I really loved this new release from Elizabeth Camden. The story is well told, and the characters have great chemistry. There is lots of intrigue and excitement. The history and faith elements are woven into the story beautifully. I love to learn about lesser know historical facts when I'm reading, and this book had a lot of interesting information about the Panama Canal and AP News. I highly recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction.

I received this book for free for review.

I am a big fan of Elizabeth Camden’s novels.

She has a unique ability to find lesser-known historical events or situations, and build a novel around them. A Dangerous Legacy includes the politcal background to the buiding of the first Panama Canal, PTSD, and the invention of the plumbing valve which enables us to have water pressure in multi-storey buildings. It also includes the slightly more familiar telegraph operators, and the necessity for British peers to marry American heiresses to shore up their crumbling estates.

Lucy Drake is a telegraph operator for upstart American news agency Associated Press. Sir Colin Beckwith is the manager of Reuters, AP’s rival. He’s one of those impoverished British gentlemen looking for a heiress, and Lucy is not a heiress. Her side of the Drake family lost control of their revolutionary water valve, and their legal battle is ongoing.

But Lucy and Colin keep getting thrown together, and they become allies of sorts after each finds out an awkward secret about the other. But neither of them realise how dangerous finding the truth will be, to their lives, their sanity, and their hearts.

Colin was a great hero.
He’s willing to do the right thing even at a personal cost to himself. He’s British through and through, almost the perfect gentleman. And Lucy was my favorite type of heroine—intelligent, independent, and hard-working. They made a great couple. I loved their conversations and banter, and wanted them to be together. It was r good to see their romance build bit by bit as they got to know each other.

A Dangerous Legacy had a lot more suspense than I was expecting, but I’m a romantic suspense fan so that worked for me! It certainly made the novel hard to put down.

Recommended for fans of Deeanne Gist, especially her later books which are solid historical romance but without an overt Christian element. A Dangerous Legacy had a few time-appropriate nods to Christianity, but the faith aspect wasn’t even a minor plot point.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

I really enjoyed this book! Lucy is such an interesting woman. She’s been caught up in a lawsuit with her uncle for years. She’s willing to do whatever it takes to win so her father’s invention can help people who really need it. She’s a strong woman. She’s not squeaky clean like a lot of heroines; she bends legalities to get what she wants. And when she confronts Colin, the sparks fly between them.

Colin and Lucy are like two magnets…sometimes attracted and sometimes repulsed but inevitably drawn together again. They have a playful British vs. American banter. Colin states, “What really steams me is that I bought a very fine box of Cadbury chocolate for you, but I left it behind. Now your wretched family will feast on it, and you will still not appreciate the difference between British and American chocolate” (location 2792). I appreciated that Colin and Lucy knew they could trust each other no matter what else hindered their relationship.

The characterization is amazing. The villains are multi-faceted and truly despicable. The change in Lucy is incredible. She learns from an incredibly difficult situation and is ready to change things in her life.

I would highly recommend this book. Thank you to Bethany House for providing me with a free e-copy of this book. I was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Enjoyed this story of intrigue and romance by a wonderful author. Lucy and Colin had so many twists and turns in their relationship and it was great getting to go though them with them. Can’t wait to read another story about this family.

Memorable characters and another great setting - this will go on the re-read list.

Another prime example of Elizabeth Camden’s amazing ability to draw readers into her excellent books, from the first word in the book to the last one, is A Dangerous Legacy. Plus it leaves readers giddy with the exciting news that another book is coming out! Well done, Elizabeth Camden.

I could leave this review just like that but, don’t worry, I am going to keep talking about this book. If I had been allowed to, I would have read this book in one sitting but I did it in two. I was just glad it was the weekend so I was able to. Lucy was a great main character and so was Colin (Just read his description on the back cover and you will understand why). Camden’s book (all of her books) is descriptive, has historical content, and is very well written.

So they say “don’t judge a book by its cover” but honestly, don’t you look at the front covers of books? Well I did that with this novel, and when Elizabeth Camden posted the cover, I knew I was going to read this book.

