taking care of others because he feels like he failed at that in the past. But he comes alive around Winnefred. She touches something inside him.

Whether she was in a complicated ball gown or a simple dress, he was the only man who truly saw her. He knew that beneath the fragile silk was the steel spine of a woman who’d confronted a thief in her stable and beaten him to the ground. He knew that behind the soft smile was the unconquerable will that had kept two women alive on five pounds a year. Well-rehearsed manners hid a brash tongue, and the excuse of a headache would keep quiet the fact she was graceless as a limbering army. Only he knew the simple, wild beauty of her. It was a treasure he wanted to hoard. She was a secret he wanted to keep all to himself.

Winnefred is such a likable heroine. She’s had to be strong for so long, that she is unfamiliar with having someone help her. I enjoyed watching her be spoiled by Gideon. The secondary characters of Lilly, Lucien, Lady Gwen, and an adorable goat named Claire add depth and a touch of humor to the story. If you’re a fan of light-hearted historical romance, Nearly a Lady makes a great summer read!

~Andrea


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