HFVBT Review: Lady of a Thousand Treasures by Sandra Byrd

Title: Lady of a Thousand Treasures
Author: Sandra Byrd
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Publish Date: October 9, 2018
Source: HFVBT

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Miss Eleanor Sheffield is a talented evaluator of antiquities, trained to know the difference between a genuine artifact and a fraud. But with her father’s passing and her uncle’s decline into dementia, the family business is at risk. In the Victorian era, unmarried Eleanor cannot run Sheffield Brothers alone.

The death of a longtime client, Baron Lydney, offers an unexpected complication when Eleanor is appointed the temporary trustee of the baron’s legendary collection. She must choose whether to donate the priceless treasures to a museum or allow them to pass to the baron’s only living son, Harry—the man who broke Eleanor’s heart.

Eleanor distrusts the baron’s motives and her own ability to be unbiased regarding Harry’s future. Harry claims to still love her and Eleanor yearns to believe him, but his mysterious comments and actions fuel her doubts. When she learns an Italian beauty accompanied him on his return to England, her lingering hope for a future with Harry dims.

With the threat of debtor’s prison closing in, Eleanor knows that donating the baron’s collection would win her favor among potential clients, saving Sheffield Brothers. But the more time she spends with Harry, the more her faith in him grows. Might Harry be worthy of his inheritance, and her heart, after all? As pressures mount and time runs out, Eleanor must decide whom she can trust—who in her life is false or true, brass or gold—and what is meant to be treasured."

My Two Cents:

In "Lady of a Thousand Treasures," Eleanor is struggling. Her father has passed away and her uncle is ill. She wants to keep the family business alive but it's the 1870s and women don't have an easy time of it. Can Eleanor find a way to keep the business while protecting her heart from a man that she once loved. Part romance, part mystery; this book had a lot to like!

Eleanor is a great main character. She's smart. She's driven. Her father and uncle trained her keen eye to look for priceless antiquities and she loves the job. Although the antiquities business at the time was rarely a woman's game, Eleanor wants to keep her family's business going. You're rooting for her the whole time!

This book has a fantastic romance in it. Enter Harry, who Eleanor once had a romance with. When the book opens, Eleanor wants to do everything to keep her heart intact. But the chemistry between them is uncanny and I found myself wanting them to fall for each other through all the difficulties they go through throughout the book!

The book also has a good dose of mystery, which made for the book moving very quickly. I was fascinated by the world of antiquities collecting back in Victorian times. It was a brand new world for me and made for some good fodder for the central mystery in this book (don't want to give anything away).

This was a great ride and another good one from Sandra Byrd!