A Season to be Sinful by Jo Goodman

August 3, 2015
"Yeah, I've been searchin'
A-a searchin'
Oh, yeah, searchin' every which a-way
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah, searchin'
I'm searchin'
Searchin' every which a-way
Yeah, yeah"

http://www.jogoodman.com/
Hard to believe, but I ran out of books to read. Well, let me rephrase that. I ran out of books I wanted to read. Started some, but them down - not in the mood for others - some are

tooooo emotional, tooooo tortured, I just have to be in the right mood to pick some of them up (can you say Mary Balogh?) So, I've been looking for some which I might have overlooked. Maybe there's an author out there I gave up on, or for some reason just never picked up. Well, I found me some and I picked them based on some high high highly ranked reviews. One of them I picked was Jo Goodman's A Season To Be Sinful. I don't believe I've ever read one of her books, although one of her covers looks familiar, which doesn't really mean anything. And, Ye-Haw, she writes westerns - not really my cup of tea. So, this will be my first Jo Goodman.

When this story begins, our hero, Alexander Grantham, Viscount Sheridan, aka Sherry, is strolling through the park with his soon to be ex-mistress. He is in the process of ending their affair, so he is a tad bit distracted. He does not see the three small pickpockets headed his way, nor does he see the guy with the knife headed his way. Not to worry, someone sees the guy with the knife. Lucky for Sherry, unlucky for our plucky heroine Lily. Lily has been keeping an eye on the three pickpockets, spots the knife guy and shields Sherry from the plunge met for him, injuring herself in the process. Havoc ensues in the process, Lily is rushed back to the London slums by her pickpockets-in-training boys, Pinch, Dash, and Midge. Sherry is left wondering what just happened.

Days later Lily is dying from her wounds, so her "boys" Pinch, Dash, and Midge go get Sherry and insist that he save her. Sherry is willing to do so, because he believes Lily may have some knowledge as to who might be trying to murder him. Once Lily regains consciousness they agree to form a partnership of sorts. Both Sherry and Lily have secrets, pain and are full of angst, but the woe-is-me feeling was not overwhelming in this book. In fact, there were numerous moments of fun with a couple of really sweet, poignant times thrown in just to make this story fascinating.

While Sherry and Lily were both well-developed characters who were both quite interesting and I loved watching them together, it is the three supporting characters of Pinch, Dash, and Midge which bring this book to life. Whether these three hooligans are on their own or whether they are adding to the characters of Sherry and Lily, it doesn't matter because they are a force to be reckoned with. It was a treat to watch them interact with Lily - the four of them together were a true family. There was also some amazing writing when the three boys became part of Sherry's world. These three characters have to be some of my favorite secondary people this year and they are also some of the best children I've seen in a book for a long time.

Overall, I was glad I chose this story to read.  It was a true delight. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn close. I highly recommend that if you haven't read A Season to be Sinful that you don't wait any longer. Go ahead pick it up and enjoy!

Time/Place:Regency England