This book is very good and I highly recommend A Dangerous Legacy.

Sometimes you read a book that you finish and you go, "Good book." Other times you don't enjoy the book as much and move on easily. 

This was neither of those. This was a book that I finished and thought, "Wow. I wish I had not just read that book as I would like to read it again!" 
Elizabeth Camden is an exceptional author, but I love her unique characters. They have quirks, fun personalities, and flaws, yet you can love getting to know them while learning amazing historical facts without even realizing it. 

Carrier pigeons, Morse code, newsrooms, spies, and narcissistic/abusive family members are only a few of the topics covered in this fast paced story. It is one you will not want to put down. 

Elizabeth Camden is one of the authors that is an automatic buy for me. I see she has a new book out and I don't even stop to think if I will enjoy it. 

I can't wait to see what the future holds for her writing and books! I never think I can have one that tops my favorites by her, and then another one comes along. 

I obtained this book through NetGalley and Bethany House publishers. The opinions contained herein are my own. 

You can purchase your own copy, (and I encourage you to do so) at local booksellers and online. "A Dangerous Legacy"

Elizabeth Camden has written another amazing historical romance novel. Although historical fiction is not generally a genre I read as the history part often overshadows the actual plot line and I feel like I'm in a quagmire just trying to wade through, Camden brings to life the city and era of something as seemingly mundane as the transatlantic cable and the battle between the Associated Press and Reuters. Definitely a topic I never would have chosen to read about, much less write a romance novel around, but she does it with skill and grace!

Lucy and her brother Nick have spent their lives under the weight of a 40-year-old legal battle started by their grandfather and his brother over the rights to a plumbing valve invention. She works for the AP as one of few female telegraphers and he works beneath the city in the tunnels as a plumber. Now that their father has passed away, they've inherited the responsibility of continuing the battle with their uncle and his family. They are weary from the fight and frustrated because just as they each manage to find someone special enough to consider marrying, their uncle does something underhanded to chase their love interest away. Then Lucy meets an aristocrat from England, who works for the competing Reuters Agency and although it's against her better judgement starts to feel affection for him, knowing full well that he's only on the prowl for a wealthy heiress, which she certainly is not. An unlikely pair, they team up to try and defeat her uncle and a sinister plot to against the President of the United States, but not without great risk to themselves and others.

I really love the way Camden intertwines historical facts with a quirky and fun romance that's just out of reach, while adding a lot of drama and suspense with dangerous situations and intrigue. However, I'd be lying if I didn't mention the fact that the last section of the book was a bit odd to me. The big conflict was over but I still had 20% left to read. I wasn't quite sure what could possibly happen in the resolution to last that long. And it ended up being pretty good, but a bit of a letdown and a bit drawn out than I think it needed to be. Overall, I'd read it again, and am looking forward to the second book in the series following her brother Nick.

Lucy Drake and her brother, Nick, had spent their entire adult lives fighting a legal battle begun forty years ago, a legal battle that pitted family against family. Yet the injustice reached far beyond family, into the heart of New York City along with other cities whose skylines were growing taller. Lucy and Nick’s winning this battle would improve the quality of life for so many poor people living in tenements across the globe. Sir Colin Beckwith had problems of his own, being heir to a dilapidated castle on a failing estate with a sister and 90 tenants depending on him weighed heavily on Colin’s shoulders. His position in the Reuters Manhattan office couldn’t cover the estate’s upkeep, so the only solution appeared to be to marry one of the many heiresses longing to add a title to their name. Once Colin met Lucy, that solution seemed less and less palatable. Both Lucy and Colin were prisoners to their own sense of responsibility, and both longed for a freedom that seemed elusive.
While this story did not initially capture my interest, I was rewarded for sticking with it, because several chapters into the book I was completely hooked. I would recommend to other readers to allow the author time to lay some framework, and then get ready to be engrossed in the story. While reading one may be motivated to look at one’s own responsibilities that may be self-imposed, and may be interfering with the reception or awareness of the best God has to offer.
I thank NetGalley and Baker Publishing for providing me with a copy of A Dangerous Legacy in exchange for an honest review. I received no monetary compensation. I do recommend this book to those who like to root for the underdog, and for lovers of historical fiction.

