I enjoyed this book in the series and look forward to more. I liked the characters and the setting. The mystery kept me guessing.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a major fan of Victoria Thompson’s novels! Mrs. Thompson deftly blends in romance and mystery! This new novel in A Lady Counterfeit does not disappoint! The characters are already established and the mystery was solid! Mrs. Thompson’s novel are definitely a must-read!

While I love this series, I didn't find this title to be the strongest of the batch. The plot was a tad convoluted, and the big reveal easy to guess. It's always fun to catch up with this crew, though, and the extended cast continues to be wonderful.

Gideon Bates is a lawyer, married to Elizabeth, a con woman, who comes from a whole family of con artists. He’s not sure exactly how that came about, but he is besotted and tries his best to make sure her cons are for the overall good and he doesn’t have to lie when he’s recruited to play a small role in the schemes.

This time his client, Sebastian Nolan, invites Gideon and Elizabeth to the track to see his horse race — and witness another race that features a true champion. They agree, and with Gideon’s mother, attend and meet Sebastian’s daughter, Irene. Sebastian wants to marry her off, but she’s more interested in horses than marriage. She also has better manners than her coarse father.

After Elizabeth meets Irene’s horse, Trench, and jockey, Cal, she understands Irene’s disinterest in marriage. Her love for her horse shows and her love for Cal, less evident, is just as important. However, her social climbing father would never allow her to marry a jockey.

Elizabeth is quick to notice her father, the Old Man, is at the track as well, accompanying a striking woman. Sebastian almost chokes. The woman is a near twin for his deceased wife.

A sworn enemy of Sebastian, Livingston is also at the track. An accident puts Trench in jeopardy and Cal in the hospital, or was it an accident? Sebastian blames Livingston without proof. Of course, there is the fact that Livingston’s fiancé broke their engagement and eloped with Sebastian, but that was twenty-five years ago. Could he still hold a grudge?

It’s a con within a con within a con to reach the conclusion that will satisfy everyone. Well, almost everyone.

This is book six, all reviewed here. I enjoy how Elizabeth maneuvers in what is considered a man’s world and always manages to best them. She and Gideon are a perfect match. Mother Bates is a delight as she learns more and more about how a con works. I expect her involvement to grow with each future tale.

I love this series. I love the characters and I love the cons that Elizabeth pulls off because they are to help someone. I liked how this story had some unexpected surprises. I also like how straight-laced Gideon finally started to fit in with Elizabeth’s family. I really enjoy these stories and would highly recommend them if you are in the mood for a good cozy mystery.

I received a complimentary book from publishers, publicists, and or authors.  A review was not required and all opinions and ideas expressed are my own.

Terrific book. This is the first of Victoria Thompson's books that I’ve read but it won’t be the last. Although this is the sixth in the Counterfeit Ladies series, I didn’t need the past books to enjoy this one. City of Fortune reads well as a stand-alone with enjoyable characters and story lines.

Victoria Thompson continues the Counterfeit Lady series with City of Fortune. Lawyer Gideon Bates and his wife Elizabeth attend the races at the behest of a new client Nolan who wishes his daughter Irene to be introduced to New York society. At the Belmont Stakes, the Nolan's horse Trench is interfered with and his jockey is injured. Irene is in love with the jockey, but they have no money to set up life together. Turns out Nolan has skeletons in his closet. Elizabeth, the daughter of a master con artist, decides to set up a sting that will net money and independence for the love birds. Enjoy the art of the con in upper society New York.

City Of Fortune by Victoria Thompson

Elizabeth Bates, nee Miles, is looking forward to a day at the races with her beloved lawyer husband Gideon and her just as cherished mother-in-law. Sebastian Nolan, a client of Gideon’s, is running a horse in the Belmont Stakes, and is hoping to use the opportunity to introduce his own daughter Irene to some ladies of quality. Elizabeth has her misgivings, being less a society lady than a reformed con artist herself. But genteel Mother Bates insists that Elizabeth is the equal of any of their peers, and assures her that Irene could hope for no better friend in navigating the often treacherous world of the moneyed in 1920s New York City.

