A Most Peculiar Circumstance

Title: A Most Peculiar Circumstance (Audio)

Series: Ladies of Distinction #2

Author: Jen Turano

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Genre: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Humor

Source: Library

My review:

While A Most Peculiar Circumstance can be read as a stand-alone novel, I highly recommend reading Turano's first book in the series, A Change of Fortune. Most of the characters in this book were introduced in the first book.

Why you felt it was imperative for me to leave my house in a traveling trunk is still beyond me. You did see Zayne and Hamilton drop it, didn't you?

Entertaining and saucy. That is how I would describe this book and the ladies in it. I love that they are not demure, do as they are told types, but independent with a mind of their own.

Yes, I could tell they were dreadfully sorry, especially with all the laughter I heard through the one air hole someone considerately remembered to provide. I think gentlemen in general are deranged.

I loved the humor and the situations that the ladies often found themselves in when I read the first book and I am happy to say that it continues in this one. Lots of humor, great dialogue, and a few mysteries to keep the story moving. 

"I say, you look smashing this evening," Zayne strode over to her, took her arm, and began helping her up the walk, "That is a lovely gown, and what is the color of the hair you're currently sporting?” 

I love that Arabella and Theodore go from enemies to friends, to more, but it takes more than a hot second for them to get there and it is a very rocky road. There is time to build a friendship and have depth to it.

There was so much to love about this story. A great cast of characters, lots of humor, great dialogue, character growth, depth, mystery and intrigue, and so much more. I could see this book making a great movie. 

★★★★/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

Miss Arabella Beckett has one driving passion: to help the downtrodden women of America. Naturally, she supports the women's suffrage movement and eagerly attends rallies and lectures across the country. On her travels, she makes a simple offer of assistance to a young woman in need that goes sadly awry and lands both ladies in more trouble than they can manage. An independent sort, Arabella is loath to admit she needs help and certainly doesn't need help from an arrogant, narrow-minded knight in shining armor.

Mr. Theodore Wilder, private investigator extraordinaire, is on a mission. A mission that began as a favor to his good friend Hamilton Beckett, but swiftly evolved into a merry chase across the country. By the time he finally tracks down Hamilton's sister, Arabella, he is in a less than pleasant mood. When the lady turns out to have radical ideas and a fiercely independent streak, he soon finds himself at his wit's end.

When they return home to New York, circumstances force their paths to continue to cross, but the most peculiar feelings growing between them certainly can't be love. When the trouble Arabella had accidentally stirred up seems to have followed her to New York and threatens her very life, the unlikely couple must face the possibility that they might have landed in the most peculiar circumstance of all: love.