Barclay Pearce is the hero of this book...and he is pretty much impossible not to like. Barclay is an interesting character in that he is a... wait for it... a thief. So right there he piqued my interested. Barclay knows the London streets like the back of his hand and he is brilliant at blending into the shadows and moving unseen. He knows how to stay hidden and how to track those who don't want to be followed. His resources in the underground of London are extensive, and he is a force to be reckoned with.
Apart from his street smarts and status as a 'somebody' in London's poorer districts, Barclay is not a criminal at heart. Recently hired by the Admiralty for his skills, Barclay is working on the right side of the law for the first time in his life. Determined not to mess it up and to earn an honest living that is in line with his new found faith, Barclay and his adopted sisters pull on all their skills to help their mysterious benefactor "V" uncover the clock-maker's secrets. Along the way, however, Barclay finds his head being turned by the clock-maker's daughter... a woman he certainly does not want added to his collection of 'sisters'.
The clock-maker's daughter, Evelina, is made of strong stuff. A polio survivor and a suffragist, it takes a lot to rattle her, but as things begin to heat up with Barclay and her father's plans, Evelina finds herself swept into an adventure that has her steady heart racing with fear for those she loves. Can she find it in herself to trust a man who used to belong to London's underground?
As I mentioned before, "An Hour Unspent" was a very entertaining read. As with all of Roseanna White's work, it was well written with engaging dialogue and really great characters. Speaking of the characters... apart of Barclay and Evelina there is a fantastic cast of support characters in this book that are amazing. Honestly, many of them deserve their own books. You wont have a dull moment with "An Hour Unspent", and as an added bonus there are some very interesting real-life events woven into this novel that will have you going, "Really? That actually happened?"
You can read the first few pages HERE
Thank-you to Graf Martin Communications and to Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing House, for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
...and for the Back Cover:
With Danger Creeping Ever Closer,
Do Their Dreams Still Matter?
Once London's top thief, Barclay Pearce has turned his back on his life of crime and now uses his skills for a nation at war, including keeping an eye on a talented engineer working as a clockmaker. But not until he rescues the man's daughter from a mugging does he begin to wonder what his future might hold.
Evelina Manning has constantly dreamed and worked for independence, but she certainly never meant for it to inspire her fiancé to end their engagement and enlist in the army. When the intriguing man who saved her returns to the Manning residence to study clock repair with her father, she can't help being interested. But she soon learns that nothing with Barclay Pearce is as simple as it seems.
As 1915 England plunges deeper into war, the race is on for any technological edge, and Evelina's father's ideas have captured the attention of many--perhaps too many. As danger seems to encroach from every side, it may just take a reformed thief to steal the time they need to escape.
No comments:
Post a Comment