A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray

This book started off sadly (death of character from the prequel) but with the introduction of a new character, Emmeline Truelove, who is snappy and a female secretary. Ooooooo.
Her love interest, Lord Silverton, reminds me of no one so much as Lord Peter Wimsey. Seemingly blithe and a little stupid, his thin veneer hides a deeper pain and intelligence. Silverton is to be Emmeline's chaperone on a trip to discover where the new Duke of Olympia (Max Haywood) is since he seems to have disappeared from his latest archaeological dig. A trip that the ghost of Victoria (yes, the former Queen of England) expressly forbade her from going on. So. We've got snappy dialogue, an intelligent female, light paranormal with the heroine seeing (maybe- she keeps telling herself they're figments of her imagination) ghosts, and a quest. Great start.
I was getting excited about this book and went to Goodreads to start writing my review because I was enjoying it so much and didn't want to miss anything. When I got there, I was puzzled as to why a three-star average (which may, of course, change, and god knows I definitely have enjoyed books more than the Goodreads average). But I was only 100 pages in at that point. And I remained puzzled until the last 150 or so pages. Oofda. I feel like the last part of this book was from some other story and was just copied and pasted on to the end. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason for why a book that was zigging and zagging along gentlly (though Silverton seems turns out to be much more of a rake than I suspect Lord Peter was and Emmeline really was turning out to be TSTL, though I could argue with myself that that was probably closer in character to how a woman of her time would have been) all of a sudden veered off a cliff and nosedived into a completely new genre. Even the writing style changed. It was frustrating. Especially given how much I remembered liking the "Duke of Olympia Meets his Match" (which I only gave three stars but thought that it could have been better as a full-length novel). Both books could have benefited from good editing.

Two and a half stars because I enjoyed so much of the book so much before the ending tanked it badly enough that I'm not sure I would even try to pick up the next book in the series
This book comes out October 4

The Duke of Olympia Meets His Match by Juliana Gray

I somehow picked up a bunch of children's books and novellas that were all being published around the same time. This, I thought was a longer book and also somehow believed this to be a mystery. And it is, but more, it's a romance with mystery undertones.
It was an interesting story with the hero, the Duke of Olympia (first name never known) is seventy-four, and the heroine, widowed companion Mrs. Penelope Schuyler, is fifty. There was some character building but I wish there had been a bit more. I'm guessing this is the prequel to a new series and as such, it was okay but could it could definitely have been better if it had been built out to a full-length story.

Three stars
This story comes out May 17