By now, you’ll have seen that I’ve reviewed a few of Lady Emily’s adventures by Tahsa Alexander. I don’t want to review every book in a series because that would get monotonous, so I’m just trying to take a deeper look at those that speak to me. A Terrible Beauty definitely spoke to me, but it didn’t have the things to say that I thought it would.
This book takes place on Emily’s beloved island of Santorini in Greece, where she and her husband have brought a few friends in order for the Duke of Bainbridge to help heal his broken heart (if you’d like to know the story behind that, read The Adventuress, the novel immediately prior to this one). Emily’s first husband left her his Greek villa upon his death, and it is the perfect place to relax and to grieve a lost love. That is, until Emily’s first husband returns, very much alive, trying to outrun antiquities thieves.
As you may guess, the story revolves largely around Emily’s feelings for her first husband, Philip, and how she must handle him returning both legally and emotionally. It isn’t every day that your dead husband declares his undying love for you and accepts your marriage to his best friend. All in all, this book is fraught with emotional tension as readers struggle between wondering if Philip is who he says he is, hoping that he is who he says he is, hoping that he is not who he says he is, and thinking about the love and life that Emily and Colin have spent years building together.
The storyline really surprised me as it didn’t totally have Alexander’s usual multilayered elements of surprise. It was still a well-crafted plot, but I was (and am) pretty much over Philip after the first three books in the series. I mourned with Emily, accepted with Emily, and moved on with Emily. I didn’t really care to have it all kicked back up – as I expect she wouldn’t have, either!
I will end my review here as to not give anything away to future readers. I feel that if I say any more that I will use a word that will accidentally give away the entire ending! I am looking forward to a more intriguing plot line in the next novel. However, it has been a long time since Emily has had a feelings-based book and it’s nice to get to know her that way again. Her life has been going unusually smoothly (as smoothly as Emily’s life can ever go) throughout the past few novels.