A Gilded Lady ~ a book review

 

A Gilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden is the second in a trilogy regarding two primary families ~ the Delacroix's

and the Magruder's in the form of historical fiction.

 In the first book in the series, The Spice King, we mainly focus on Gray Delacroix who now runs the largest global spice company and is known throughout the world.

Gray has two siblings who are 12 years younger than he is.

Luke and Caroline are twins and who Gray has always felt responsible for since their father and mother passed.

Gray meets and marries Annabelle, 

an employee with the Smithsonian and then the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

She ends up finding information that would show that Gray's brother Luke was guilty of treason.

It was a page turner for certain, and I read the majority of that book of 354 pages in one day. 

A Gilded Lady is about Caroline, and I found this book to be extremely well written and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Through a series of events that take place in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Caroline becomes secretary to the First Lady Ida McKinley.  Much of the book is entertaining as we learn about what a difficult woman Mrs. McKinley was and the things that Caroline endured as a result of it all.

We meet Nathaniel Trask early on in the book as well.

 He is also a part of the Secret Service 

and was in charge of the cross-country train tour 

that President McKinley insisted on doing shortly after being reelected to his second term as President in 1900.

It was during this trip when an assassination was attempted on his life.  

He didn't die immediately, but 9 days later, 

after gangrene set in.

During the time that Nathaniel was with the Secret Service he and Caroline became attracted to one another in a great way.

However, because of the nature of Nathaniel's work

he was totally against Caroline's twin, Luke, 

who had been charged and confessed to treason 

and was spending 15 months in a Cuban prison.

It makes for an exciting read, indeed!

You will need to read the book to see if Luke was indeed guilty of treason.

If you enjoy history and mystery, and a series of books that bring people's Christian points of view into play, 

I will highly recommend this book!

Chicken Parmigiana ~ Italian American Easy Chicken Bake

 

This isn't the best picture in the world,

and I just realized that I was supposed to have some fresh Basil scattered throughout the pan. 

Anyway, this recipe was super easy to make

and delicious too.

I found the recipe HERE

at Jan's blog 

The Low Carb Diabetic. 

The flavors all go together so well.

Strongheart loved this recipe.

Several times during the evening after our meal

he commented on how good it was.

I actually used chicken thighs rather than the chicken breasts

because that's what I had in the freezer.

Delicious!

The Spice King ~ a book review

 

The Spice King by Elizabeth Camden is the first book in Elizabeth's 

Hope and Glory series.

The story begins by meeting Annabelle Larkin from Kansas who has moved to Washington D.C. in order for her blind sister, Elaine, 

to do volunteer work at the Library of Congress, 

while she herself works at the Smithsonian identifying and cataloging different grasses.

Annabelle is challenged by her boss to obtain a slip of the original

 Vanilla Orchid that he convinced is in the possession of a man by the name of

Gray Delacroix who is owner of Delacroix Global Spice Company.

There are many twists and turns in Annabelle's adventures that bring her to become well acquainted with Gray.  I do not want to share those because that would spoil the adventures for the reader! 

It becomes evident that Gray does not have the original Vanilla Orchid, 

but because Annabelle has become good friends with Gray, she is approached by the U.S. government officials to basically become a spy for them.  It is suspected that Gray has committed treason.

It was a very hard decision for Annabelle to make because she has grown fond of Gray and does not believe that there is any way that he would commit such a crime.

However, she has been promised a permanent job, rather than the temporary one at the Smithsonian, if she cooperates.

Again, there are many twists and turns in her adventures as she spends time at Gray's farmhouse and explores all of the buildings on it.

She uncovers some very valuable information and turns it in.

As it turns out, it wasn't Gray who committed treason.

In order to find out who it was, 

you will need to read the book! :)

I would highly recommend this book!

It's a page turner for sure!

It has 346 pages in the book, 

and I read all but about 30 pages of it in one day,

while doing laundry. :)