In 1816 England, Lady Juliette Thorndike returns to London from school with her best friend, ready to make her society debut. Her parents, however, are mysteriously absent. At every society event she attends, there seems to be a mystery involving a lost or stolen work of art. Juliette becomes involved in the mystery - with the help of handsome police detective Daniel Swann.

I wanted to read this novel because I love the Regency period. I enjoyed the author's Serendipity and Secrets series, and knew what a strong writer she is.

The Debutante's Code is a delightful start to a new series! I enjoy Regency fiction, but rarely see books set during this period that are also engaging mysteries. The mystery aspect of this novel was my favorite part. There are so many fascinating details about the art that is stolen (and all the art was based on real pieces, as detailed in the last section of the book!). I actually felt I learned some interesting details about art history just from reading this book. (The Shakespeare folio was especially fascinating!)

Juliette is a bold amateur detective, especially when paired with Daniel Swann. The romantic sparks between them makes the book even more intriguing.

This was an unusually fast paced read for a historical novel - I couldn't put it down and found myself planning the evening around extra reading time.

I highly recommend The Debutante's Code for fans of historical fiction, and especially for anyone who enjoys historical mysteries and the Regency period.

A disastrous trip home from finishing school on a cargo vessel is only the beginning of what looks to be a disappointing debut season for Lady Juliette, especially when chaperoning duties are given to the Dowager Duchess of Haverly. You aren’t alone if that name sounds familiar because it felt that way to me as soon as I came across it. The Haverly family was heavily featured in Erica Vetsch’s, Serendipity and Secrets series. Marcus Haverly, the Dowager’s son, was my favorite character in those books so it’s great to see him again. I do suggest re-reading this series if you have access to it, even though you’re introduced to the family via Juliette and the other lead character, Daniel Swann.

The Debutante’s Code is a novel about a scavenger hunt of sorts. It’s a tale where not everyone is what they seem. Daniel is examining a series of thefts and trying to make his mark in criminal investigation, but he’s also just a few months away from being cut loose from a mysterious benefactor. Juliette and her uncle are in a race against Detective Swann and other, unknown, enemies who’ve already taken lives. At times, I wanted to bang Juliette and Daniel’s heads together. If only they would work together and share what they each knew… But they are on opposite sides for most of the book. Meanwhile, if anyone knows where Juliette’s parents are they aren’t telling.

Readers who like everything to be neatly wrapped up and sealed with a kiss will be disappointed with the ending, as not all questions are answered and there’s no immediate Happy Ever After. Personally, I’m looking forward to book two of Thorndike and Swann Regency Mysteries. Millstone of Doubt will no doubt (ha ha!) further the storyline begun in this intriguing novel, and I’m sure the payoff at the end of the series will be sweet.

Disclaimer: Although I received a copy of this book from the publisher, the opinions above are my own.

This novel was not only entertaining but informative. I always appreciate learning something when I read historical fiction and this novel provided insights into spies during the Regency era. There's stolen art involved and the Author's Note gives great information on the art and artifacts mentioned.

Vetsch has crafted a good heroine too. I like Lady Juliette. I could really identify with her wanting to be where the action was happening. I liked that she was good at code breaking thanks to her father's coded letters to her. And I like Daniel, a Bow Street investigator. He gives readers a good sense of how crimes were investigated at the time. I can see future adventures involving Juliette and Daniel, perhaps even a possible romance despite their difference in social circles.

I liked the combination of mystery and espionage. Vetsch has done a great job setting this novel firmly in the society and culture of the day. There is another in the series already in progress and I will be watching for it.

I received a complimentary egalley through I Read With Audra. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Award-winning author Erica Vertsch pens a new Regency series filled with memorable characters, historical details, and mystery elements: secrets, red herrings, and mysteries within mysteries.

In The Debutante’s Code, Lady Juliette Thorndicke returns home from finishing school, expecting her parents to meet her, but they are missing. Their disappearance causes her concern, especially when she discovers a family secret.

While maintaining the facade of a debutante, she works to uncover coded messages, track down the reason behind their disappearance -- and keep her secrets from the handsome detective Daniel Swann who thinks she might be involved with some recent art thefts among society’s elite.

