A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
Written by Juliana Gray
Narrated by Nicola Barber
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed Duke of Olympia--and a woman of scrupulous character--Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke's enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown.
An expert on anachronisms, Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete. And from the moment Truelove and Silverton disembark, they are met with incidents of a suspicious nature: a ransacked flat, a murdered government employee, an assassination attempt. As they travel from port to port on Max's trail, piecing together the strange events of the days before his disappearance, Truelove will discover the folly of her misconceptions--about the whims of the heart, the motives of men, and the nature of time itself…
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Reviews for A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
28 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book kind of defies convention, it's historical mystery, splash of romance, paranormal, and time travel. It is also, most definitely, a starter book; we get an introduction to characters and the arc here but you will be left with more questions than answers.
This is labeled as #1 in the series, although there is .5, which I was wishing I had read because for the first 20% of this, I felt hopelessly lost. However, I'm not sure there are elements from the .5 book that would help clue you in for this one. If anyone who has read .5 could give an answer if reading the first would help here, would appreciate the comments.
The paranormal factor (if curious what this is our heroine is haunted/accompanied by Queen Victoria mostly and occasionally her father and maybe her mother) really threw me for a loop, it is never fully explained and felt pretty awkward at times.
I want to say this is more historical mystery and travel with occasional leanings toward attraction, connection, and romance but there is no ending HEA. The story is told in first person from our heroine and she is not a forthcoming narrator about her feelings or past. Our hero is the affable with a sense of hidden depths mystery man that we never fully get to know.
The time travel element is hinted at in the prologue and then you kind of forget about it until towards the end where the beginning arc for it is started.
Look, you will definitely end up with more questions than answers and a sort of HFN(I'm not ever sure I can call it that) as this is more starter book, you'll have to read the next in the series to get answers (hopefully! I haven't read the next yet).
The writing is pretty engaging but I didn't feel the closest to the characters as I said, first person and not forthcoming. I am going to read the next in the series though because the historical mystery (myths and time travel!) has captured my attention. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Set in 1906, British background. Miss Emmeline Truelove was personal secretary to the Duke of Olympia, and at his death she is dispatched to Greece to local the heir, Maximilian Haywood, an expert on anachronisms in the company of Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. Entertaining, although it takes a while to get to the mythology/time travel bit.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emmeline Truelove is in the unusual position, for an Edwardian woman, of being the Duke of Olympia's personal secretary. She's held the post for six years, since the death of her father, who previously held it. The Duke of Olympia is newly dead, his heir is somewhere in the Mediterranean, and the alternative to great-nephew Maximilian Haywood is his younger brother, a dissolute spendthrift.
Haywood has to be found.
The Dowager Duchess asks Miss Truelove to make a trip to Greece to find the heir. She's sending the Marquess of Silverton with her, on the grounds that this seemingly frivolous young man has skills she'll need.
Reluctantly, and over the objections of what seems to be Queen Victoria's ghost, she agrees.
Despite the sometimes steampunk feel of the story, they travel in the Duke's steamship, Isolde, not an airship. Airships are blessedly absent in this story. Over the course of the trip we learn that Truelove thinks of herself as a very conventional, respectable young woman, and also that Silverton is perhaps not wrong in suspecting that there's something more to her than that. We also learn that her own family history has some oddness about it. But that's nothing compared to what she and Silverton find when they start digging into the apparent disappearance of Mr. Haywood, the new Duke of Olympia. The packet the duchess gave her includes pictures of a fresco in which one of the figures appears to be hold a Brownie camera--completely impossible, of course, in a fresco three thousand years old.
Things get stranger and stranger as they arrive at the last site that Haywood worked, meet some of the people that had been around him, and start to follow in his tracks.
And who the heck is Desma, and why does she speak such an odd, unfamiliar Greek dialect?
What the heck is going on here?
After a brief bump at the beginning, which nevertheless proved to be relevant later, I just couldn't stop reading this. Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I am a fan of author, Beatriz William and her historical war time period stories. I was intrigued to check out this new book by Juliana Gray. The pseudonym for Beatriz William. I thought this book was a charming book. Lord Silverton was full of wit. He sure kept the journey fun. Plus, I like that he called Emmeline by her last name Truelove. It was endearing. For the time period I found Truelove to be strong and daring. Silverton and Truelove were cute together. This is fine and I actually would not have had a problem if I had been more focused on the story as a whole. Every once in a while I would find myself actually comprehending and intrigued by the story but for the most part I was half interested. The ending does seem to lead that this will not be the last time that we will see Truelove and Silverton. This book may not have been a favorite of mine but I would read another one by Juliana Gray.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This fantasy novel takes place mainly in 1906, and is about 26-year-old Emmeline Truelove, who is the personal secretary to the Seventh Duke of Olympia, who has just died. The Duke’s widow asks Miss Truelove to go to Crete and help look for the Duke’s heir, Max Haywood, who has been missing since Christmas. Her Grace provides a chaperone for her - Frederick, the Marquess of Silverton.Chapters detailing their journey form Sussex alternate with excerpts from a book dated 1921 by A. M. Haywood called The Book of Time. In these excerpts, we learn about the myth of Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotaur.As the trip progresses, and Truelove and Silverton travel around in search of Max, the two of them grow closer, with a predictable warming of feelings on both parts. But there were obstacles to the relationship too.The situation was further complicated by their uncovering of the secret of Max’s disappearance and why the mythological story was so important.I had to force myself to keep reading this. The plot seemed silly and the writing was way too “campy” for my tastes. Some of the language was bizarre, like when the author wrote:“…his lordship’s eyes shone an especially pungent shade of blue.”Pungent means having a sharply strong taste or smell - pungent?!!!On the other hand, I did enjoy the relationship between Silverton and Truelove. The ending though didn’t ring true, in which Silverton seems to object to something he finds out about Truelove that didn’t seem consistent with his character.I didn’t think the book was*awful,* but it was quite disappointing to me.