Despite Sebastian’s disparaging remarks as to his daughter’s charms, the Bates family all find Irene both lovely and refreshing. Raised on her father’s farm, her interests lie mostly with the racehorses they train and breed. Sebastian assumes that this singular focus on horseflesh is the reason the 23 year-old has never had a suitor. It doesn’t take the Bates family very long to realize, however, that Irene and the Nolans’ lead jockey Cal Regan are madly in love – and that Sebastian would be furious if he found out.

When a terrible accident befalls Cal on the racetrack, leaving him in jeopardy of never being able to race again, Elizabeth and Mother Bates are stirred to do something to help the star-crossed lovers start a new life together, even before it becomes apparent that foul play was the reason for Cal’s injuries:

QUOTE
“I’m sure [Cal] hasn’t had time to think about all of this yet,” Elizabeth said. “He just had surgery and he’s hardly even been awake more than a few minutes at once, but I’m also sure Irene has been thinking about nothing else.”

“Poor thing, she must be frantic,” his mother said.[...]

“Yes, it’s a difficult situation,” Gideon said, “but it’s really none of our business.”

The two most important women in his life gave him another pitying look.

“But we hardly know them,” Gideon added, already sure that his protests were futile.

“One thing I’ve learned from the Suffragist movement is that women are always at a disadvantage in this world, and we need to help each other whenever we can,” Elizabeth said, earning an adoring smile from her mother-in-law.
END QUOTE

Elizabeth has a proven track record when it comes to misleading the greedy and mean in order to set things right, and she’s more than ready to facilitate the transfer of money from the people who ended Cal’s career, and nearly his life, to the victim himself. But Cal is a proud man who refuses to accept anything that looks like charity, complicating matters severely. In order to ensure that he and Irene come into the money they need to get married, Elizabeth will have to recruit not only her grifter father and brother but an acquaintance of her dad’s, a beautiful new entry to New York City society who goes by the name Paulina.

At least, that’s the name Paulina uses with Elizabeth and any others privy to her true career. To everyone else, she’s Senora Paulita Padilla y de la Fuente viuda de Chavez, a Spanish widow locked in an inheritance dispute with her late husband’s brother. Paulina is ready to fleece the many rich people looking to “assist” an impoverished widow by offering extravagant loans at extortionate interest rates, and thinks she can incorporate Elizabeth’s schemes into her own. Elizabeth is pleased to find Paulina so sympathetic to her plans, even as she’s surprised at Paulina’s indifference to the suffrage movement that originally threw Elizabeth and the Bates family together. Paulina says:

QUOTE
“Oh yes, I have read about that, but I do not understand why women want to be involved in politics. Such a sordid business.”

Elizabeth had to smile at a con artist criticizing another “sordid business.” “We believe that women will have an uplifting influence once we win the right to vote.”

Paulina shrugged this off as well. “I think you will find that uplifting politicians is very heavy work.”
END QUOTE

As the women plot to give Irene the happily ever after she deserves – a far cry from the simple society introductions Sebastian once dreamed of – they’ll encounter setbacks and obstacles as tricky as on any race track. Will they be able to stay the course and provide Irene with a sporting chance at happiness?

Every installment of the Counterfeit Lady series is even more charming than the last, as this sixth book proves. Elizabeth and her family, by blood or marriage, are all intensely likable, as they perform end runs around the legal niceties in order to make sure justice is served. The sense of sisterhood is strong throughout, as these very different women come together to uplift the least fortunate of themselves. City Of Fortune often felt as if Dick Francis and Edith Wharton had had a wonderful literary baby, but is very much a Victoria Thompson original, full of humor and heart and whip smart wit throughout.

City of Fortune the 6th book in the Counterfeit Lady Series by Victoria Thompson is by far the best one I’ve read in this awesome series. This is a great cozy Historical Fiction mystery that will keep you turning the pages.

City of Fortune is a story about race horsing and the happenings of those lives involved, and Victoria Thompson took me on the best ride from beginning to end. Elizabeth and Gideon the lead characters are great, and we continue to get to know them through their very different POVs. Love the secondary characters too and watching them grow and evolve from story to story, and it is continuously interesting to see what will happen with them next.

