Title: The Lady and the Highwayman
Author: Sarah M. Eden
Series: Proper Romance #2
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Pages: 384
Book Source: NetGalley
“Elizabeth Black is the headmistress of a girls school in 1865s Victorian London. She is also a well-respected author of silver-fork novels, stories written both for and about the upper-class ladies of Victorian society. But by night, she writes very different kinds of stories–the Penny Dreadfuls that are all the rage among the working-class men. Under the pseudonym Charles King, Elizabeth has written about dashing heroes fighting supernatural threats, intelligent detectives solving grisly murders, and dangerous outlaws romancing helpless women. They contain all the adventure and mystery that her real life lacks.
Fletcher Walker began life as a street urchin, but is now the most successful author in the Penny Dreadful market, that is until Charles King started taking all of his readers. No one knows who King is, including Fletcher s fellow members of the Dread Penny Society, a fraternity of authors dedicated to secretly fighting for the social and political causes of their working-class readers. The group knows King could be an asset with his obvious monetary success, or he could be the group’s undoing as King s readership continues to cut into their profits.
Determined to find the elusive Mr. King, Fletcher approaches Miss Black. As a fellow-author, she is well-known among the high-class writers; perhaps she could be persuaded to make some inquiries as to Mr. King’s whereabouts? Elizabeth agrees to help Fletcher, if only to insure her secret identity is never discovered. What neither author anticipated was the instant attraction, even though their social positions dictate the impossibility of a relationship.
For the first time Elizabeth experiences the thrill of a cat-and-mouse adventure reminiscent of one of her own novels as she tries to throw Fletcher off her scent. But the more time they spend together, the more she loses her heart. Its upper-class against working-class, author against author where readers, reputations, and romance are all on the line.” – Amazon
Jessica’s Review
Where to begin.
The book was “meh” for me. Not terrible, but not awesome either. This was another book in which I was branching out. After reading the synopsis I thought it sounded interesting and would be a good mix to throw into my typical thriller/suspense rotation.
My co-creator, Kim, from our podcast Books Don’t Review Themselves, and I both agreed the book was a little long for the story. It could have been brought down to maybe 200ish pages and quite frankly, that could very well have added a star in both our opinions.
The story itself was enjoyable but quite repetitive in the sense that Elizabeth is from a higher class and the fact she writes Penny Dreadfuls needs to remain a secret and how Fletcher began life amongst the impoverished lower class.
The author intertwined Penny Dreadfuls into the story which I know many people enjoyed, but for me was a little confusing at times. I would have preferred to read the Penny Dreadfuls on their own or even reading them intertwined, but still having them as a stand-alone at the end of the book so you could read them uninterrupted.
I would recommend this book if this type of story plot excites you or you are a previous fan of the author. This is my first Sarah M. Eden book and this story plot is not something that typically excites me so overall “meh” is the best I could give the book.
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