I loved this. Quirky, charming, full of humor, mythology, and adventure against the regimented backdrop of Edwardian society. A heroine of decided talents and opinions, a frivolous companion of unexpected depth, ghosts (...or hallucinations...but what does it matter?), a soupçon of romance, and a duke lost amidst the Aegean Islands.

It's the kind of book that defies easy categorization but suits all my reader's sweet spots right down to the ground. I can't wait to see what adventures await Miss Truelove in future books. ( )

Talk about a book that couldn't make up its mind about genre it wanted to be... ( )

Wow, this book was riveting! I would have rated it five stars, but it lost a little of its appeal toward the end, with the time travel aspect and Silverton sleeping with the Greek landlady, while supposedly in love with the heroine. It also ended with the relationship between H and h in the air. I look forward to reading more from this author. 4/5 stars ( )

This 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. ( )

Emmeline 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. ( )