I was sent this book as part of blog tour event from Berkley Publishing via NetGalley, but since I don’t have a blog I have written a review instead. Upon starting this book I realized it was part of a series so I put it aside and started with the first one in the series which isn’t necessary but made it much more enjoyable. Fans of Victoria Thompson and this series should enjoy the latest of Elizabeth’s adventures.

City of Fortune by Victoria Thompson is the sixth in the Counterfeit Lady mystery series, although it works as a stand-alone. And that, perhaps, is one of its issues: the text seems to contain a great deal of explanation and repetition. Granted, some is needed in order to explain the multiple "cons" that are executed, but that also slows the story and removes much of the surprise. This tale introduces readers to Sebastian Nolan, a horse-racing client of lawyer Gideon Bates. Bates and his wife, a former con artist named Elizabeth, befriend Nolan and his daughter Irene. There is an element of thwarted romance both for Nolan (who rivals another breeder named Livingston for the hand of a beautiful and rich Senora) and for Irene who cares for a penniless jockey. Overall: Plenty of empathetic characters and plenty of interconnected plot threads hampered by a slow pace from a best-selling author. Fans of horse-racing will enjoy the classic Dick Francis (and later Felix Francis) mysteries more.

City of Fortune is the 6th Counterfeit Lady mystery by Victoria Thompson. Released 6th Dec 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

Protagonist Elizabeth is a sort of "equalizer" who is a mostly reformed con-woman who only uses her skills for good these days. She's setting into married life with her ever-honest paragon of a husband, attorney Gideon to provide an air of respectability. 

This story takes place around horses and the racing milieu is central to the plot. After a dreadful accident at the racetrack, Elizabeth is determined to get to the bottom of what's happening and find out who's responsible, and at the same time not have her cover blown as a counterfeit socialite.

The story does work well enough as a standalone and the mystery is self contained in this volume, although the characters have developed over the course of the series and some interactions will be spoiled by reading them out of order (such as Elizabeth and Gideon's marriage). The dialogue is sometimes a tiny bit stilted, but I believe that's a conscious decision for period verisimilitude on the part of the author. The author is additionally very good at making the horse racing setting believable and immersive.

Four stars. With 6 books extant in the series, it would be a good choice for a binge (or buddy) read. Definitely one for fans of historical mysteries with strong feisty female characters. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

3.5 Stars

Elizabeth Miles Bates is a reformed con woman whose days of cheating innocent people out of their money are in the past. Elizabeth is now happily married to Gideon Bates, a very honest attorney. Elizabeth, her mother-in-law Hazel, and Gideon are excited to attend the Belmont Stakes and mingle with some of the racehorse owners. They become involved in the life of the daughter of one of Gideon’s clients, Sebastian Nolan, who owns one very promising horse. During a race, that horse has a strange accident, severely injuring the jockey, Cal Regan. Elizabeth thinks this is suspicious and also notices that Cal seems to have an unexpectedly close relationship with Nolan’s daughter, Irene. Elizabeth is determined to find out who is behind this sabotage and use her skills to help Irene and Cal.

City of Fortune is the sixth in the Counterfeit Lady novels. It’s the first I’ve read, and I think it works well as a standalone. Elizabeth is a unique main character, especially for a cozy series. She was friends with her husband’s mother first when the two women met in prison after a protest for women’s voting rights. It’s refreshing that Elizabeth and Hazel are friends as well as in-laws. Elizabeth is considered a member of society now, but her background would shock the people she now socializes with. She isn’t afraid to speak her opinion and now uses the skills she learned as a con woman to help those in need. Gideon is very supportive of his wife and is willing to help her as long as he is not required to lie. He seems a bit stuffy at first but loosens up by the end of the book and seems like a good match for Elizabeth.

There is a subplot involving a con woman posing as a Spanish widow waiting to get a large inheritance which becomes important to the main plot as the story progresses. It’s interesting but gets very confusing since there are several side characters mixed up in this con, and all are lying. It goes on for too long and becomes more and more convoluted. I wasn’t fully engaged with this part of the book, so this middle part moved slowly for me. The “Senora ” has another reason for running this con, which I guessed right away, but it does set up a nice ending for a couple of the characters. Overall, I enjoyed the premise of the book and the satisfying ending. Fans of the series should enjoy the latest of Elizabeth’s adventures.

