Leafing Through Pages – Amy and the Earl’s Amazing Adventure (Poppy’s Coin #2)

Stars: 2.5 / 5
Recommendation: This series centers on a magic coin that can grant a wish, but not always in the way you expect. This is a fun little historical romance, with just a touch of magic, time travel and a touch of mystery. It is not the traditional spooky that you expect based on the title of the anthology. A very quick read, finished in one night.

J.D. Robb along three other authors published an anthology titled Dead Of Night in October of 2007. I posted J.D. Robb’s novella Eternity in Death that came as part of this book, and is the fifth novella in her In Death Series.

The second novella in the book was by Mary Blayney titled Amy and the Earl’s Amazing Adventure, second book in her Poppy’s Coin series. Her books deal with a magic coin that floats from plot to plot taking the readers in Regency Era in England.

In this second book, Amy meets a suave bartender named Simon West, and with the help of the Docent from the first book, both of them travel to 1805, to understand how an 1808 coin ends up in an 1805 portrait of Simon’s ancestor. Definitely no spooky factor, but certainly loads of magic intertwined into the tale.

Although the book was published in 2007, Mary dedicated her book to 2006, the year of Diamond. Never knew that was what 2006 was called. And the story also begins in April 2006. Looks like when they published in 2007 they either forgot to change the year or left the story as is.

This second book by Mary answers a few questions that we don’t get any answers in the first book Poppy’s Coin.

Firstly we get to know that the name of our leading heroine is Amy Stevens. We also come to know the bartender’s name as Simon West. We also know the docent’s name as Wentworth Arbuckle. We get to see where Jim went from the bar in this book. But we still don’t see how Amy jumped a year, just by listening to the docent’s story before going to the bar as mentioned in the first book. In this book all are in the same year in the present.

Even though J.D. Robb has her novellas in the In Death series, each is a complete plot. Here I felt that the ending was abrupt and hoped to have a conclusion. It was a good beginning to a series, but a bad ending for a novella. Also the epilogue jumps by a year from when the prologue began, and no explanation how our heroine landed a year later. And no explanation of what happened to her friend that she comes with in the beginning.

Perhaps need to read the next book to get answers, but I have too many on my “To Read” Pile that it might not get added to it yet. May be in a few years.

This series centers on a magic coin that can grant a wish, but not always in the way you expect. This is a fun little historical romance, with just a touch of magic, time travel and a touch of mystery. It is not the traditional spooky that you expect based on the title of the anthology. A very quick read, finished in one night.

Spoiler Alerts:

Plot Reveals:
    From Poppy's Coin (#1)
        How did she jump a year while listening to the story by the docent? 
    Amy invites Simon to join her in Topeka, Kansas to attend Jim's wedding with her best friend, at the end of this tale. May be we might see more in Mary's future books in this series.