Crystal Gardens (Ladies of Lantern Street, #1)

by Amanda Quick

[kimbacaffeinate]

Crystal Gardens is the first in a new trilogy by Amanda Quick called the Ladies of Lantern Street. It’s a historical romance laced with paranormal elements. Quick delivers an action packed novel with characters that I quickly came to love. Filled with suspense, mystery, paranormal ability and a swoon worthy hero I was quickly swept up in the story.

The tale begins with protagonist Evangeline Ames. She is writer and ladies companion who has taken time off to explore the paranormal energy surrounding Crystal Gardens after she was attacked in London. When someone breaks into the cottage at night she instinctively runs to the Crystal Gardens estate and runs smack dab into swoon-worthy Lucas Sebastian. His uncle has recently passed and he believes foul play was involved. He and his trusted employee Stone are now residing in the home. The gardens are a dangerous place and Lucas has his hands full with his uncle’s botanical experiments. The tale that unfolds was typical Quick and while familiar it captivated me none the less.

Lucas Sebastian is a dark man who makes people uncomfortable. He has a strong psychical talent that he must constantly keep in check. While people fear him, Evangeline sees the hero under the wolf’s clothing. While he can behave like a boar, Evangeline begins to soften him. I found Evangeline to be delightful, witty and intelligent. She is a fictional romance writer, with absolutely no romantic experience beyond a kiss or too, so you can imagine the fun in that. We meet her best friends and the other ladies of Lantern Street when they come to visit. The three of them conversing had me giggling. We learn there is much more to these ladies. There were other characters that rounded out the cast and made the plot interesting.

The plot contains mystery, suspense, romance and a healthy dose of paranormal. While it isn’t original fans of Quick are sure to enjoy it. We have the mysterious death of Lucas’s uncle and someone is trying to murder Evangeline. Putting all the pieces of the puzzle together was fun and I enjoyed the ride. Throw in a lost treasure, some colorful characters and a well paced story-line and I was highly entertained. The romance between Lucas and Evangeline was hot. From the moment they encountered each other the tension and electrical current running between them was obvious even to an outsider. Evangeline decided to base her hero in her novel on Lucas and considers a romantic tryst with Lucas to conduct research. She sees herself outside of his social circle and cannot imagine anything beyond that. She may lose her heart but she will have the memories. Lucas has other plans.