I've read all of Elizabeth Camden's books and I've loved some, and others I didn't connect with as well. A Dangerous Legacy fell into the "love" category! A typical Camden book often has an event in history as the backdrop, and many times the setting becomes central to the book with the characters falling in behind it. In this novel, the setting added to the characters instead of taking over. I really liked that. I also liked that the characters in this story were involved with the telegraph machine at rival newspaper offices, which was interesting and helped to create some of the tension. There was also another side plot, which contributed to the intrigue and suspense in the story.

Romantic tension also plays a part in Lucy and Colin's story, and I really loved the way that the characters didn't fight their attraction to one another. However, circumstances didn't allow them to pursue one another the way they would've liked. The honesty that they had with one another, even if it showed their personal weaknesses, was refreshing.

The way the plot was woven together, with a lot of layers that were revealed a piece at a time, kept me turning pages and built up the suspense. I loved the way that a dangerous situation that Lucy was involved in helped her to have a moment of self-discovery and affected the outcome of the story. Her journey also affected the way Colin saw the direction his life was going.

I would definitely recommend this to fans of historical Christian fiction. An excellent story!

Loved the story and the characters. Camden does a wonderful job with historical details that really add so many dimensions to her stories. This one won't disappoint!

I particularly enjoyed the inside look at news of the day in 1903, and the peek inside a sanitarium with the horrendous practices. (It isn't graphic, just horrifying).

Character development is really good, but one thing that was a bit reader shocking is the abrupt turn around at the end of the story. I get it, but it's still very abrupt.

Each character has a flaw that is even pertinent to today as well. Woven into the story these flaws take the characters out of the 2-D realm of paper and ink (or eReader) into full, lively color complete with smells and textures that you don't find in most stories these days.

It's a keeper, and a great, satisfying read.

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Thank you NetGalley and publisher for giving me this copy to review.

Every time I pick up a book written by Elizabeth Camden, I am enthralled. Her characterization, setting, and storyline are impeccable.

In a Dangerous Legacy, Camden weaves together the competition between America’s Associated Press and England’s Reuters, a forty-year-old lawsuit battle, political intrigue, mental institutions and family splits in a turn-of-the-century world together in a captivating manner. There’s so much going on in this book, it could have become very convoluted, but it never did.

The banter between Sir Colin Beckwith and Lucy Drake is delightful without stumbling across that fine line to annoying. Lucy has a true Champion in her brother as well. Lucy is such a likable character. She’s smart, brave, determined, and generous.

I’m already looking forward to Nick’s story coming in 2018. With another stunning historical fiction book, Camden remains at the top of my must-read author list.

***I receive complimentary books for review from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Honestly, Elizabeth Camden's books are just all the ingredients I love. I truly think she is writing for me! She has a masters in history, so her research is unparalleled, she has an easy, accessible writing style, characters and dialogue that leap off the page and a keen sense of time and verisimilitude. But, I think what I find most impressive, is the ease in which she excavates snippets of history not usually explored onto which she shines the spotlight of her inimitable narrative style.

I also always identify with her heroines ( something that is hard to do in inspirational fiction ---even for an avid reader in the genre like myself). Her heroines are smart, resourceful career women who balk at limitations and want to make their marks on the world. Often in men's professions during times when women were to be angels of the hearth, her heroines are always just a few steps ahead of the world--- and the game. Fiercely independent, they are not easily won, unless they are able to fit the inevitable romance end of the plot into their working world.


