Friday, October 27, 2017

Behind the Scenes by Jen Turano

Series: Apart From the Crowd #1
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Bethany House
Released: April 18, 2017
354 pages
About the Book:
Miss Permilia Griswold may have been given the opportunity of a debut into New York high society, but no one warned her she wasn't guaranteed to "take." After spending the last six years banished to the wallflower section of the ballroom, she's finally putting her status on the fringes of society to good use by penning anonymous society gossip columns under the pseudonym "Miss Quill."
 
Mr. Asher Rutherford has managed to maintain his status as a reputable gentleman of society despite opening his own department store. While pretending it's simply a lark to fill his time, he has quite legitimate reasons for needing to make his store the most successful in the country.

When Permilia overhears a threat against the estimable Mr. Rutherford, she's determined to find and warn the man. Disgruntled at a first meeting that goes quite poorly and results in Asher not believing her, she decides to take matters into her own hands, never realizing she'll end up at risk as well.
As Asher and Permilia are forced to work together and spend time away from the spotlight of society, perhaps there's more going on behind the scenes than they ever could have anticipated. . . .

 

My Rating & Thoughts:    🌟 🌟 🌟  (3 stars)
 
“She was unlike any lady he’d ever known, but instead of wanting to distance himself from her and her peculiar ways, he wanted to learn everything about her because . . . she was charming, enchanting, and he was completely intrigued by her.”
 
I struggled through this book. I liked the main characters, Asher and Permilia, but the story itself moved so slowly that I found my interest wandering.
 
Perimlia is not your typical society woman, being raised mainly by her father in the mines she doesn’t know all the proper social graces she is suppose to follow and as such has become a wallflower. She is able to use this to her advantage and use the information she hears for her gossip column for the newspaper, but this is a job she would like to keep hidden.
Asher does not believe Permilia when she tells him someone wants to kill him, so she takes it upon herself to keep him out of danger. I was intrigued by the idea of a lady trying to protect the man from danger. How was she going to accomplish this when she doesn’t know who is behind the threat? In the end she didn’t really do much to find out who was behind the plot, that was left the agents. Permilia and Asher only find out who the plotter is when he right in front of them with a gun aimed at them.
 
The characters are definitely quirky, the sisters especially. There were some really entertaining moments and some really heart-warming moments, such as when Asher stood up to Ida on behalf of Permilia. But overall I found the story moved too slow for me and contained too much detail about surroundings and explanations. I felt there were scenes include that didn’t really add much to story and could have easily been left out without being missed, or at least shortened. I did really like Asher and enjoyed the romantic ending.  
 
“You won’t find happiness by being anything other
than who you’re really meant to be.”
 
(I purchased my copy of this book; opinions expressed in this review
are my honest opinion and completely my own.)

 Other Books in the Series:
.5 At Your Request 2 Out of the Ordinary

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