Stella and Lyndy

Clara McKenna: Murder on Mistletoe Lane

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Stella & Lyndy #5

Murder on Mistletoe Lane is the fifth book in Clara McKenna’s series about a newly-married couple, Stella Kendrick and Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst, set in the New Forest region of England in the early 1900s.  Lyndy is the son of an impoverished aristocrat, and Stella is a wealthy American who grew up on a horse farm in Kentucky.  Their marriage was arranged by their fathers and, happily, they fell in love not long after they met.  But Lyndy’s mother, Lady Atherly, has always disapproved of Stella and her American ways, even though she needed Stella’s money to make improvements to the crumbling family estate, Morrington Hall.  Stella and Lyndy share a love of horses, and some of the best scenes in the book are the ones where Stella takes her beloved mare, Tully, for a ride.  Lady Atherly sees that her son and Stella are in love, and recently the two women have come to an uneasy truce, but they are still far from being friends. read more

Clara McKenna: Murder at Keyhaven Castle

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Murder at Keyhaven Castle is the third book in Clara McKenna’s Stella and Lyndy mysteries, set in the New Forest area of England in 1905.  I had not read the two previous books, but McKenna gives the reader enough background that I had no problem getting into the book, and I enjoyed it so much that it made me want to read the others.

Stella Kendrick is the daughter of a wealthy horse farmer from Kentucky.  Her overbearing, social-climbing father, who had never shown her any love, had taken her to England, ostensibly to buy horses, but really to marry her off to Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst.  Lyndy’s aristocratic family has lost their fortune.  I was never sure exactly why, and that was probably explained in the earlier books, but it is suggested that Lyndy’s father wasted the family’s money.  Stella’s father wants the social connections an aristocratic title would bring.  Needless to say, neither of the young people was consulted at the time their fathers planned their engagement.  Luckily for them, they fall in love with each other, even though Lyndy’s snobbish, traditionally-minded parents disapprove of Stella’s unconventional ways.  Stella and Lyndy share a love of horses and, as it turns out, crime solving. read more