Image result for a dangerous fortune camdenThe overarching plot of this multi-layered story revolves around the Drake fortune and put me immediately in mind of the never-ending Jarndyce and Jarndyce case in Dickens' Bleak House. Siblings Nick and Lucy Drake are at the center of the case trying to find justice for their family and their late father. Beyond any monetary gain or inheritance, the resolution of the case will hopefully mean the end of their torment by a wealthy rich relative, Thomas Drake, who lives as lord of the manor in nearby Saratoga while the Drake siblings are hard workers scraping by in their Greenwich Village apartment. Court settlements, a lavish necklace and two brothers who fought over the invention of a brilliant valve during the Civil War times brushes Lucy and Nick's world with a burden to their father's memory as well as the social injustice they see around them. A plumber, Nick wants to use the ease in which he can work this portal to his family's inheritance to equip tenement houses with running water for a fraction of the cost of the high city fees.

Another layer of this surprisingly intricate plot is the journalistic meeting of Reuters Agency, where Lucy continually runs into aristocrat Colin Beckwith, heir to a crumbling 18th Century estate across the Atlantic, while working as a telegraph operator for the Associate Press. The history of morse code, telegraphy and homing pigeons is flourished here in exciting detail and I loved hearing about Colin and Lucy's world, the interception of Pacific telegraphs as well as reading cameos by Roosevelt and Taft.

An illegal wire tapped to her desk allows Lucy to transmit messages from her scheming uncle's lawyer and when she overhears a plot for murder, she runs to her uneasy ally ( and source of her burgeoning attraction), Colin, who uses his title and manners to expose the nefarious Drakes in Saratoga once and for all.


A Dangerous Legacy was so much more than an historical novel: it was a treatise on the class system, a look at how entitlement to fortune and revenge can strip one of happiness and a compelling study of New York on the brink of greatness. Nick's work with valves for fresh water in tenement houses opens up a world underground and the labyrinth of the New York sewer system is painted with the same deft ease in which Camden worked with the Boston subway in From This Moment. Colin Beckwith's experiences as a journalist in the Boer War allow for the study of PTSD and a look into the primitive psychiatric methods such as shock therapy. A threat to Lucy is a gateway to a close interior look into mental asylums and the cruelty waged on patients sometimes only committed for incorrigibility.


To summarize the many interweaving plots as Colin and Lucy navigate the intricacies of the Drake fortune is difficult because Camden excels at being so (albeit accessibly) complex. I had trouble putting this book down during a research trip to Boston over the weekend ( books are companions when one is traveling and dining alone) and found myself blown away ( as per usual )with the seeming ease with which she creates conflicting worlds. There is a hunting weekend at a grand estate in upstate New York as well as parties and soirees that hang on Colin's coattails as a reminder of his past and the inheritance that binds him as tightly as the Drake fortune does Lucy and her brother. Manhattan becomes a character a colourful and nuanced as Washington in Beyond all Dreams and Boston in From This Moment as Camden uses her natural skill to paint a canvas brought brilliantly to life.



There is romance, yes, but also a hefty dose of suspense and an intricate mystery I was not anticipating. This is the best type of savoury read: relatable and fascinating characters, a peek through the curtain of the past, a dashing hero, a resourceful heroine, a race against time. Twists and turns and second guesses, dubious villains and beautiful heiresses. In short, a deliciously robust read.


Elizabeth Camden is an inspirational writer; but the religious themes in her book are just that---themes. She writes with a strict and genuine value system and her realistically fallible characters work between the lines of right and wrong often finding their consciences at odds with the world around them. She is never preachy and the faith elements are presented as sociocultural concept. I would recommend her highly to readers from or without a faith background.

Clean drinking water. It’s something that the majority of people in the Western world take for granted but for many on Earth, it is a luxury that remains seemingly out of reach. In A Dangerous Legacy the history of water in the New York tenements comes to life amidst the backdrop of a scintillating mystery and romance.

