Review: The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams

The Wicked City
by Beatriz Williams

Publisher: William Morrow

Pages: 384

Format: book

Buy the Book: HarperCollins

Goodreads:  When she discovers her husband cheating, Ella Hawthorne impulsively moves out of their SoHo loft and into a small apartment in an old Greenwich Village building. Her surprisingly attractive new neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of the basement at night. Tenants have reported strange noises after midnight—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano—even though the space has been empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the place hid a speakeasy.

In 1924, Geneva "Gin" Kelly, a smart-mouthed flapper from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway known as the Christopher Club. Caught up in a raid, Gin becomes entangled with Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather Duke Kelly, one of Appalachia’s most notorious bootleggers.

Headstrong and independent, Gin is no weak-kneed fool. So how can she be falling in love with the taciturn, straight-arrow Revenue agent when she’s got Princeton boy Billy Marshall, the dashing son of society doyenne Theresa Marshall, begging to make an honest woman of her? While anything goes in the Roaring Twenties, Gin’s adventures will shake proper Manhattan society to its foundations, exposing secrets that shock even this free-spirited redhead—secrets that will echo from Park Avenue to the hollers of her Southern hometown.

As Ella discovers more about the basement speakeasy, she becomes inspired by the spirit of her exuberant predecessor, and decides to live with abandon in the wicked city too. . . .

Kritters Thoughts:  Two storylines going at once and the reader knows from the beginning that these stories will connect.  Ella must move out of her loft with her husband and into a small apartment in NYC, she is dealing with a big change in life.  In a story set in 1924, Gin Kelly has left Maryland for NYC and is caught in the underground world during prohibition and her past in Maryland doesn't seem so far away.

I love Beatriz Williams and am absolutely a fan, but this one wasn't my favorite.  Mainly I didn't completely love it because I wanted more from the current storyline.  I would say 80% of the book was from the 1924 storyline and although I loved that storyline, I wanted both more of the current one and I wanted it to weave and intersect a little more than it did.  

I have a few of Beatriz Williams backlist and although this book didn't quite do it for me, I am still excited to get caught up on her books and read them all.  


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.