Apologies, readers, as I read this book a while ago, forgot to write a review, thought I wrote the review, and am now having to refresh my memory on the whole novel. With that opening sentence, you wouldn\u2019t think I\u2019d be recommending the book to you but, we have to chalk that up to the fact that I read a lot of books, because I really did like this one. I give it four stars and hope that it\u2019s the start of a series!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lady Petra Forsyth lost her fiance tragically, and while society pressures her to finally marry, she\u2019s decided that she can\u2019t find true love twice, so why bother? She has a fortune, an indulgent father, and has decided that the life of a spinster has more advantages than being married to some man who will gamble her money away. Upon her return to London from a stay at her father\u2019s country estate, she hears the sad news that one of her friends passed away. However, one of the footmen swears that he saw the friend just a week ago. Thinking that both things can\u2019t be true, Petra arranges to meet the footman – but he is killed before he can speak to her. Deeply aware that something is wrong, Petra sets out to find the truth of where her friend might be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the main plot of Petra\u2019s investigation is the return of her childhood friend, Duncan. He joined the army immediately after Petra\u2019s fiancee died and never returned any of Petra\u2019s letters. The thread of their reunion is woven throughout the book, with Duncan being a key element and protector. As you know, I am a sucker for mystery-romance, so I really liked this tangent. It added more depth to Petra, which I liked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not that Petra is a shallow character; she is well-rounded and perfectly aware that she\u2019d be a pariah for announcing her spinsterhood if not for the support of the powerful society ladies, who just happen to like her. She\u2019s logical and level-headed: Petra doesn\u2019t need a secondary character to point out the truths of things, and she doesn\u2019t do anything dramatic when she encounters Duncan – just acts like a hurt woman normally would. In short, Petra thinks and acts like a real woman, for the most part. She doesn\u2019t make outlandish assumptions and is logical. I like her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This book has feminist tones, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re overtly or overly stated. I appreciate that Connally used a realistic historical scenario for the mystery and highlighted an actual, scary problem for women of this period. This novel is believable because it could have been\/was real – and that affects me more than anything else could. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord<\/em> makes the reader sympathize and empathize with women\u2019s limited options in Regency England, and it\u2019s couched in a well-written mystery with a sprinkle of romance. At the end, I reflected on how likely of a candidate I would have been for [an unfortunate thing that would spoil the plot], and I hope that male and female readers alike do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All in all, I\u2019d say this was a great example of how to convey a message while being entertaining. Readers follow Petra through a well-plotted mystery, a crisis of conscience, and a budding romance, and they\u2019re left thinking about just how far the treatment of women has come since the 1800\u2019s. I, for one, am so glad I live now when I can wear pants and read without being thought a witch! I certainly doubt I would have been allowed to write a blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh – did I forget to mention the tantalizing cliffhanger at the end??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apologies, readers, as I read this book a while ago, forgot to write a review, thought I wrote the review, and am now having to refresh my memory on the whole novel. With that opening sentence, you wouldn\u2019t think I\u2019d be recommending the book to you but, we have to chalk that up to theContinue reading “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord – Celeste Connally”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[486,33,52,484,157,165,236,283,287,293,296,344,487],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-act-like-a-lady","tag-arc","tag-book-review","tag-celeste-connally","tag-historical-fiction","tag-historical-mystery","tag-london","tag-murder-mystery","tag-mystery","tag-netgalley","tag-new-release","tag-review","tag-think-like-a-lord","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Act-Like-a-Lady-Think-Like-a-Lord.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}