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meganbmooreSet a year after Consequences of Sin, Ursula’s relationship with Wrotham is at a standstill, and she’s struggling to maintain both her father’s business and her active status in the suffragette movement. On vacation in Egypt, her friend, Katya, is killed in her presence. Before that can be resolved, she receives word that one of her factories has burned down, and that one of her workers died in the fire. Later, she not only learns that the girl, Arina, was Katya’s sister, but also that her former Bolshevik lover is involved.
I’ll give you a minute to get over facepalming at the sheer coincidence of Ursula’s friend who died in her presence having a sister who died in her factory.
Are you through yet? Nonono, don’t pause to think about how the sisters were apparently fairly close, but had such disparate social statuses.
So, thanks to the plot contrivance to have Ursula involved with both murders, the mystery plotline didn’t quite work for me. I did, however like the details with Ursula trying to be a rich heiress running her father’s business in 1911, and how it wasn’t easy, or encouraged, and I liked that Winifred’s role was expanded beyond just being the flaky lesbian BFF who partied too much, not to mention all the “war is coming” bits (I can’t help it, I have little interest in actual WWI and WWII stories, but I love stories surrounding them). I was liking the standoff between Ursula and Wrotham-his position demands a proper British wife, she demands her independence and crusades, and a compromise is not to be had-but didn’t care for how it turned out.
A couple spoilery complaints:
1. Why did we have to go the “appreciate the new boyfriend by making the old boyfriend bad” route? Ursula already knew that not only was Wrotham the better choice, but also that Alexei was just a bad choice in general. We didn’t need the “lets her guard down and trusts him only to get betrayed” bit. And why did that and Wrotham’s “I can’t take it anymore!” huff make her decide marriage was suddenly OK? I guess they’ve reached the point where Wrothan won’t interfere in her involvement in running her factories and her suffragette activities, but it was handled a bit too tidily to me.
2. Why haven’t we outgrown “villain explains mater plan to captured hero” as a popular fictional trope yet? Though at least Ursula had long since figured out who it was.
I’ll give you a minute to get over facepalming at the sheer coincidence of Ursula’s friend who died in her presence having a sister who died in her factory.
Are you through yet? Nonono, don’t pause to think about how the sisters were apparently fairly close, but had such disparate social statuses.
So, thanks to the plot contrivance to have Ursula involved with both murders, the mystery plotline didn’t quite work for me. I did, however like the details with Ursula trying to be a rich heiress running her father’s business in 1911, and how it wasn’t easy, or encouraged, and I liked that Winifred’s role was expanded beyond just being the flaky lesbian BFF who partied too much, not to mention all the “war is coming” bits (I can’t help it, I have little interest in actual WWI and WWII stories, but I love stories surrounding them). I was liking the standoff between Ursula and Wrotham-his position demands a proper British wife, she demands her independence and crusades, and a compromise is not to be had-but didn’t care for how it turned out.
A couple spoilery complaints:
1. Why did we have to go the “appreciate the new boyfriend by making the old boyfriend bad” route? Ursula already knew that not only was Wrotham the better choice, but also that Alexei was just a bad choice in general. We didn’t need the “lets her guard down and trusts him only to get betrayed” bit. And why did that and Wrotham’s “I can’t take it anymore!” huff make her decide marriage was suddenly OK? I guess they’ve reached the point where Wrothan won’t interfere in her involvement in running her factories and her suffragette activities, but it was handled a bit too tidily to me.
2. Why haven’t we outgrown “villain explains mater plan to captured hero” as a popular fictional trope yet? Though at least Ursula had long since figured out who it was.