A Perilous Plan by Melanie Dickerson

Historical Romance. 301 Pages. 3 Stars

Synopsis:

Penelope Hammond finds herself a widow at the age of twenty-three, having been married five years to a man she barely knew. Her husband, David Hammond, Lord Hampstead, was a member of the House of Lords who rarely said more than a few words to her in a week’s time–and often did not come home at night.

But Lord Hampstead was from a wealthy, powerful London family with no enemies, so why was he murdered?

Penelope is a penniless widow with few friends and only her cold grandmother to lean on. When she finds herself pursued by both English officials and French spies, she doesn’t know who to trust—until a handsome Member of Parliament, Henry Gilchrist, saves her from being attacked and kidnapped. Mr. Gilchrist seems so determined to help her, but can she trust him?

Henry Gilchrist seems to know more about her husband than she does–that he was unfaithful to her with a young Frenchwoman who Penelope thought was her friend, that his gambling problem had sunk him deeply in debt, and that he had stolen some very important plans that could put the entire country in danger. And now both the French and the English governments think she knows where these plans are.

Penelope had no idea that her husband stole secret plans and intended to sell to the French, but no one seems to believe her, except Henry Gilchrist. When she starts to fall in love with the handsome young Member of the House of Commons, will he be too imbittered from a former lost love to accept his own growing feelings? But first they must save themselves from those who would do them harm, or there will be no future for them, either together or apart.

My Review:

I loved Melanie Dickerson when I first found her as a college kid. I haven’t read her books in a few years and I’m wondering if I outgrew her or if this just wasn’t my cup of tea. The last two books of hers I read just weren’t as good as I remember her first books being, which was kind of disappointing.

I still really respect what she does and she’s the first author I ever saw do Christian YA (and fairytales no less!). Books like this one scratch the Hallmark itch. They’re comfort reads for me. Predictable, happy ending, more fluff than depth and intrigue. And I do believe these books have a place. I just wouldn’t say it was the best read ever. And I probably wouldn’t reread this one. I may try a different series and see if I like that better.

There were several areas I struggled with in this book. It was really repetitive. Some of the lines of thought, the plot points, and even the phrases themselves became redundant. I got to a point where I wanted to skim and just see how the story turned out, which I’ve never done with a Dickerson book before. I didn’t really understand why the characters behaved the way they did. Why they were so determined to misunderstand each other. They pined for one another, but then argued about whether or not to trust their pining or the other, and then said they did, but backed away. It was tug and pull through the whole book. And none of it felt like growth. I get starting out with the wounds, but they just complained about the wounds the whole book and then at the end…suddenly grew brave enough in spite of them? I don’t know. I just wanted to see more progress, growth, and change.

But I will say I do really like the cover! And it was fun in that comfort food kind of way. I did like the MC learning to stand up for herself and I really liked her befriending Jane. Thematically, the story explores trust and the value and worth of love. The MC came from a broken marriage and the love interest got burned by a previous engagement. I liked him well enough. There were a few parts that felt forced for the sake of the plot and romantic tug and pull rather than true to his character, but that just may be that I struggled with understanding the motivations like I said.

Overall, a fluffy read when you want something surface level, clean, and still threaded with truth filled themes. Clean romance, though allusions to mistresses and definitely some pining XD A few kisses, but nothing explicit. Little violence, and nothing graphic. An off screen murder, a few hostage situations, street chases, etc. And no foul language. So, I’d say safe for early teens.

More:

Book 2 in the Imperiled Young Widows trilogy is A Treacherous Treasure

Book 3 is A Deadly Secret

I haven’t read the rest of the trilogy, but it’s my understanding that they can standalone, as most of her books do. So, you should be able to read them in any order I think. But I don’t really plan to read the others any time soon. You can click the links above for more information if you’re interested.