It’s the turn of the century and an exciting time for global news. With the advent of the telegraph and its wires that span the globe, the world has never been more connected. Keeping people informed is a competitive business and the fledgling AP (Associated Press) news service is battling for survival. This American answer to the powerful British run Reuters News Agency employs dozens of telegraph operators with a mastery of Morse code and a drive to succeed. Lucy Drake is a firm believer in the AP and what they do and is one of their most fervent employees, zealously manning her vital telegraph station. That is not her only mission in life however.

Lucy and her brother also spend a great deal of time and energy involved with the business of water. They devote weekends to installing pumps and “an ingenious set of valves” in tenement buildings so that people living on the upper floors can have water delivered directly to their apartments. It saves women and children from hours of back breaking labor lugging buckets of water up many flights of stairs and raises the standard of living for everyone in the community. Their work is very clandestine however. Their family has been involved in a bitter law suit for forty years over the design of those valves and it is this – both the distribution of water to hard working families and the antagonistic legal battle surrounding it – that is Lucy’s true passion.

Sir Colin Beckwith is a man of conflicting passions as well. He, too, is an avid fan of the news service though in his case it is the AP’s rival, Reuters, that Colin loves. He is passionate about running their New York office and showing those Yanks what great reporting really looks like. But his other love is many thousands of miles away in England and in desperate need of help. Whitefriars, the family estate, employs ninety-one people, many of whom have nowhere else to go. Right now, from leaking roof to flooding cellars, Whitefriars is falling down around the folks who depend on her. Colin is drawn to Lucy from the moment he meets her one exciting evening in New York but Whitefriars needs an heiress and he has every intention of using his good looks, charm and title to land one.

That doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy those moments when he and Lucy clash over whatever latest issue has fanned their rivalry, though. Nor does it mean he can’t appreciate her sparkling eyes and shining dark hair. When he catches her doing some illicit telegraph work, he sees a situation in which a bit of quid pro quo could help them both – and give him the opportunity to appreciate her for just a little bit longer. The two become entangled in an exciting adventure that leads all the way back to the White House but it is not only the villains who present true danger to them; it’s their own wayward hearts.

Sometimes a hero makes the book and this novel is definitely one of those times. Sir Colin Beckwith is a completely delightful protagonist. I liked that he can both play the haughty aristocrat and make gentle mockery of his own false importance. I loved that he has a great sense of adventure and purpose without making a martyr of himself for his causes. The psychological wounds he suffered during the Boer war not only humanizes him but serves as a nice reminder that PTSD was a disorder long before it was named or acknowledged and shows us the high cost of reporting violent news. I adored his pets (homing pigeons), wanted to try his favorite cookies and pretty much fell in love with him as I read his story.

Camden’s romances tend to contain the very best historical content and that is true here. From the exciting world of the blossoming global news business to the small details of trends in home decorating (creative taxidermy? Ew!) she really brings 1907 New York alive. The history never feels like a lesson but she enmeshes you so perfectly in the setting you’ll feel like you’ve been swept back in time.

Lucy and Colin have a snarkier relationship than I typically like but I appreciated how they trusted each other, helped each other and cared for each other. Their words may be barbed but their actions are always tender and heartfelt. By the end of the story I was convinced they are each other’s perfect partner.

Hardly any stories are perfect and a few quibbles kept this excellent tale from being a DIK. I struggled with the character of Lucy, who often displays unnatural extremes in her behaviors. Her early obsession with the case and shift in attitude towards the end is just one example where her personality underwent too much of a change for me to find her character arc believable. It felt very deus ex machina, as though the heroine served the plot rather than the other way around. My other cavil is that Ms. Camden typically sticks to light reference of God and benign theology in her novels and that is an absolutely wonderful way to weave faith into the story without losing the focus on the romance. This time I found the theology woven into the tale a tad disturbing. Her references to talent being a gift from God and the ability to build things making it seem that God was smiling on you made it seem as though blue-collar labor was holy work. The underlying attitude in the book seemed to be that wealth lead to corruption and manual work to good morals. This made me uncomfortable from a spiritual and personal aspect. I don’t think any kind of work is holier than any other or brings us any closer to God. That is the purpose of good works, filled with charity and compassion. Fortunately, while the message is clear, it is also fairly scarce and in no way takes over the story.

