Review: A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray

Title: A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
Author: Juliana Gray
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: October 4, 2016
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "As the personal secretary of the recently departed Duke of Olympia—and a woman of good character—Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected to be steaming through the Mediterranean on a luxuriously appointed yacht under the watchful and jovial eye of one Lord Silverton. But here they are, as improper as it is, on a quest to find the duke’s heir, whereabouts unknown.

An expert on anachronisms, the adventurous Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete. And when Truelove and Silverton disembark, they are met with incidents of a violent nature: a ransacked flat, a murdered government employee, an assassination attempt. And as they steam from port to port on Max’s trail, dodging danger at every turn, Truelove will discover the folly of her misconceptions—about the whims of the heart, the desires of men, and the nature of time itself..."

My Two Cents:

In "A Most Extraordinary Pursuit" is the story of Emma Truelove. She is a very traditional woman who is interested in maintaining her appearance as a fine, upstanding woman. After the Duke of Olympia dies, his secretary Emma is forced to go to Greece in order to find his heir. Lord Silverton, a  guy who doesn't seem to take himself too seriously and seems to think that there may be something more to Emma hiding under her prim and proper exterior. Emma seems to think that he might just be a bother on this journey but understands that a woman must be accompanied wherever she goes!

This is a new historical fiction by Juliana Gray, a new pen name for well-known histfic writer Beatriz Williams. I have read a lot of Williams' books and really enjoyed them. I was anxious to see what this book was like. This book has more mysteries than Williams' other books. Haywood, the heir to Olympia, has disappeared without a trace. Emma and Silverton discover many clues that they have to put together in order to figure out where he might have gone.

The writing of the book was good. The relationship between Emma and Silverton took me a little while to get into. It seems sort of contrived at the beginning. Emma is playing coy and being prim and proper. Silverton is pushing her to be more real with him. Eventually this hit a good pace for me but it was a little touch and go in the beginning.

There are a lot of interesting elements that made this book a lot of fun. First off, there was the setting. This book is set in Greece, a place that I don't get to visit often enough. I loved the detail that the author added. I also liked that the author added elements like the ghost of Queen Victoria (as feisty as she ever was) makes an appearance in the book. This book is the first in a new series according to Goodreads and will engage fans of series such as the Maisie Dobbs books (you can see the fanbase they are going for with the cover that seemed eerily familiar).