I enjoyed this quite a bit - I do agree with some reviewers that it's a slow starter, but the period details feel authentic without that "you want to prove to me that you did your research" feeling, the mystery was intriguing, the tone was so much fun, etc. that I'm still going to give it five stars. Looking forward to a sequel!

Stoked! for this series. You got the classic style and patter speak of the old detective movies and a feisty heroine and her ragtag group of boarding house ladies. Plus a blue eyed hard exterior boss and some coppers who don't know better.
Again, Stoked!

Reviews Posted September 10, 2022
Storygraph
Goodreads

I absolutely loved the main character Viviana. From the get-go, she was sassy, powerful, and dynamic. I just thought she was great. I also really enjoyed her interactions with the other characters, and everything in this sense felt like it had a purpose.

The plot was slow to start, and I felt like I spent the first 50% of the book trying and waiting for things to pick up and get interesting. Once things began to pick up, I definitely enjoyed what I was reading more. But I don’t think how the plot played out can make up for the slow start.

The thing that made me not enjoy this book was the writing. Too many things fell flat, even when the plot started to pick up, it never picked up enough to make me fall in love with the story. The pacing was awkward, and I don’t know how to describe it, but it just felt off the entire time. Also, the dialogue didn’t always flow right, and there were sometimes weird pauses in conversations or trains of thought.

Overall while I found the main character interesting, the slow plot and weird pacing really prevented me from thoroughly enjoying this book.

This not-quite-noir mystery is a light, pleasant read. Perhaps a little too light, since I never got super invested in what happened next, but if you're looking to spend time with a spunky, upbeat heroine, Viviana's your gal! Edwards does a nice job of grounding the reader in the time and place of the setting without hitting them over the head with it, and there is a well-drawn cast of characters with a fairly even gender distribution. I'd read more stories about this girl detective.

This was a very enjoyable read. With amazing characters and 1950's setting (which happens to be my fave era) Viviana Gets Her Man unfolds as a fun and twisty mystery.

This book is an amazing Series starter and I can't wait to read more.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting in to this book at first, but then it picked up a bit from there.

historical-fiction, historical-research, mystery, NYC, 1950s, private-investigators, first-in-series, verbal-humor, law-enforcement, friendship****

Set in a seedy section of NYC in 1950, this is a sly bit of fun masquerading as a hard-boiled mystery.
Ms Valentine works as a general dogsbody for a private investigator until he disappears and she takes over the latest case plus finding out what happened to her boss before the NYPD does. I thisnk it's a great first in series and expect the next one to be even better! Very entertaining!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from the Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

I really enjoyed this book, the way the author writes is wonderful as you can picture so clearly everything that is happening.
It is set in the 1950’s in New York City. Viviana Valentine is a secretary to a private detective called Tommy Fortuna or at least he was until he went missing.
With a case still to clear up Viviana sets to work on it.
Highly recommend

I know there are some hardboiled female private investigators (Kelli Stanley’s Miranda Corbie comes to mind), but there aren’t too many out there capable of handling themselves in a gritty environment. Meet Viviana Valentine, a secretary in New York City in 1950. She’s forced to turn PI herself when her boss disappears in Emily J. Edwards’ debut, Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man.

Viviana moved to New York from the sticks when she was just sixteen. She lives in a respectable boarding house for girls only, but she’s a secretary to Tommy Fortuna, a private investigator whose office is in Hell’s Kitchen. Viviana sees her boss as a “tall drink of water”, but he gets beat up frequently because he sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong. His latest case is for a wealthy businessman, Tallmadge Blackstone, who hires Tommy to follow his daughter, Tallulah. She’s in all the tabloids, a young woman engaged to Tallmadge’s much older business partner.

Viviana encounters Tallulah the first time when she attends an engagement party on a yacht. That’s also the last time she sees her boss. When she gets to the office, Tommy’s gone, but there’s a body on the floor. Naturally, the cops blame Tommy, but Viviana is convinced there’s more to the story. When she learns the man is still alive, and discovers his identity, she sets out to save Tommy’s case. She might be thrown down a flight of stairs, followed, and harassed by a brute she once dated, but Viviana won’t let her boss be railroaded.

The case turns out to be complicated, but with the help of the cops, Viviana gathers the suspects for a final reveal. She proves she’s capable of investigating even without Tommy’s help. She also proves that, like PIs before her, she has a hardboiled attitude, and a heart of gold.

Viviana is an attractive new sleuth in the detecting world, but some of the other characters aren’t drawn as well. Edwards shines, though, in the creation of atmosphere, the street life in New York in 1950. The summer is hot, muggy, and smelly, and Viviana observes all the people who keep the city turning in the summer while the wealthy leave town. The first Girl Friday mystery marks a historical series to watch.

I could not get into this book. Sorry. I can't write a review for a book I cannot finish reading. Thank you for your consideration. I learned awhile ago to DNF a book if I cannot get into it.