None of those quibbles keep me from wholeheartedly recommending A Dangerous Legacy, which is an absolutely terrific, not to be missed Inspirational romance. Fans of Ms. Camden will be delighted with the story and new readers will, I’m sure, be inspired to seek out her backlist.

A Dangerous Legacy
by Elizabeth Camden
Bethany House
Bethany House Publishers
Christian
Pub Date 03 Oct 2017  
I am reviewing a copy of A Dangerous Legacy through Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley:
This book transports us back to the early twentieth century, where we meet Lucy Drake who has a talent for reading Morse Codes which makes her an asset to the American news agencies where she works as a telegrapher. It does not take long for the arrival of Sir Colin Beckwith a rival British Newspaper agent from Reuters to cause her very livelihood to be put at jeopardy.
Despite the rivalry an alliance is soon formed between Lucy Drake and Colin Beckwith, an alliance that may help turn the tides of a legal battle from years prior.
Could the alliance lead to something more?
Find out in A Dangerous Legacy.
Five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!

Associated Press telegrapher Lucy Drake loves her job at the very heart of the American news industry. During her free-time, however, Lucy and her brother spend most of their waking hours and hard-earned salaries on a court case involving a contentious and complicated family feud. When Sir Colin Beckwith arrives to manage the Reuters-- the AP's rival news agency-- Lucy can't help but enjoy his company, and eventually finds a way for him to gather vital information for her court case.

On the hunt for an American heiress to help save his family's home and tenets, Colin uses his British title to rub elbows with America's gilded elite. Though enchanted by Lucy's tenacity and gumption, Colin cannot afford to fall in love with a fortune-less woman. Will their deepening friendship and undeniable attraction to one another lead them to follow their hearts, or will Colin and Lucy continue to sacrifice their own desires for family obligations and money?

Elizabeth Camden takes readers on a compelling journey in A Dangerous Legacy. As a devoted fan of Camden's work, I had been somewhat disappointed in her last two novel attempts, but am more than happy to assert that this latest work may be one of my new favorites. Both Lucy and Colin were believable and flawed, but still likable as protagonists-- which had been my primary complaint in To the Farthest Shores and From this Moment. I truly enjoyed their individual journeys to let go of past expectations and disappointments in an attempt to finally embrace the lives they'd been given. I have always loved America's gilded age, and the depictions of unabashed fortune-hunting European aristocrats, the fast-paced world of the burgeoning news industry, and even the field of mental health were fascinating. With her typical talent, Camden brings a lovely story to a beautifully satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader ready for yet another journey into the past.

I received a free copy from the publisher. No review, positive or otherwise, was required—all opinions are my own.

Thank you to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing me with a free review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book right away piqued my interest because the characters work for the AP and Reuters. It’s interesting how these companies rivaled each other, yet they shared the same building and news wires. The competition in the business transfers over to friendly competition between the characters.

I love historical fiction, so I found this novel interesting. I have not read many novels set during Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency. I liked how Camden wove those ideas throughout the novel. It is what helped push the plot along. Her style was enjoyable – I liked getting a glimpse into both characters minds.

The problem I had with the novel was how it seemed like there were a million things happening at once. One idea would be presented, then the novel would change direction, and it would never make it back to the original idea. I think had there been a little less action, it would’ve helped make the plot more tightly woven. With that said, the one aspect of the plot does directly influence the other, so there is connection.

Overall, if you like historical fiction and want to read about a time in history that isn’t written about as much as other times, try this book out. There’s a little bit of everything inside: romance, mystery, action, and sibling struggles.

I really enjoyed this! It was well-written and plotted, overall a great book. Would definitely recommend.

I have read all of Elizabeth Camden's books and love her writing style, she has a way of capturing my attention right from the beginning and drawing me in. This book is filled with suspense and I loved this historical novel. A book about relationships and trust and making your dream on your own. What a great book.