#AScandalatSronecliffe

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A Scandal at Stonecliffe - A Stonecliffe Novel Book 3

by Candace Camp

Publisher: ‎ Canary Street Press 

Publication date: August 20, 2024

Print length: 339 pages

Thank you to NetGalley, Canary Street Press, and Candace Camp for this advance reader copy of the book. Below is my honest review.

A rare 5 star story. Although I'm a fan of the author not all books are 5 star worthy so I don't give them out often. There's a list of characters and their relationships in the prolog that was very helpful, I hadn't read the first two books in the series, so the author didn't have to backtrack very much. There wasn't a dull moment from the first page to the last. It's a friend to lovers' trope but they weren't really friends when the book starts. Their relationship goes through all the expected stages; acquaintances, partners, uneasy friendship, trusting friendship, lovers, and finally a lovely HEA. A truly enjoyable read.

Nathan Dunbridge is a Gentleman with a capitol G. He's easy to get along with, does his best to keep the peace, doesn't lose his temper, wonderful dancer, handsome, well dressed. The kicker is he stepped aside and let his fiancée ditch him and marry her true love, that's a true honorable Gentleman. He's been licking his wounds for about a year and now that he's in London again he gets back into the rhythm of town life. At a ball he runs into Verity Cole pretending to be a wealthy widow, she is a former spy and has become a private investigator. Verity is a complicated character, so many secrets, disguises and prickly personality that figuring out who she really is kept me reading. When she takes off to look around the house for a piece of jewelry Nathan tags along. It's the beginning of Verity taking a wrecking ball to his well-ordered life. There's a fake courtship, secrets, an identity discovery, murder plots, twist with two family dynamics, romance, and a little bit of sex. It put me in mind of an old 1940's movie, they made good mysteries back then. The characters are turned around in this story with Verity the hardened PI and Nathan as the romantic sidekick. A scandal at Stonecliffe is book 3 of 3 so the series is finished; wonder what's next.