3.5 stars
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC. It has not influenced my opinions in any way. This book is on sale now.
Reina Martin is the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish dancer and a prominent banker. She’s an intelligent child and understands early on that her father has another, official family, while Reina and her mother have to be kept secret. Her mother is determined that Reina will have opportunities she never got, and makes sure to hire her tutors who work at the nearby boys’ school. As an adult, Reina successfully gets a law degree, but is prevented from working as a lawyer. She becomes the protegee of wealthy banker William Farlow, and wants to use her financial acumen to open a bank for women, since they are constantly discriminated against at other banks.
John Pembroke is a police detective from Manchester, who is sent on an undercover mission in Reina’s household. London Police suspect William Farlow of embezzling large amounts of his clients’ money, and they are uncertain if Reina is one of his accomplices, or whether she’s one of his pawns. The fact that most of Reina’s household is staffed by paroled criminals doesn’t exactly make her seem less complicit in Farlow’s corruption. Pembroke has a history of domestic service and is therefore the perfect man to send to pretend to be a paroled criminal wanting the position as butler in her household.
Pembroke is both charmed and baffled by Reina, clearly a deeply intelligent and very financially savvy woman, who has absolutely no idea how to get the disparate band of individuals in her household to work together and behave appropriately as servants. The only one who actually knows how to do her job is the cook, who is Reina’s childhood friend. It becomes very clear almost immediately that neither of these former inmates would be good recruits in any kind of criminal conspiracy. However, it’s also very obvious that when the police eventually show up for a routine inspection of the various parolees, Reina’s servants will be sent back to prison immediately.
Pembroke tries to keep a professional distance from Reina, their growing relationship complicated both by their difference in social standing and the fact that Pembroke is there to spy on her, and as a result, has to constantly lie to her. The more time he spends with her, and her household of chaotic misfits, the harder he finds it to be objective.
Full review on my blog.
