Book Review: The Bracelet by Dorothy Love

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I recently joined BookLook Bloggers, and I must say: if all the books are as good as the one I just finished, this will be a match made in Heaven!

I’ve had a couple of people ask me what I was reading recently (I read this book on my Kindle), and the simplest way to explain it is what I told them: a historical romance set over the backdrop of a murder mystery.

The Bracelet is a historical fiction novel set just a few years before the American Civil War in Savannah, Georgia. Early in the story, we meet Celia Browning and Sutton Mackay, a  young couple nearly engaged. Sutton has just returned from a two-year pilgrimage to Jamaica to build the family business. Celia lives with her father, affectionately referred to as Papa (even though the book is told in the third person), and cousin, Ivy. Before the beginning of the story, there was a (short) string of untimely deaths in and around Celia and Papa’s home; these all took place when Celia and Ivy were young girls. When a new newspaper reporter arrives in town and starts poking around the story trying to unearth new facts for a book he wishes to write, Celia begins to learn there’s more to her family’s history than what she’d been told growing up. And when mysterious – and frightening – messages and gifts start showing up as well, she begins to fear for her life.

As you can tell from my opening sentence, I absolutely loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. For the first time since I read Gone Girl a few months ago, I found myself reading anywhere and everywhere, not just a few sleepy pages before falling asleep at night. This is the kind of book that reminded why I love reading. I found the characters lovely and enjoyable to read about. True, they might be a little too perfect, but that is, after all, part of why we read and watch movies: to escape our reality. When the villain is revealed, I was surprised. When the villain’s motivation for being such is revealed, I was even more surprised. And the twists and turns kept going after that major climax.

If you enjoy romance novels (not erotica, just innocent romance), you’ll enjoy this book. If you enjoy historical fiction, you’ll enjoy this book. And if you enjoy suspense, you’ll enjoy this book. The Bracelet has all of those elements.

This was a wonderful book from start to finish, and I can’t recommend it enough. And when I read the author’s note at the end and learned that there will be another book about Celia and Sutton coming out later this year, I was thrilled. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one, too!

Blessings,

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.