All’s Fair in Love and Treachery by Celeste Connally

Item: All's Fair in Love and Treachery
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted October 21, 2024 by karenbaron in Historical Fiction, Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

All's Fair in Love and Treachery

by Celeste Connally

Series: Lady Petra Inquires #2
Series Rating:

Published by Minotaur Books on November 12, 2024
Setting: 1815 London, England
Genres: Historical Mystery
Pages: 320
Format: Audible Audiobook, Hardcover, Kindle
Source: NetGalley
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord

Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in this dazzling next installment in a captivating Regency-era mystery series with a feminist spin.

21 June, 1815. London may be cheering the news of Napoleon’s surrender at Waterloo, but Lady Petra Forsyth has little to celebrate after discovering that the death of her viscount fiancé three years earlier was no accident. Instead, it was murder, and the man responsible is her handsome, half-Scottish secret paramour Duncan Shawcross―yet the scoundrel has disappeared, leaving only a confusing riddle about long-forgotten memories in his wake.

So what’s a lady to do when she can’t hunt down her traitorous lover? She concentrates on a royal assignment instead. Queen Charlotte has tasked Petra with attending an event at the Asylum for Female Orphans and making inquiries surrounding the death of the orphanage’s matron. What’s more, there may be a link between the matron’s death and a group of radicals with ties to the aristocracy, as evidenced by an intercepted letter.

Then, Petra overhears a nefarious conversation with two other men about a plot to topple the monarchy, set to take place during three days of celebrations currently gripping London.

As the clock counts down and London’s streets teem with revelers, Petra’s nerves are fraying as her past and present collide. Yet while all’s fair in love and war, she can never surrender, especially when more orphaned girls may be in trouble. And to save their lives, the monarchy itself, and even her own heart, Lady Petra must face her fears with the strength of an army of soldiers and fight with the heart of a queen.

All’s Fair in Love and Treachery by Celeste Connally allows Lady Petra to realize that things aren’t as they seem.

Can Lady Petra focus on her royal assignment? Or could the two cases be connected?

Lady Petra gains a critical piece of information from her last mystery, and she can’t believe her eyes when it reveals that Duncan Shawcross might have killed her, believing Emerson. Petra has a lot of puzzle pieces that she has to sort through. I love how Petra can put the puzzle pieces together in her head as she gets more of them throughout the book. Petra is a sensible character who solves a case by getting people to talk to her. Lady Petra goes through the wringer of emotions as she tries to figure everything out, and I believe this was a good way for her to finally put her past to rest with Emerson.

The Mysteries

Lady Petra finds out that Emerson was murdered before being pushed down the stairs three years earlier. Now, she has to solve the death of the matron of the Asylum for Female Orphans since the Queen thinks radicals are up to no good with the orphanage. Petra needs the help of her friends to solve these cases. They find a lot of clues, and Petra starts to connect them. I have to say that I thought Emerson might still be alive for a minute there. Ms. Connally had me stumped on this one for quite a while.

Five Stars

Lady Petra, Duncan Shawcross, and the rest of their friends have successfully stopped the radicals while solving two cases simultaneously. My rating for All’s Fair in Love and Treachery by Celeste Connally is five stars. If you love the Regency era with some mystery, you should try this series! Ms. Connally has written a fabulous set of characters, and I can’t wait to see what her next case will be about.

Lady Petra Inquires

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of All’s Fair in Love and Treachery by Celeste Connally.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

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About Celeste Connally

Celeste Connally is an Agatha Award nominee, and a former freelance writer and editor. Along with the Lady Petra Inquires Regency-set mysteries, she also writes the Ancestry Detective cozy mystery series as S.C. Perkins. A lifelong devotee of historical novels and adaptations fueled by her passion for history—plus weekly doses of PBS Masterpiece—Celeste loves reading and writing about women from the past who didn’t always do as they were told.

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