Vetsch takes her excellence in historically accurate Regency romances and ups her game, adding more mystery and intrigue into her story. The Debutante’s Code will keep the reader engaged, eagerly turning the pages until the end. Her latest novel is filled with light faith elements, plot twists, a touch of humor, and a clean relationship between Daniel and Julliette, with nothing settled at the book’s conclusion, except for a mutual interest and a hint of romance.

Readers will be delighted at the reappearance of Marcus and Charlotte, from The Gentleman Spy, and the role they play in this book. Watch for the second book, , Millstone of Doubt, coming in 2022.

Recommended for public libraries and high school readers. Fans of Kristi Hunter, Sarah Ladd, Julie Klassen, and Roseanna White’s The Codebreakers series will enjoy this new series by Vetsch.

Disclaimer: Book reviews are my honest opinion of books I either purchased or received free of cost from the publishers, publicists, and/or authors. I am not required to write reviews, nor to even post positive reviews

What is the best new author that you’ve read recently?

I recently posted that Regency romance is my escapism reading. What could be even better than a Regency historical mystery with a subtle romance?

The Debutante’s Code is truly a delightful novel. It’s been a very stressful month at work and on the home front and this was a perfect novel to read right now. Lady Juliette Thorndike has just returned to London from a Swiss boarding school with her best friend Agatha. She is surprised when her ne’er-do-well Uncle Bertie shows up to pick her up at the dock rather than her parents. It has been years since she has seen them. Her parents had an emergency at their country estate and have left Juliette with her Uncle and an elderly Duchess to be her chaperone as she embarks on her first season with Agatha. After a theft at her very first party, Juliette makes some shocking discoveries about her family.

Mr. Daniel Swann is a dashing Bow Street Runner and is the man sent to the high-class party to investigate the theft. He disturbs the ton by including them in the investigation and not just the servants. When a murder swiftly follows the theft, Daniel knows that there is much more to this case than meets the eye. Daniel is the illegitimate child of a housekeeper and was plucked from obscurity by a mysterious benefactor to obtain an education and explore the career of his choice. Who is his benefactor? Will he be able to solve this case? And why does the beautiful Lady Juliette perk his interest?

The Debutante’s Code is the first book in the Thorndike and Swann Regency Mysteries series. I loved it and can’t wait to read the next book in the series. The mystery had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. I just really loved the characters, especially the two main characters Juliette and Daniel. Juliette is a strong woman and very smart. I love that she rose up to the challenge. Daniel is an interesting character in his own right and I loved his determination. I read that this book is Jane Austen crossed with Sherlock Holmes and I think this is an accurate description.

This is a Christian novel and both main characters work through moments of doubt in their faith through the novel.

Overall, The Debutante’s Code is an excellent Regency historical mystery novel and I highly recommend it.

Book Source: Review Copy from Kregel Publishing as part of the Audra Jennings PR Book Tour. Thank-you. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Serendipity & Secrets series was such a delightful one to read, which made me want to read the new series by this talented author. I didn’t let the book cover stop me from opening the first book in this series. I felt the beginning was a little slow as readers meet and get to know Lady Juliette Thorndike. She returned home, looking forward to and excited about being with her parents. It’s been years since they’ve seen each other. Juliette was thrilled they would be there to encourage her at her London society debut. She also hoped to reconnect with old friends. I wasn’t quite sure where the author was going with Lady Juliette and her friend, but I hung in there.

Things get interesting when her homecoming goes a bust and hobnobbing with high society gets exhausting. Matters heat up as Juliette and her uncle attend these parties’ and then expensive pieces of artwork disappear with everyone in attendance. How could that happen? No one saw anything.

That’s when readers meet Daniel Swann, a Bow Street investigator. Daniel suspects Lady Juliette of foul play. Every party she and her uncle attended had a robbery. Coincidence? I think not. The story takes a gripping and suspenseful twist when things turn deadly. It’s then Lady Juliette discovers the game that her and her father had been playing all these years was actual training to decode secret messages. That’s when the fun begins. I could not put this novel down. I look forward to the next adventure.

