{"id":3710,"date":"2020-07-08T05:10:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T12:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3710"},"modified":"2020-07-08T05:10:02","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T12:10:02","slug":"allison-montclair-a-royal-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/allison-montclair-a-royal-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"Allison Montclair: A Royal Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I loved the first book in this series, The Right Sort of Man, <\/em>and I loved this installment every bit as much.\u00a0 Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge own The Right Sort marriage bureau, operating in post war London, and while they are still working to match couples, they do seem to get caught up in a great deal of subterfuge.\u00a0 Which, for the lucky reader, is all to the good.<\/p>\n

As Iris and Gwen are working away one day, their afternoon appointment turns out to be an envoy from the royal household, with the hope that Iris and Gwen can vet a possible marriage candidate for the young Princess Elizabeth.\u00a0 This of course is none other than Prince Philip, and as any devoted royal watcher knows, Philip\u2019s backstory is <\/em>almost like a novel.\u00a0 The talented Montclair takes this fact and runs with it.<\/p>\n

Philip\u2019s mother, Princess Alice of Greece<\/a>, was well known later in her life for being slightly nutty and wearing nun\u2019s garb, but she was also known for her charity work in Greece during the war, helping Jewish refugees.\u00a0 Earlier in her life this great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria was lovely and gave birth to many daughters.\u00a0 Alice\u2019s husband was Prince Andrew of Greece and the family was exiled in 1917, toting along baby Philip (who followed his sisters in birth order after a long pause).<\/p>\n

Iris has connections to the espionage community, having worked undercover herself, and Gwen, as a member of a wealthy noble family by virtue of her marriage (she\u2019s a widow), has many connections to the world of the royal family.\u00a0 The envoy who asks the women for help is actually a cousin.<\/p>\n

What I loved about the first book, and what I also love about this one, are several things.\u00a0 I love the array of characters, from \u201cSpivs\u201d all the way up to the royal family, and I loved the smart plotting and the clues that are provided but are easy to miss if you don\u2019t stay sharp as you read.\u00a0 The tone of the book is light, but the writing is smart and the setting, authentic.\u00a0 I also love the characters of Iris and Gwen, opposite in so many ways, but who work together so well.\u00a0 In this they are certainly not alone in the mystery universe.<\/p>\n

I loved the royal plot line as much as I loved the delving into the personal and working lives of Iris and Gwen.\u00a0 What I hated were the rapidly diminishing number of pages as this book slipped so easily through my fingers.\u00a0 While I hesitate to make comparisons, these reads remind me very much of early installments of Rhys Bowen\u2019s great Molly Murphy series.\u00a0 I awaited each installment eagerly and was oh so sad when a day or two later the book was finished.\u00a0 I already feel the same way about Ms. Montclair\u2019s new series \u2013 I cannot wait for the next installment.<\/p>\n

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I loved the first book in this series, The Right Sort of Man, and I loved this installment every bit as much.\u00a0 Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge own The Right Sort marriage bureau, operating in post war London, and while they are still working to match couples, they do seem to get caught up in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[365,256,6,10,100,366],"class_list":["post-3710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1950s-london","tag-allison-montclair","tag-british","tag-historical","tag-minotaur-books","tag-prince-philip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3711,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions\/3711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}