~ Christine

I featured this one last week and ever since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it! The cover fully lured me in as well as the horse racing aspect and I just couldn’t get it out of my head! I had planned to read this one a little bit later this spring when my calendar wasn’t so full but sometimes it just happens like this where I can’t get a book out of my head and then boom here we are reading it way before I planned to !

I have read some of Victoria Thompson’s books but have been limited to the Gaslight Mystery series. They are pretty good and that series especially is a long standing series (I think there are around 25 or 26 books!). She has written a couple of other romance books (cowboy romances) but the historical mysteries have been limited to the Gaslight Mystery series. Then in 2017, Thompson released the first book in her new series, Counterfeit Lady series and this series was born.

I haven’t read any of the other books in this series but I have the books on my radar and now that I have read this one, I think I am going to have to go and check out the other books in the series now. You could pick this one up mid series (which is what I did) without having read the other books, but there are clearly some plots that are established from previous books. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me but I did feel like my reading experience was different than someone who might be reading it from the beginning and in order.

Summary

When a day at the races reveals sabotage and subterfuge, Elizabeth Miles must use every ounce of her craftiness to even the score in this all-new Counterfeit Lady novel from USA Today bestselling author Victoria Thompson.

Wealthy but uncouth Sebastian Nolan has invited his lawyer, Gideon Bates, and his lovely new wife, Elizabeth, to attend the famous Belmont Stakes. Nolan is anxious for Gideon and Elizabeth to help his daughter, Irene, acquire a bit of polish, now that his venture into thoroughbred racing has allowed them entry into society. He is also hoping to find her a rich potential suitor. Elizabeth is not exactly the society girl Nolan believes her to be, but she is eager to attend the races. Her con artist family has made a lot of money at racetracks, although not from betting on the horses, and she enjoys the excitement of the track.

Irene Nolan seems more interested in horses than husbands, and she jumps at the chance to show Elizabeth her horse, Trench, and introduce her to his rider, Cal Regan. Elizabeth soon realizes there is more than just a working relationship between Irene and Cal. But she also knows that Irene’s father would never allow his only daughter to marry a jockey. When Cal takes a terrible tumble injuring both himself and Irene’s beloved Trench, Elizabeth and Gideon learn that the mishap was not simply bad luck—the horse and rider are victims of sabotage.

It turns out that Sebastian Nolan has more than a few skeletons in his closet and someone is out to get their long sought-after revenge. Elizabeth knows that to help Irene and Cal, she is going to need some help in creating the quintessential con. With the ever honest Gideon at her side, she enlists those closest to her to come up with a scheme that will either ensure young Irene and Cal a first-place finish or have disastrous consequence (summary from Goodreads)

Review

Personally I would have liked to have read this series from the beginning so I could fully enjoy and understand the relationship between Elizabeth and Gideon. Clearly there is an established and shared history there and I think I would have appreciated their characters more if I had read about them from the beginning. That’s not to say that I was lost necessarily, Thompson does a good job at catching new readers up in the series but we are on book six here and sometimes that’s a lot of ground to cover and get new readers caught up on. So personally I prefer to read the series in order but it wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker here. The story was still good and I liked the characters a lot—enough that I want to go back and read more about them from the beginning. But if this is your first book from the series like me, you won’t be too lost to enjoy it.

As a former equestrian I liked the horse angle of this story. I have been to plenty of racetracks, in fact my old horse was an off the track thoroughbred so I loved the horse angle of this story. I loved that the author really went into detail about the behind the scenes of the racing world and the lives of jockeys. Even still there is a dark world when it comes to horse racing so I thought this was a well done and interesting aspect of the story.

Of course there is a mysterious death in this one and that’s the premise for the book, to solve a mystery. Lately I have been reading more modern and dark, twisty thrillers so this was tame by comparison. However, this was a welcome break from some of the heavier stuff I have been reading, this book was more about sleuthing and solving as crime. Without giving too much away, I wish this book had a couple more twists and personal buy in for the characters but overall it was pretty good and I was invested enough to want to read the other books in the series! If you are a historical fiction fan, especially cozy mysteries then this is going to be a good option for you. I enjoyed this book quite a bit!

