2022 New Release challenge
ARC Review: Unmasking the Thief (Pleasure Garden #5) by Mary Lancaster
14:00
Unmasking the Thief
Series: Pleasure Garden #5
Author: Mary Lancaster
Published April 28th 2022 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Goodreads Synopsis
Thief or gentleman, he is uniquely dangerous!
Governess Matty Mather has grown to love her pupils of the Dove family. When a borrowed ring is stolen from Catherine Dove and her friend, now in their first London Season, the redoubtable Matty goes alone to Maida Pleasure Gardens to confront the thief – who turns out to be outrageous, charming and utterly mysterious.
Francisco de Salgado has been long employed by the British government to take care of insoluble problems, both home and abroad. Returning to England to resign before he loses his soul entirely, he accepts one final mission that he regards as both foolish and beneath him. Making a rare mistake, he returns to Maida to right it – only to be faced with a severe young woman demanding he return the ring he stole.
So begins an attraction that is both unwise and irresistible. Mutual suspicion dissolves eventually into an alliance to discover who is behind a plot to overthrow the British government and why. And the eventual solution will involve several old friends from the previous Pleasure Garden books.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Miss Matty Mather loves being a governess for the Dove family, so much so that she is willing to go to Maida Gardens, risking her reputation, to help her charges. There, she meets the mysterious Francisco de Salgado, the thief who stole the opal ring she is looking for, and there's more to him than meets the eye. Francisco has been involved in many things, from Spain, to England, and even further afield, but he's ready to retire. For his final job, he's tasked with discovering who is plotting against the government, and stop them before it's too late. Crossing paths with Matty, though sh'es very much not involved in the case, it seems she might be close to the villain, and Francisco can't help but be drawn to her.
This is the final book in the Pleasure Garden series, and I really felt as if it tied up a lot of loose ends. We see many of the couples from previous books, and Matty and Francisco were good characters in their own right. Matty was from a respectable family, but after her father died, and she was jilted, she became a governess, and had a great position with the Dove family. However, her family - recently come into some money, and her sister engaged to her former partner - want her to return to them, and stop being an embarrassment as a governess. She really doesn't want that, and meeting Francisco has shown her that she doesn't have to be beholden to them. Francisco has always been a mysterious character, and we learn a lot about his background, which makes sense with what we already know. I liked his character arc, and the epilogue really tied up the whole series well for me. A fitting end to the series.
Dates Read:
August 15-17, 2022
Rating
3 Stars
Series: Pleasure Garden #5
Author: Mary Lancaster
Published April 28th 2022 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Goodreads Synopsis
Thief or gentleman, he is uniquely dangerous!
Governess Matty Mather has grown to love her pupils of the Dove family. When a borrowed ring is stolen from Catherine Dove and her friend, now in their first London Season, the redoubtable Matty goes alone to Maida Pleasure Gardens to confront the thief – who turns out to be outrageous, charming and utterly mysterious.
Francisco de Salgado has been long employed by the British government to take care of insoluble problems, both home and abroad. Returning to England to resign before he loses his soul entirely, he accepts one final mission that he regards as both foolish and beneath him. Making a rare mistake, he returns to Maida to right it – only to be faced with a severe young woman demanding he return the ring he stole.
So begins an attraction that is both unwise and irresistible. Mutual suspicion dissolves eventually into an alliance to discover who is behind a plot to overthrow the British government and why. And the eventual solution will involve several old friends from the previous Pleasure Garden books.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Miss Matty Mather loves being a governess for the Dove family, so much so that she is willing to go to Maida Gardens, risking her reputation, to help her charges. There, she meets the mysterious Francisco de Salgado, the thief who stole the opal ring she is looking for, and there's more to him than meets the eye. Francisco has been involved in many things, from Spain, to England, and even further afield, but he's ready to retire. For his final job, he's tasked with discovering who is plotting against the government, and stop them before it's too late. Crossing paths with Matty, though sh'es very much not involved in the case, it seems she might be close to the villain, and Francisco can't help but be drawn to her.
This is the final book in the Pleasure Garden series, and I really felt as if it tied up a lot of loose ends. We see many of the couples from previous books, and Matty and Francisco were good characters in their own right. Matty was from a respectable family, but after her father died, and she was jilted, she became a governess, and had a great position with the Dove family. However, her family - recently come into some money, and her sister engaged to her former partner - want her to return to them, and stop being an embarrassment as a governess. She really doesn't want that, and meeting Francisco has shown her that she doesn't have to be beholden to them. Francisco has always been a mysterious character, and we learn a lot about his background, which makes sense with what we already know. I liked his character arc, and the epilogue really tied up the whole series well for me. A fitting end to the series.
Dates Read:
August 15-17, 2022
Rating
3 Stars