This was a fun detective story - one that was lighthearted enough to not feel as though it had extremely high stakes. It didn't feel super stressful to read, which was nice compared to the other mysteries out there, and I liked Viv as a main character a lot. She was kindhearted, intelligent, and generally pretty funny. I loved reading about her relationships with the other girls in her boarding house and the development of her friendship with Tally throughout the course of the book.
Where I think this book loses steam is with the slang - this book is dragged down by the sheer amount of 1950s slang it uses. It had the opposite effect that it intended, because it took me out of the story rather than immersing me in the world. It was distracting and a little exhausting to read about. I think it would have been a faster and more enjoyable read for me if a lot of the slang had been cut.
The mystery itself was fine as well, although for large portions of the book, it didn't feel like the main focus. It was reminiscent of the classic detective novels in the way that all of the important characters were gathered together for the reveal and the last tenth or so of the book is just the main character talking while they reveal who did it. The mystery/solution was a little confusing and a little harder to follow than I might have liked, but that's a personal issue.
Overall, I thought this book was fun, and I had a good time reading it and getting to know Viviana Valentine.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Emily J Edwards for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man coming out November 8, 2022. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Viviana Valentine is a Girl Friday to Tommy Fortuna in NYC in 1950. Fortuna is a top private investigator who has eccentric clients such as the wealthy Tallmadge Blackstone, who demands Tommy tail his daughter, Tallulah, and find out why she won’t marry his business partner Webber Harrington-Whitley. Maybe it’s because he’s forty years her senior.

Viviana goes to the office and finds Tommy missing and a lifeless body on the floor. Soon after, Detective Jake Lawson issues a warrant for Tommy’s arrest. Wanting to clear Tommy’s name, Viviana takes on the Blackstone case.

Things turn dangerous after Viviana goes out on the town with the wealthy heiress. She becomes a victim in a violent attack and ends up at the hospital. Fortunately she wakes up and realizes she urgently has to solve the case before she ends up dead. It’s up to her to find Tommy and make sure he doesn’t turn up dead.

Overall, I loved this book! I love reading old detective novels like Perry Mason. I loved that Phyllis and Dottie teamed up with Viviana to solve the case. It did feel a little slow getting to solving the case, which made the solution seem a little quick. But I really enjoyed it.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys 1950s detective mysteries featuring a strong female character.

In this beautiful period piece Emily Edwards weaves a easy to read page turner with a witty main character Viviana Valentine . I'm not a huge fan of period pieces but this one had me from start to finish. I loved the thrill of finding whodunit and trying to guess. I guessed wrong and was so surprised at the end.
I loved reading this book and I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for their next read and it does need a space in your never-ending tbr list

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Crooked Lane Books and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Fun, delightful, entertaining, charming! Viviana is an amazing character I adore. I look forward to reading more from the series.

Viviana Valentine is fun, charming, and a fantastic character on which to build a mystery series - a fresh twist on the typical PI protagonist. The setting - 50s NYC - was vividly drawn and added a lot to the story. I felt like I could smell the hot dog carts! The mystery itself was great... enough misdirection that the satisfying conclusion certainly wasn't telegraphed, but not too much you felt you were lead around by the nose for 250 pages.

Definitely looking forward to more of Viv's adventures.

I really enjoyed the main character and how skilled she was but at times I got lost in the 50s language. There were also times it felt like the author wanted you to make the jump with Viviana but the connection wasn't obvious. Or something big would get glossed over quickly. But I enjoy reading about talented female identifying characters! 3.5 stars

A fun new mystery investigation series featuring an unlikely sleuth who steps up when her PI boss disappears while working on a case. Our protagonist Viviana Valentine is a fab character shown to be up to any challenge--including the sexism of the 1950s--and the supporting characters are terrific, including the NYC setting that serves as a character in its own right.

The mysteries were solid and compelling; the resolution was rewarding. Adding to the overall experience was the joyful, witty way the novel played with language, slang, and historic details. For example, in one scene a character wearing pedal pushers is told to put gloves in her bag before joining her friend on an evening stroll. She says, "You don't wear gloves with slacks!" Viviana tells her they're not for fashion, they're for snooping. The clever way the author deftly reveals character and the times while adding suspense to the plot with one bit of dialogue is just an example of the elevated attention to detail throughout. Take my advice, dollface: it all adds up to a very fun, snappy read, and I'll gladly sign up to auto-purchase subsequent Viviana Valentine mysteries.

This was a fun start to a new series with a sensible heroine you root for and a fabulous 1950s NYC setting. The mystery itself was pretty good too! I look forward to reading more about Viviana Valentine!

I found this novel quite engrossing, I enjoyed seeing Viviana slowly unravel the mystery in a sensible, practical manner, And growing in confidence as she did so. The language bothered me a bit - did people really talk like that?

DNF - I was intrigued by the setting of this book but felt that the first half was dragging a lot. I'm sure many readers will thrill in the details given to the neighbourhood & the building's exterior but I was not one of them. By the 15% mark I knew we would be approaching the beginning of the mystery but, I hadn't been excited about much of the story up until this point & wasn't in the mood for hyper fixated details for everything. Though my qualms aren't directly due to the format of the kindle document, the way that the text was formatted ensured that it was a struggle to read about the borders that were placed everywhere within the text & this alongside my lack of enthusiasm made me decide to stop reading.
This is a good premise & I know it wll see much success & I will say that as a film-visual presentation-it would be great. Everything was colourful & well-constructed but, this wasn't for me.