Blog Tour (Review): Grace in the Wings by Kari Bovée

New York City, 1920. Grace Michelle has everything she wants: a home, a family, and a future career as a costume designer for famed showman Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.’s Ziegfeld Follies. Pretty good for a girl who once lived on the streets of New York City. But when her sister, Sophia, the star of the show, is murdered, Grace’s safe and protected life is shattered.

Battle-scarred by the war and emotionally scarred by his past, Chet Riker has made it a practice to keep his distance from others; love, after all, leads only to pain. But Chet has a problem–a big one: he’s become indebted to mob-boss Joe Marciano in an attempt to save his estranged mother’s life, and Marciano wants him to pay up or else. Desperate to get the money, he contacts former client Florenz Ziegfeld for work.

Soon, Chet finds himself playing bodyguard for introverted Grace, who has reluctantly agreed to be Ziegfeld’s new leading lady–on the condition that Ziegfeld promises to find Sophia’s killer. Upon meeting Grace, Chet quickly finds his hardened theory that love equals pain tested. Grace, meanwhile, is swept up in a life she never wanted as the Follies’ star, and as the pawn in a series of publicity stunts during a transcontinental train trip to California that puts her life at risk.

Who would want her and Sophia dead? Together, she and Chet must confront publicity-hungry Florenz Ziegfeld, power-driven Joe Marciano, and their own pasts to find Sophia’s killer–and let themselves love once again.

I received a copy of Grace in the Wings For an honest review. What follows is my opinion and mine alone.

What makes a good mystery? Is it the glitzy setting, a spunky sleuth, or just the murders that string the reader along with the plot. For me, Grace in the Wings started off difficult to get going as a read. I attribute that to my busy schedule and general lack of focus lately. That said, once I got over that hump, the story was enjoyable.

There is romance sprinkled into the book but it doesn’t push away from the overall mystery. Though there are moments that might be easy to predict, the writing is good and I wouldn’t be against reading the other two books.

What is great, though, is the setting. I can’t help but think Hercule Poirot is solving his own mysteries while Grace is having adventures of her own.

A good beginning for a new-to-me author (Bovée isn’t a new author). If you want an enjoyable read with mystery and romance, check out Grace in the Wings.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Winner of the 2019 Hillerman Southwest Fiction Award.

Empowered women in history, horses, unconventional characters, and real-life historical events fill the pages of award-winning writer Kari Bovee’s historical mystery musings and manuscripts.

Born in northern New Mexico, Kari developed a love of reading, writing, and history early in life. Her most treasured Christmas gift as a young child was a toy typewriter. After graduating with a B.A. in English Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing, Kari found work as a technical writer at a Fortune 500 tech company. But, her love of story-telling never waned. While staying at home with two young children, Kari wrote her first novel and hasn’t stopped. She and her husband live happily in rural Corrales, New Mexico with their horses, dogs, and cats.