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A nice family saga but not quite my cup of tea. Too nice and mild characters and long quest for family treasure may be more interesting for readers who love reading about nice families.
3 of 5 stars.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The story line was interesting, but the multiple pov gave me major whiplash. I think 4 chapters in I had already experienced 5 povs and a time travel. A mix of historical and modern mystery/thriller. I do however think the characters in the book were developed quite well.

Where Fortune Lies
by James Short
BooksGoSocial
Historical Fiction | Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 26 Apr 2019


I am reviewing a copy of Where Fortune Lies through BooksGoSocial and Netgalley:




In the town of Solvidado, the townspeople regretted the senseless loss of life when the lovers, Thomas and Penelope, drove their wagon over the cliff to escape pursuers, but what they regretted even more was the disappearance of the Gold, the couple had stolen. Since the tragedy a century prior treasure hunters have searched Solvidado and its environs for the hidden gold.



fast forward a hundred years later, in a hotel room, April, A new bride, is preparing to take her own life, her husband Phillip had just stormed out of the room in a rage. Ravela, a demon from April’s past has once again shown up, this time convincing her that the only cure for her hopeless feeling is to kill herself. But after Aquino a cat burglar, breaks into the bridal suite and interrupts her preparations. Aquino persuades April to delay her suicide for the night. He has this strange idea that she, and she alone is uniquely able to help him find the treasure by reliving the events leading up to the pursuit over the cliff. They exit the hotel off the third story balcony.




In the Meantime Jacinto has met the ghost of a Portuguese undertaker, a witness to the tragedy, he assures him that the treasure is hidden where an honest person would change it. Jacinto then offers to guide him through Solvidado and narrate the story of Thomas while Philip tries to solve the riddle.


April and Phillip are then taken on a nighttime journey that takes them to the previous century, they encounter the unusual love affair between Thomas, a man who lives well but has no apparent source of income, and Penelope, a young woman who always wears a veil in public. They each find different pieces of their puzzle they have to put together are a child lost in Paris, a master who is a servant, a locked door to a cold room, a rancher with a scarred lip out for revenge, a high-stakes poker game for the hand of a young woman, a foggy night, a burning wagon, a Portuguese undertaker and his pig.



Before the mystery is solved and the treasure discovered. April soon finds herself on the edge of the same cliff, the couple drove a hundred years ago, wrestling with her demon Ravela. Will she survive?



I give Where Fortune Lies five out of five stars!







Happy Reading!

It absolutly hurts me to do this. I really don't want to add another DNF to my pile of books, but I have to.
Truth be told, I made a huge mistake: I Judged The Book By The Cover. It's a beautiful cover and that cover, as well as the title, lured me in most. The description was actually secondary, because this book had me with its cover alone.
Remember this beautiful, beautiful saying Do Not Judge A Book By Its Cover? Yeah, that's exactly what I did. But I tried to give this book a chance. And I did. I was actually starting to like some of the characters, especially Franklin and April. I was happy about the representation of a POC. I was not so happy about Philip being an asshole about his wife not wanting to have sex. Yes, he luckily didn't force her. But the way he reacted - blamed her even and only talked about all the "sacrifices" he made and even leaving his wedding ring before he went out? That was the first point where I was grinding my teeth and considered to drop this book. Ravelq saved it because I was truly interested about her and curious how she would be influencing April further. So I continued the book with a rekindled fire of excitement.
... Until I reached the part where Philip was cheating on his wife. Besides the fact that I absolutely loathe the reason why he is cheating - darling, sex is no essential need for survival, you literally just got married! - after I read the phrase "But Philip’s trusted soldier, veteran of near a hundred engagements, refused to rise." I was unable to take that book serious anymore. I tried reading a bit further afterwards, but that sentence kept appearing over and over again, making it impossible for me to focus on the book anymore. It saddens me, because I hate to unfinish books, but I am just unable to focus properly anymore.
I am still giving this book three stars - one is for the cover, which I absolutely love, one is for Ravela and one is for the chapter titles which I absolutely adored. Too many books don't have proper chapter titles anymore, so it was refreshing to have some actual chapter titles again.
I received a free copy by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

i really enjoyed reading this book, it had what I was looking for in a mystery novel and a historical novel. I enjoyed the time period chosen and enjoyed the characters.

While I really enjoyed the premise for this story as well as the characters, I cannot give it 5 stars because there were parts that were hard to understand and I was forced to reread much of the chapters again to get a better understanding. The story itself is great and is told in two different time frames which may be why it was harder to keep up with. Thomas and Penelope have run their buggy off of a cliff after having been accused of stealing gold by townspeople. The loss of their lives caused trauma to the town and haunted them afterwards. Fast forward a hundred years and we meet April who is a new bride who has demons from her past and she feels the demons are telling her to take her own life. Just as she is preparing to do so, a burglar interrupts and talks her out of it. Insisting that they could go find the lost gold that went off the cliff with Thomas and Penelope. The character of April was a little much to comprehend but once the story got going it actually became a better read.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review..

I think James short has a fabulous plot in this book , however I found it to be a difficult read , and a tad confusing ..I had to skip back several times to make sense of things especially in the beginning ... a lot of characters ...a lot of reading ...