It was fun to learn about the historical facts dug up in this author’s research that made it into the book. I’m excited to see what suspenseful adventure this author takes readers next. Here’s a peek at the second book titled, Millstone & Doubt. “A body is discovered in rubble after a mill explosion…but it may have been murder. Not a tragic accident…can Thorndike and Swan find the killer – or will their own ??? faults get in the way of solving this mystery?”

If you haven’t read a novel by this author, treat yourself to this one. The story is a wonderful escape and one that would work well as your next book club pick.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have received a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins!
The Book Club Network blog www.bookfun.org

If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, then she must seek them abroad.” Jane Austen says of Catherine Morland in the beginning pages of Northanger Abbey. However, what is true for Catherine is decidedly not true for Lady Juliette Thorndike or the young Bow Street Runner trying to solve his first big case. Erica Vetsch introduces a sparkling new mystery series set in Regency London featuring an intrepid and unlikely detecting pair and a cunning mystery.

Lady Juliette has been away seven years to a ladies’ seminary in Switzerland honing genteel accomplishments and studies while looking forward to the day she is to return home to the parents she is not embarrassed to miss terribly. After a harrowing journey home by way of Italy with her close school friend who will share her coming out, she is hurt to discover her parents gone away and not likely to return in time to help her through her societal debut.

They are met at the boat by her ‘man about town’ and slightly ramshackle Uncle Bertie who deposits her into the hands of the Dowager Duchess of Haverly’s hands for guidance to the London Season and chaperonage throughout. At her introductory ball, things go from mildly pleasant to intriguing when her host’s expensive new piece of art turns up stolen.

Daniel Swann knows he is a lucky man. Instead of growing up the illegitimate son of a servant and scrambling his way through life, an anonymous benefactor plucked him up and put him through the upper class schools and let him choose his own trade which the benefactor would subsidize through Daniel’s twenty-fifth birthday which is coming soon enough. Daniel wanted to help people and he has a yin for solving puzzles so he chose Bow Street as his vocation. Only, Daniel has run afoul of the superintendent’s own ambition to hire a nephew and was forced to take on Daniel in his stead. Now, his superintendent gives him tedious work and obscure cases and bides his time watching for Daniel to make the mistake that he can use to get rid of him. It infuriates the man when his veteran detectives are all busy on other cases and he has to give the high society art theft to Daniel. This is Daniel’s big chance and he won’t let a cranky boss, starchy aristocrats, or a young lady he suspects knows more than she’s saying get in his way. He hasn’t been on the case long when the art dealer who sold the painting is found knifed and his gallery turned upside down. Then there is another theft…

Meanwhile, Lady Juliette makes a cryptic discovery hidden in the piano that turns all her assumptions about her parents upside down. Agents of the crown? Her parents? Uncle Bertie cautiously lets her in on the truth and now she is sworn to learn and follow in the path of her parents by apprenticing with Uncle Bertie if she is ever to help bring about her parents’ safe return. Balancing her first season, pursuing her new training, breaking the codes cleverly hidden away, and tracking down the traitors keeps a young lady’s calendar quite full and right in the crosshairs of the disconcerting Bow Street Runner who she can’t shake from the trail or that of the shadowy danger who has already killed more than once to get what they want.

The Debutante’s Code was an amalgamation of all the good things with the bringing together of a Regency Romance and Historical Mystery with a fresh new class-difference partnership and a tantalizing whiff of romance between them. This book is a first in series and kept up a good pace though does have brief moments when it slows and strong development that happened naturally along the way.

Juliette and Daniel take turns narrating their side of the story and introducing their separate class worlds and characters as well as themselves. I appreciated that the author created a few extra curiosities surrounding Daniel with his unknown benefactor and Juliette and her hidden family heritage. They both demonstrate separate, but different, partnering talents so that they come at the same problem with different end games and motives, but end up on the same side in the end in spite of their sometimes antagonism of one another. The author didn’t stint on the minor character development, either. I’ll be glad to see several return in subsequent books.

