Lady Eliza Sumner is on a mission. Her fortune was the last thing she had left after losing her father, her fiance, and her faith. Now, masquerading as Miss Eliza Sumner governess-at-large, she's determined to find the man who ran off with her fortune, reclaim the money, and head straight back to London.

Mr. Hamilton Beckett, much to his chagrin, is the catch of the season, and all the eyes of New York society--all the female ones, at least--are on him. He has no plans to marry again, especially since his hands are full keeping his business afloat while raising his two children alone.

Eliza's hapless attempts to regain her fortune unexpectedly put her right in Hamilton's path. The discovery of a common nemesis causes them to join forces and, before she knows it, Eliza has a whole retinue of people helping her. Eliza's determination not to trust anyone weakens when everyone's antics and bumbling efforts to assist her make her wonder if there might be more important things than her fortune and independence.


*Source

My Review:
The book is a wild ride right from the first page. It is very fast-paced with unexpected twists in turns in the plot that kept me reading late into the night. There was much to love about this book:
~The characters are witty and full of personality - a combination that made them easy to love. Quirky kids and English aristocracy, quite a combination.
~The author did a nice job of weaving important social issues of the day into the storyline.
~The shifts in the point-of-view were very easy to follow.

My only complaint about the book was that it, at times, didn't flow very well. It seemed a bit choppy with several very abrupt changes. It seemed that slowing down just a bit and filling in some details might have made it just a bit better.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.
*I must mention that I received a complimentary review copy of this book from Bethany House.

en Turano has written a delightful and fun story of 1880's aristocrats in NY City. Eliza Sumner is on a mission to regain her stolen fortune, and the lengths she goes to will tickle your funny bone.
When spurned by her Financé ...well the Cad really wanted her money, and now that she is penniless, he is no longer interested. She is a smart cookie, and love how she got the money to go from England to NYC. She is now living as a Governess, while waiting for a chance to find the culprits.
When Mrs Watson, her employer, comes to her with the most ugly dress ever, and makes her attend her dinner party. Calamity follows, and you can just picture her with her dress basically falling off, and getting caught under chairs. All to funny!
She does manage to make some acquaintances of two men, Hamilton and Zayne Becket, and it turns out they have a lot in common. We later meet Hamilton's precocious children, Piper and Ben.
There is danger, and entertaining fun in this book. Be ready for a really good read, you won't be able to put this one down!

I received this book through the Publisher Bethany House reviewer program, and was not required to give a positive review.

I very much enjoyed this book. The whole mystery of what exactly happened and the "investigating" the ladies did was most entertaining. As the first book that I'd read by Jen Turano, it was the best way to start a series. Jen Turano takes the idea of misbehaving women and turns up the volume 100%. There are so many scenes in her books where you will literally laugh out loud.

I had a lot of difficulty with this book because the voice was so anachronistic to the time period.

It is not my favourite style. That said, the author has a fresh humour that she pairs with an obvious love of the historical period and a determination to add her own indelible thumbprint on the genre.