Tuesday, October 24, 2017

My Bookshelf: A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White

She’s out to steal his name. Will he steal her heart instead?
Rosemary Gresham has no family beyond the band of former urchins who helped her survive as a girl in the mean streets of London. Grown now, they are no longer pickpockets—instead they focus on high value items and have learned how to blend into upper-class society. Rosemary is beginning to question whether she can continue in this life when she’s offered the challenge of a lifetime—determine whether a certain wealthy gentleman is loyal to Britain or to Germany. After all, how does one steal a family’s history, their very name?
As Europe moves ever closer to World War I, rumors swirl around Peter Holstein. Awkward and solitary, but with access to the king, many fear his influence. But Peter can’t help his German last name and wants to prove his loyalty to the Crown—so he can go back to anonymously writing a series of popular adventure novels. When Rosemary arrives on his doorstep pretending to be a well-credentialed historian, Peter believes she’s the right person to help him dig through his family’s past.
When danger and suspicion continue to mount, both realize they’re in a race against time to discover the truth—about Peter’s past and about the undeniable attraction kindling between them.

 

A Name Unknown is the first book in Roseanna M. White’s Shadows Over England series, but definitely isn’t the first book I’ve ever read by her. In fact, Roseanna is one of my favorite authors of all time, and I have read all of both her Culper Ring and Ladies of the Manor series. As soon as I heard she was coming out with another series I knew I had to read them, and so far I have not been disappointed. Just like I expected, A Name Unknown is expertly woven with an intriguing storyline, well-developed characters, and the perfect historical setting.
Rosemary Gresham is such a strong character. As her story unfolds and her painful past becomes clear, one cannot help but feel so much compassion for her. At the same time, it is obvious she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and that fire and determination is one of the aspects of her personality that immediately drew me to her. Even though I also loved Peter, I couldn’t help but want Rosemary to succeed in her mission, because I didn’t want to know what would happen to her if she didn’t.
Peter Holstien is one of my favorite characters I have ever read about. Although I am not anywhere near as serious of a writer as he is, I couldn’t help but really relate to him as a lover of stories myself, and it always made me laugh when he forgot everything else when inspiration struck. Besides, he was also by far the sweetest, most compassionate man, and I loved how he tried to keep his good deeds a secret. And his relationship with Elowyn was pretty cute too.
All in all, I think this is one of my favorite books that Roseanna has written. The storyline is so different from anything I have read before, and it definitely wasn’t lacking unexpected events. I never could have guessed how the story would end, and the last few chapters were so full of action I was literally on the edge of my seat. I have always highly recommended Roseanna’s novels as she is by far one of my all-time favorite authors, but I would say if you never read any of her other books, read this one. It is so worth it, so captivating, and will convince you to read more of her books because you won’t be able to get enough. As you can tell, this is one of my all-time favorite stories, and has therefore received all five bookshelves, and is definitely a novel I will read again.
Happy reading!



I received a copy of this novel through the Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for only my honest review.

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Roseanna M. White and Bethany House Publishers.

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