All in all, I curtsy deeply in admiration to The Debutante’s Code and impatiently wait for further books in the series. Historical mystery lovers who don’t mind a dash of sweet, slow burn romance should slip this one into their book stacks when they get the chance.

The Debutante's Code is a great start to the Thorndike and Swann Regency Mysteries series by Erica Vetsch. After reading it, I have yet another reason why this author is one of my top favorites. It is full of mystery, suspense, action, adventure, history and romance. I was entertained with every single page and adored Lady Juliette from the start. The chemistry between her and Daniel was a delight. What a great way to spend a rainy afternoon by reading this book. I loved it.

I am giving The Debutante's Code a very well deserved five plus stars. I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy reading clean historical suspense. I can not wait to find out what happens next in the Thorndike and Swann Regency Mysteries series.

I received a copy of The Debutante's Code from the publisher, but was not required to write a positive review. This review is one hundred percent my own honest opinion.

Although Regency fiction isn’t my go-to genre, I became a Vetsch fan after reading The Lost Lieutenant and The Indebted Earl. These books taught me much about the Regency era and kept me intrigued and enamored. Therefore, I was excited to learn about this author’s new book (and series.)

In The Debutante’s Code, young debutante, 19-year-old Lady Juliette Thorndike, comes about a discovery that may lead to not only clues to a theft, but also indications of her parents’ lives, and possibly even love. I loved learning a bit about the art world.

This story has a unique feel to it. The atmosphere is thick with spying, theft, danger, and secrets in 1800’s London’s high society. The characters are interesting, and some really surprised me. I connected with Juliette easily. She is steady, smart, and adventurous and I liked her. Daniel Swann, the investigating officer, intrigued me and I rooted for him. I enjoyed his interaction with Juliette and their slow-burn attraction. It pleased me the relationship felt believable and organic. Each of the characters are well developed, and even the story’s secondary characters and villains carry unexpected depth.

If you enjoy mysteries, suspense, or Regency and historical romance, The Debutante’s Code is a good choice. This clean, lively read with rich characters, surprises, and wit, takes you on a satisfying adventure. I look forward to seeing more from Juliette and Daniel in this series!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book. My review was not influenced.

'Had everything in her life been leading to this moment? This choice? Had God been directing things to put her in this place for this purpose?'

Erica Vetsch has begun an especially intriguing new series with The Debutante's code. Described as Jane Austen meets Sherlock Holmes, which is indeed a perfectly apt comparison, this takes the reader into the world of Regency England. And the world of spying.

In the midst of stolen art, secret codes, nasty ruffians, a well brought up young aristocratic woman discovers the secret world of her parents. Will Lady Juliette decide to train as a spy? Especially when there is a dashing Bow Street Runner, Mr. Daniel Swann, on all the cases? Hmmm. You must read it to find out.

Vetsch is always good and this offering is no exception. I am eagerly anticipating the next book in this series1

My thanks to Kregel Publications for a copy of this book via the Net Galley platform. I was not pressured to leave a positive review. The opinion here is entirely my own.

If you like cozy Regency mysteries with a hint of romance, then you should like The Debutante's Code. There is a Christian element that I was not expecting. This is not a Christian Regency, but there is a faith component. Don't expect any steamy scenes or violence.

Lady Juliette Thorndike is returning to England for her debut after spending 7 years at school in Switzerland. She hopes to reconnect with her parents, but when her boat docks, she learns from her Uncle that her parents have been called away on urgent estate business. Juliette finds herself tangled up in a series of fine art robberies and meets handsome Bow Street runner Daniel Swann. Why are these particular pieces of art being stolen; how do the robberies fit with the death of an art dealer; and who can Juliette trust?

I enjoyed the characters and the basic plot was good. However, I did have some problems with the book....problems that I hope are fixed on final editing. Books set during the Regency period are plentiful and therefore the research needs to be impeccable. One would not hear a Dowager Duchess referring to a party as a "bash" or a patroness at Almack's would not be known as a proprietress. Still, if a reader is not familiar with the Regency, these issues are probably moot. More problematic was the faith component; not because faith is part of the book but rather because Juliette says the same thing over and over.

I struggled with my rating and settled on a 3 star,