Book Info and Rating

Format: 304 pages, kindle edition

Published: December 6th 2022 by Berkley Books

ISBN: 9780593440575

Free review copy provided by publisher, Berkley Books, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: historical fiction, cozy mystery

I accidently read a cozy mystery, I guess? Not usually a genre I read.
I haven't read any other books in the series, but understand all the characters and the setting was fine.

The author did a lot of research on horse racing, so any readers of this book will get a thorough primer on the subject.

I was mildly entertained, but it did feel pretty long by the end. The con was... interesting. I have mixed feelings about it.

I might go back and read the earlier books in this series because I like Elizabeth.

This super accessible historical fiction series turns its eye to horse racing with this one, and as usual I learned a lot about the time period while being incredibly entertained by the cons being run by Elizabeth and her associates. I adore all the characters in this series, and it's continuously interesting to see what will happen.

Visit again with familiar characters and watch the con develop. Watch for the surprise con at the end. Great addition to the series.

City of Fortune is the sixth installment in author Victoria Thompson's Counterfeit Lady series. Wealthy but uncouth Sebastian Nolan has invited his lawyer, Gideon Bates, and his wife, Elizabeth Miles Bates, to attend the famous Belmont Stakes. Nolan is anxious for Gideon and Elizabeth to help his daughter, Irene, acquire a bit of polish, now that his venture into thoroughbred racing has allowed them entry into society. He is also hoping to find her a rich potential suitor. Nolan has a horse and jockey he believes can regain his reputation.

Elizabeth is not exactly the society girl Nolan believes her to be, but she is eager to attend the races. Her con artist family, including her father, and brother, have made a lot of money at racetracks, although not from betting on the horses, and she enjoys the excitement of the track. Irene Nolan seems more interested in horses than husbands, and she jumps at the chance to show Elizabeth her horse, Trench, and introduce her to his rider, Cal Regan. Elizabeth soon realizes there is more than just a working relationship between Irene and Cal.

But she also knows that Irene’s father would never allow his only daughter to marry a jockey. When Cal takes a terrible tumble injuring both himself and Irene’s beloved Trench, Elizabeth and Gideon learn that the mishap was not simply bad luck—the horse and rider are victims of sabotage, and only person to blame may be Daniel Livingston. It turns out that Sebastian Nolan has more than a few skeletons in his closet and someone is out to get their long sought-after revenge. Elizabeth knows that to help Irene and Cal, she is going to need some help in creating the quintessential con.

In walks a woman calling herself Senora Paulita who claims that she came from San Francisco, but originally lived in Spain before the war. Paulita, along with a woman she claims is her sister, has her own little con game going on it and includes two men, Sebastian Nolan, as well as his adversary Daniel Livingston. The two men have spent the last 20 years angry at each other over a woman who left Daniel and married Nolan. When Nolan sees the woman, he immediately believes that his presumed dead wife, Mary Nolan, has come back from the grave.

Shockingly, the man that Paulita is with is none other than Elizabeth's own father. Paulita decides to play the men against each other in a twisted love triangle to see who can come up with the most money to help her fix a problem that she is dealing with back in Spain. One that will require her sister to marry a man her sister despises. With the ever honest Gideon at her side, she enlists those closest to her to come up with a scheme that will either ensure young Irene and Cal a first-place finish or have disastrous consequence.

Gideon, an honorable lawyer who refuses to lie but he has moments that make you take notice. I also found Hazel Bates to once again be at the center of what's happening with Elizabeth and her attempts at helping people without taking any money from them. I have to admit that I was once into horse racing when I lived in New York. We had plenty of tracks, and plenty of weekends where we would go to various races and place bets as well as partaking in all you can eat restaurants. This story brought back a whole lot of memories. Some good, and some bad. Overall, a decent read with a surprising ending.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is a good Historical Fiction mystery set in London. Although this is book 6 in the series, it can be read as a stand alone. I haven't read any of the previous books, but there was enough back story provided in the book for me to not feel as though I had missed too much.

