Lost in Shadow

Nethercott Tales #1

by Jocelyn Kelley

When a ghost reveals that he was murdered by Lord Bannatyne and demands that she travel to London to protect his beloved, Jade Nethercott must decide whether to heed the ghost's warning or follow her heart when Lord Bannatyne comes to her rescue.

Genres: Romance, Historical

283 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 3, 2007

About the author

In spite of being raised to play well with others, Jocelyn Kelley has always believed every woman needs to kick some butt sometimes. She learned this in third grade when the boys played soldiers and tried to relegate her to a non-combatant role. Soon she was taking the hill (or at least the playground tree) with them. Her assumption that women could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with men continued when she was offered a Direct Commission to the US Army and served as the first and only woman in her unit.

Jocelyn's been writing “stories” all her life, and, when she decided to write for publication, she wanted to write what she read – historical romance. Why historicals? She explains it as, “I want my heroine to be able to pick up a weapon and use it without having to fill out reams of paperwork as she would in contemporary times. She might not use that weapon, but I want to give her the option to do so.” In other words, a kick-butt heroine.

She found the kick-butt heroines she wanted to write with The Ladies of St. Jude's Abbey series that came to life in her mind while she was walking through Times Square in NYC, Since then, she's written four books in the series. In July 2007, she begins a new series – The Nethercott Tales – the stories of the three Nethercott sisters, who in Regency England are trying to prove that their father's lifelong search for ghosts wasn't in vain. But they never expect that the ghosts will help them stop a murderer or end a thousand year old curse.

In her non-writing life, Jocelyn loves to travel and enjoys music. She was a soloist with a local group of Up With People, but limits her singing now to when nobody else is around.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three children.

Reviews

[Lexie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly this book ended in a way completely different from how I thought it would. I thought something was a little fishy, but the truth of Sir Mitchell Renshaw’s murder was far more insidious then I imagined.

The book itself is otherwise a fairly typical historical romance between relative strangers. Despite his indecent proposals towards Jade I don’t think Lord Bannetyne was as dissolute as his reputation warranted (rumors and otherwise) and his actions only prove his rakishness is a ruse. His and Jade’s relationship can only be described as ‘tempestuous’ and heated, passion from their attraction to each other only further igniting their own argumentative behaviors.

I was more interested in Jade’s sisters then Bannatyne’s shrill shrew of a sister and thought only better of him as he tried to make them feel at ease within his home.

In the end I enjoyed this book, but it didn’t excite me as much as I had hoped.

[JoReads · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm really happy that's over, the story is ridiculous, and it doesn't get better at the end... It actually gets worse (which I didn't think it was possible). The ending did not shock me either... I had thought it would end something like that... I'm glad I have finally finished this book... I really don't know how I made it though that torture...