Roses Are Deceiving: A Gothic Mystery in the Tradition of Victoria Holt

by B.J. Conner

The mysterious disappearance of Lady Kathyrn Pendul has Scotland Yard baffled and left without evidence against the only suspect, her husband, Sir Royden. In a desperate attempt to gain evidence, Inspector Wesley persuades Elizabeth Courtland, under the guise of a governess, to enter into Sir Roydens household, and act as a spy. Beth, a young lady of independent means and self-proclaimed spinster, a rarity in Victorian England, was ready for a change and the lure of the unknowns she would face at Pendmore Estate intrigued her. Beth quickly becomes embroiled in the familys affairs and not only finds herself the victim of a sinister plot of murder and deceit, but realizes that she has succumbed to that absurd notion called love.

Genres: Gothic, Historical Romance

268 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2001

Reviews

[Oksana]

This was.... interesting to say the least. Bad grammar, poor spelling and a dense plot. Too many names and a confusing spiral of a story. I understand what the author was trying to do, but it was not well executed. Props for trying. In the end, I had to skip ahead and read the very end to get this over with.

[Jan]

This book was indeed in the tradition of Victoria Holt but could not quite match her excellence, however I really enjoyed this book. I have long craved to read something in this genre and this author did that for me.It was reading pleasure.

[Michelle]

For the story, definitely 4 or 5 stars. For the actual writing (or maybe I should say, the editing), 2 stars. The story was intriguing, and hard to put down. I was kept guessing on the who-dun-it, right up to nearly the end. However, I cringed a bit, and totally left the groove of the story every time I found a typo, an incorrect tense, a grammatical error, a new paragraph started in the middle of a sentence. I mean seriously, it's awful editing.

[AndPeggy]

The writing and editing leave much to be desired and the heroine does little in the way of solving the mystery. The ending is abrupt and the revelation feels clunky.

[Kathy]

Predictable

A little too predictable for my liking. The ending especially seemed to drag. I even dozed off a couple of times.

[Karen]

This book needs a better editor. I also feel like if you’re going to do 3rd person with one character the whole time, don’t just randomly jump into 3rd person with another character in the middle of a chapter. It’s jarring and frustrating. The romance was stilted and not believable, and the mystery was easily solved. For a moment right at the end I got slightly excited that this was going to suddenly be a lesbian romance, but then it was ruined. I think if I recall correctly (it was a very unmemorable book) that there were things that would be written about that would contradict things that had been written before. Again, I have already forgotten a lot of the book so there’s that.

[Katherine Brown]

it was a very good book. It had romance, intrigue, mystery and some adventure. it reminded me very much of The King of the Castle by Victoria Holt, which I read next. I have read Roses Are Deceiving 3 times. That's how good it is.

[Leslie]

I forced myself to finish this book just to see if there were any redeeming features about the plot. As it turned out, it was pretty standard for this type of book, but any enjoyment I might have gotten from it was eclipsed by the perfect awfulness of the writing. This was not just a matter of typos, but of appalling grammar, particularly independent clauses strung together with commas as well as incorrect tenses. (Example: "'I merely wish to explore this house, who knows what I might discover, perhaps some evidence we need,' he stated bluntly." And: "One thing was for certain Royden was not alone in this disturbing scheme. Perhaps he believes that she had found out something about Katherine that he did not want anyone to know.") Authors, if you have written a story or book and are anything less than perfectly sure of your English skills, please have someone knowledgeable read it over and correct your errors. Even if you are an English major, it should be proofread by someone who knows what he or she is doing.

The characters, at least Beth, the protagonist, and Lona, the child whose governess she becomes, weren't too bad and I particularly liked Lona (she gets the second star), but the others were completely two-dimensional and the much of the dialogue was stilted, unbelievable, and at times anachronistic. I particularly cringed when Lona told Beth that the young doctor had "a crush" on her.

I hate to be harsh, but I feel that this book was a complete waste of my time (admittedly, partly my own fault) and money.

[Judy Tolley]

If you want a true Gothic mystery, this is a good one. I didn't know until the very end "who dunnit". The story starts off with Elizabeth who is asked to be a governess for man suspected of killing his wife. I won't give away the story but as a governess, you do like "Beth" and it seems like she has many suspects. A good and easy read.

[Sarah]

I wanted to give this book 3/5 stars, but was so distracted by all the typos that I had to knock t down a star. I enjoyed most of the book, but while the end was somewhat surprising, the writing was forced. Worth reading.. Needs editing

[Reeny]

The book is everything, I had expected it to be. I had been longing to read this book for two years,now I am reading it.

[Hafiza]

Good Gothc- 1 star deducted for lackluster romantic pay off at the end.

[Cheryl Duncan]

I liked this story. It was nice to read a good mystery and clean!!