Elizabeth and her attorney husband Gideon are invited to share a box with his client Sebastion Nolan at the horse races. Nolan wants Elizabeth to take his daughter Irene under her wings to "refine" Irene so she will be accepted into society and she can snag a rich husband. Nolan raised Irene on his own after his wife died, and she grew up in the stables and involved with horses and the horseracing world. When Elizabeth sees Irene interacting with their jockey Cal, she senses there is more than a employer/employee relationship between the two.

When Cal has two mishaps at the races, one leaving one of his legs shattered, ending his career, Elizabeth senses sabotage and insists that she and Gideon help Irene and Cal. This ultimately ends in Elizabeth involving her con artist father and his crew to help out with the case.

I enjoyed this book and liked Elizabeth and Gideon's relationship. Elizabeth is smart and savvy and Gideon doesn't try to box her in or interfere in her plans. I loved Gideon's mother. She added humor to the story and was unfailing in her support of Elizabeth. In fact, she delighted in Elizabeth's antics, as well as rubbing elbows with her con man father. The book is well-written and easy to read. The only reason I knocked off half a star from the book is because it dragged a bit in the middle and I felt that some parts of the story, including a few twists, were unnecessary. It almost felt like filler to increase the page count. But, these are minor issues of mine, and others may not feel the same.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.

Elizabeth Bates is accompanying her new husband, Gideon, to the race track. One of his clients wants Elizabeth’s help in making his daughter, Irene Nolan, fit for society, which is funny since Elizabeth is still learning how to fit in herself. The day of horse racing doesn’t go the way the Nolan’s had planned however, when neither of their horses do well. But as Elizabeth gets to know Irene, Elizabeth realizes that Irene needs more help than fitting into society. In fact, Elizabeth’s skills as a conwoman might prove to be extremely helpful. Can she come up with a way to solve Irene’s real problems?

Obviously, this is more a caper than the typical mysteries I read, and I enjoyed the change of pace. I did feel the plot could have used an additional twist or two and some personal stakes for Elizabeth to truly draw me in, but I still really enjoyed it. And there are a couple of twists, one I didn’t see coming. The characters are strong. Elizabeth and Gideon are great lead characters, and we continue to get to know them well as we see the story unfold from both of their points of view. There are some funny moments that come from the characters including one line that really made me laugh. The 1919 setting is brought to life wonderfully as well. This is a fun addition to a fun series.

City of Fortune by Victoria Thompson
Mystery/Historical Fiction
Counterfeit Lady #6
Publication Date: Today!

It’s rare you can pick up a series six books in and not feel like you missed anything. Thompson does an excellent job here of giving you just enough background information for everything to make sense but not enough to spoil the events of the previous novels.

In City of Fortune, Elizabeth, a former con’s daughter, and her lawyer husband, Gideon, attend the races with one of his client’s, Sebastian Nolan, and his daughter, Irene. Things are going well until a series of incidents occurs and mysterious acquaintances pop out of the word work. It is clear to Elizabeth that Irene is in love with the family’s jockey and her father would never indulge such a romance. Elizabeth comes up with a con to allow Irene and Cal to have a future well everyone deals with the consequences of what happened during that day at the races.

This is the coziest of mysteries. It features a plot that is kind of obvious from the very beginning in terms of the “who dun it” but the why they did it kept me flipping pages. I absolutely needed to know why anyone would do that. It has a tiny drop of romance, so small that if it isn’t normally your thing this might be a book for you. It also does a great job of comparing different ways of thinking between classes and prominently features discussions of the suffrage movement taking place at the time.

The only real issue I had, and it’s more of a me-problem than a book problem, was that every time someone referred to Gideon’s mother as “Mother Bates” I wanted to chuck my book out the window. I get that his wife would also be Mrs. Bates so it could be potentially confusing but, I would have accepted the “elder Mrs. Baters” or perhaps “MOM?!?!” over Mother Bates.

Well, that and the cover art really does nothing for me. I’m not going to lie, if I had been browsing in a bookstore I would have passed right over this novel and not given it a second thought which is a shame because it is cute. There is just so much dead space on this cover.

Thank you to Berkeley for providing an advanced reading copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.