I have never read a book by Alissa Johnson before, and after I read A Talent for Trickery I had that “Nomnomnommoremoremore” feeling which is a problem because Alissa has written a ton of other books and I don’t know when I’ll find time to read them all. But I do know that I want to read them NOW. Because A Talent for Trickery was so good, you guys. Really superlative. I ate it up. I stayed up late to finished it. It was nommy historical romance goodness.

The plot involves one of my favorite devices – two people (and everyone around them) are, in various ways, career con artists. They are also honest and clear communicators when they think they can be. If they think they can’t tell the truth, they lie quite convincingly through their teeth, but like all good liars they know that the truth keeps things much less complicated (and it makes the lies more convincing). So what you get is a relationship with a lot of secrets, but not the kind of stupid misunderstandings that arise from emotional immaturity. You also get younger sisters who are expert knife throwers, and older sisters who crack codes, and heroes who fight crime (inconveniently for the sisters). Allow me to explain:

It’s the Victorian Era. In the spirit of full disclosure, I digress to say that while I like a Regency romance just as much as the next Bitch, I LOVE Victorians. Ahem. Back to the plot.

It’s the Victorian Era, and Lottie, her sister Esther, and her brother Peter live a quiet life in a small village. When Owen, a detective for Scotland Yard, comes to call, he threatens to expose Lottie’s past life as the daughter of a thief to Peter, the baby of the family who Lottie has sheltered fiercely with the aid of her sister. Owen also reminds Lottie of her feelings of betrayal and heartbreak from their last encounter. Unfortunately for Lottie, Owen has a mystery to solve, and he isn’t going away until he and Lottie solve it.

This book has my favorite thing: witty banter. I love witty banter and Lottie and Owen have great dialogue. Esther is also quite the deadpan snarker. This is the first book in a new series, and I can’t begin to tell you how much I look forward to snarky Esther’s story. I love Esther so much that the mere though of her getting her own book makes me have to breathe into a paper bag. Watching her flick trained assassins in the nose because they won’t accept bed rest after being shot is possibly my new favorite thing ever.

The book also has a lot of angst. Lottie and Esther have a heart-breaking backstory, and the division between Lottie and Owen is truly painful. But there’s enough humor and action and sexiness that it doesn’t go too dark. By the way, it’s refreshing that Lottie and Esther’s past traumas do not involve sexual abuse. They do involve emotional child abuse and neglect, so trigger warning there. Lottie’s father was a thief, and he trained her from an early age to be his accomplice. She was also present during some violent episodes (the violence was directed towards her father) that left her emotionally scarred.

Lottie believes that by being her father’s accomplice, she kept his attention off her siblings and allowed them to have a more innocent youth. The deepest, most interesting relationships in the story are not between Lottie and Owen, although they have a great romance. The most interesting relationships are between the siblings: Lottie, who thinks she has to protect her siblings; Esther, who has been keeping some serious secrets from Lottie; and Peter, who at the age of fourteen is desperate to become the family provider and protector instead of the baby.

I like the fact that Lottie and Esther are resilient. Yes, they had an awful childhood that continues to affect them, but they also find happiness and comfort in their remaining family unit, and they are smart, strong, capable people. They rarely do dumb things, but when they do, it’s in character (both sisters have a tendency to blindly rush to the rescue of others and call themselves idiots about it later). A lot of this story involves the question of whether we can accept ourselves and our loved ones if we know everything about them, and watching that play out between the siblings was fascinating – but I never doubted that all three siblings, including Peter, were tough enough to stick together.

Compared to the entangled family relationships, Owen and Lottie have a basic, but compelling, romance. They have a solid conflict – she’s the daughter of the thief and he’s a detective and also an aristocrat (which…no, I don’t think that would happen, but fine, I’ll roll with it). One of my catnip things is heroes who love smart women, and Owen is incredibly attracted to Lottie’s intelligence. They have secrets galore, but anything they can discuss honestly, they do. In fact, what I thought would be the main conflict between them gets wrapped up in a couple of chapters – but it leads to new, and more interesting, conflict. Owen is great with Peter and he’s good with compromise, too. He and Lottie are both used to being in charge and they both have to loosen up a little.

I enjoyed the romance. I was certainly invested in Owen and Lottie becoming a couple. I love their dynamic of mutual respect and the way they clear up resentments as quickly as they can, because they have huge problems but are not whiny emotionally incompetent babies. But at the end of the day, what sticks with me is the siblings. As an only child who is raising an only child, I’m fascinated by sibling relationships, and I loved seeing these three people (Lottie, Esther, and Peter) drive each other crazy, horrify each other, rescue each other, and clearly adore each other even when they were ready to throttle one another. Lottie acts as a mother to the much younger Peter, and they have the conflicts that mother’s of teens will recognize, even though most of us don’t have these conflicts while strange men in the woods try to shoot at us for incomprehensible reasons.

I liked the action and the mystery and above all I loved that Lottie’s super power is that she’s super smart and super practical. This book was funny and touching and has stayed in my head since I finished it. Now I just have to figure out how to make time for all the author’s other books. Sleep is overrated, right?

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For those who are looking to drink a tasty beverage with their copy of A Talent for Trickery, Amanda put together a mulled wine recipe for the book!