Archives for July 2, 2015

Belinda’s Book Nook Review: Secrets of Sloane House by Shelley Gray

SloaneHouse

Title: Secrets of Sloane House
Author: Shelley Gray
Copyright: July 29th 2014
Genre: fiction, mystery
Format: audio book  Narrator: Tavia Gilbert Pages: 352

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

One woman’s search for the truth of her sister’s disappearance leads her to deceit and danger in 1893 Chicago.

Rosalind Perry has left her family’s rural farm in Wisconsin to work as a housemaid at Sloane House, one of the most elegant mansions in Gilded Age Chicago. However, Rosalind is not there just to earn a living and support her family-she’s at Sloane House determined to discover the truth about her sister’s mysterious disappearance.

Reid Armstrong is the handsome heir to a silver fortune. However, his family is on the periphery of Chicago’s elite because their wealth comes from “new money” obtained from successful mining. Marriage to Veronica Sloane would secure his family’s position in society-the lifelong dream of his ailing father.

When Reid begins to realize that Rosalind’s life may be in danger, he stops thinking of marriage prospects and concentrates on helping Rosalind. Dark things are afoot in Chicago and, he fears, in Sloane House. If he’s not vigilant, Rosalind could pay the price.

Set against the backdrop of Chicago’s Gilded Age and the 1893 World’s Fair, Secrets of Sloane House takes us on a whirlwind journey of romance and mystery.

My Thoughts:

I stumbled across this book on Overdrive and loved the sound of the audio sample. One of the characters sounded like Mrs. Hughes or Mrs. Patmore from Downton Abbey. I am not saying the book was anything like the show just the accents were familiar and I liked the summary for the story. It seemed like the perfect audio book for work.

Tavia Gilbert is the narrator and I thoroughly enjoyed her narration. Here is a little bit more about her:

Tavia Gilbert is an award-winning narrator with 300 audiobooks under her belt. Contemporary and literary fiction, biography and memoir, fantasy, romance, children’s literature, science, religion…Tavia’s range of genres is a direct result of her intuitive interpretation, clever diction and pacing, and sensitivity to each author’s or publisher’s needs. She makes her home in Brooklyn, where she produces, directs, and narrates audiobooks and full-cast recordings. taviagilbert.com

I enjoyed the story of this girl posing as a housemaid to find out what happened to her sister. It was fun trying to figure out who did it. I had just finished a summer reading book with Apollo entitled, “Mr. Ferris and His Wheel” about American inventor George Ferris and how he defied the odds to invent the Ferris Wheel in time for the 1893 World Fair in Chicago.  I did not know much about him myself even though I have ridden many Ferris wheels. So it was really cool to find that my audio book was set in the same time at the World Fair.  I grinned like I knew a little secret when the main character took her first ride on the Ferris Wheel.

The story gave a glimpse of the servants life as well as the upper class that they served while still focusing on the main plot of the story.

I found myself engrossed in the story from time to time waiting to see what would happen. I am definitely going to check out more books narrated by the narrator. It made the experience so much fun.

I would give this book 4 butterflies. Check it out if you are need of a good audio book.

4rating

Happy Reading!

Belinda

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