I'm not sure who linked me to the author's website, I know I had read about her on Dear Author sometime before. It might have been Li reading another in the series or DearAuthor talking about the current release in the series... I was totally impressed with her essays about her research and the excerpts I read of the books. Once I had finished this book, I went online right away to buy the follow-up.In any case - if you are a fan of Georgette Heyer's The Spanish Bride - based on the true life diary of Harry and Juana Smith - then the Frasers, Mélanie and Charles, are a look at what might have gone wrong with a war-time decision of a man who never thought he would marry (because of his family background and recent events) offering his hand to support a woman who has impressed him and needs marriage from his point of view (and has no other way of likely survival or acceptance of her circumstances).I find it fascinating the the author writes in various time-frames in the life of this couple - I decided I'd start with the book that seemed to be earliest chronologically - but the new big publisher release Vienna Waltz (which changes the name of the characters because the author is now writing for a different publisher - how stupid can those publishers be to make it MORE difficult to read in a series!!) is set at the Congress in Vienna roughly two or three years earlier.There is no info-dumping or As you know, Bob here: we get allusions to decisions that are not explained in this book, but they all serve to explain where the couple stands now - and then there is the mystery - connected to the family and its past, which is why I really enjoyed this more than many other mysteries which I only read for the interaction of the main sleuths. These revelations all have major repercussions in the life of Melanie and Charles and their loved ones.I'd say this book focuses a lot on Charles' parents and close family, but - as I found out in the follow-up - not even here do we find out everything that actually is buried under the cover of time passing. I loved the supporting gay couple (not sure how likely the tolerance of what they were doing would have been in real life).Another nifty twist was starting the book after the main couple had been married for some years and had two children! Because the Napoleonic Wars are finally over, they return to London - so we and they get introduced in their current form to the British ton and their family - what there is of that.The dialogue and the characterisation just work. Really enjoyable for the intrigues and layers of misdirection and the teamwork and problematic relationship between Melanie and Charles.
What a fantastic book! THere was a wonderful mystery here which slowly built over the course of the whole book. So many secrets were uncovered it was almost dizzying. I love how twisted and convulated the plot is. I ached to see how distant Melanie and Charles felt, and how seperate Charles held himself from Melanie. I really hope that they begin to reconcile in the next book and open up to each other. Hints of a coming rapproachment were given at the end of this book.I'm a very fast reader, which is a pain when I go on vacation, because it takes so many books to get through a trip. Thank goodness there are now eReaders! These books are dense enough that it takes me a little while to work my way thtough them, but the intrigue and the mystery is excellent enough to keep me captivated all the way though. I waited until I read Beneath a Silent Moon, my 2nd book by Tracy Grant, after finishing Secrets of a Lady. With 2 of hers under my belt, I decided these are worthy of being books I will be happy to own and keep, and are good vacation books, so I bought all the rest of her books for my ereader last night. Now I have to wait until I go on vacation to read them though- ugh! I want to start reading the next one right away instead.
Do You like book Beneath A Silent Moon (2015)?
The characters of Melanie and Charles Fraser have some the best "on page" chemistry that I have ever read, not being bogged down in overly maudlin sentiment and drama instead they have this rather intense vibe that simmers slowly throughout. Strangely enough the action in this second installment actually takes place about 3 years before the events in the first book so you actually get to see Melanie and Charles relationship before the big reveal that occurs in the first story. Once I got past this minor literary hiccup I thoroughly enjoyed the events that slowly unfolded, although there were moments when the numerous past romantic liaisons being revealed got to be a bit of a quagmire. The Frasers and the Talbots perfectly exemplify the saying " mo money mo problems".
—Foggygirl
The second book in the series (by publication date) actually occurs prior to the events in the 1st book. Charles and Melanie are in London, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and Melanie is being introduced to the family and society of her husband. She meets the woman that everyone expected Charles to marry, Honoria, and everyone is shocked when Charles' father announces his engagement to her. Further intrigue involves a message from a former war collegue, who is shot and killed at their clandestine meeting. They head to the old family home in Scotland, with several related/close families, where Charles' father tells him that he plans to break the family entail and leave the cherished Scottish estate to the first son of his new wife. When Honoria ends up dead and in a compromising position. The family intend to solve the murder internally, and Charles is asked to take the lead. What he and Melanie uncover is a very tangled nest of interlocking scandal and intrigue that they must unravel to find the killer. The family tree at the beginning of the book is very helpful in keeping the relationships between the characters sorted out. This was a mix of murder mystery and high society impropriety in the atmospheric air of Scotland.
—Michelle
Despite some very anachronistic language (did people really say "setup" and "breast-feeding" in England in 1817? I highly doubt this!) and some oddities of setting (did they play cricket in the Highlands of Scotland? Also doubt this!) as well as some far-too-modern attitudes from her characters (though they do remark on their odd behavior themselves, so kudos for that), Tracy Grant's Beneath a Silent Moon is a cut above most of the Regency romances I've read (not least because there's an actual plot that doesn't just involve whether the lady will win/keep the love of the man - although there's definitely some of that!) Mélanie, the heroine, reminds me a lot of Teresa Moreno from the "Sharpe" TV series, though Charles Fraser, her husband, sadly doesn't resemble Sean Bean at all! But the mystery is intriguing, the family dynamics positively Jacobean, and the two central characters (and the depiction of family life) are winning! I'm looking forward to reading Secrets of a Lady (which was published first, though it comes chronologically after Beneath a Silent Moon and so I preferred to read in the order in which things occurred in the characters' lives.)
—Bibliophile
