Enjoying some TV worthy period dramas in print

 This time of year is a period drama fan's dream as most of the big TV series in that genre arrive to relieve us from the mid winter blues and prepare for spring.

With PBS Masterpiece airing Sanditon at the moment with plans to have World On Fire this April along with Starz premiering season five of Outlander this upcoming weekend, the historical fiction feast is plentiful indeed.

However, you don't have to wait for Sunday nights for such dramatic delights. There are some wonderful new reads on the literary horizon to tune into as well such as Above The Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen.

Our leading lady is Bella Waverly, whose aristocratic father's spendthrift ways have brought the family down to near poverty levels, forcing her to be the sole provider of income as a scullery maid. She does,however, find happiness in learning to cook and when an unexpected opportunity comes for a position in the kitchens of Queen Victoria, Bella takes more chances than one to claim it.

Slowly but surely, Bella makes a name for herself (even though she has to use another person's name and cut what ties she has left with her own family) among the male dominated staff, gaining a bit of praise from Her Royal Highness to boot.

The promise of becoming a pastry chef and the possibility for romance is within her sights but when joining a royal trip to France ,Bella's entire future is threatened by a regal guest fatally succumbing to a mushroom dish that she played a small part in preparing. Can Bella find the killer and clear her name, only to have more of her true secrets revealed?

I've been reading this book, via a Netgalley arc, lately and it's an engaging page turner that puts me fondly in mind of the PBS series Victoria, particularly that story line with Her Majesty's maid falling in love with the talented and ambitious chef. If you like Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness series(and yes, I do!), this stand alone novel is a wonderful addition to her literary world:

Speaking of series, I was finally able to watch the Downton Abbey movie over the weekend and yes, it was a welcome homecoming there.

That put me in mind of author Jessica Fellowes( who is the niece of DA creator Julian) whose Mitford Murder Mysteries were a great library find for me last year. Most recently, a third entry in that series has been released that I hope to catch up to at some point soon.

The Mitford Scandal is set in London of 1928 and while Louisa Cannon no longer works for the Mitford family, she finds it hard to quit their orbit. As a server at an upper class function, she not only runs into heiress Diana Mitford being swept off her feet by a very potential suitor, the tragic death of a maid occurs and Louisa fears that she has seen an important incident regarding that seemingly accidental demise.

Before her own potential police detective suitor Guy Sullivan can take charge of the case, Louisa is offered a job as Diana's personal maid and takes it, bringing herself closer to Guy and deeper into danger. These books are such fun, especially since they feel like alternate world versions of period mysteries like Miss Fisher's Murder series, only with Phryne's sweetly determined companon Dot and her police officer beau Hugh being the main crime solvers:

If you would rather double down on the drama instead of mystery, then I have quite the bookish triple play for you.

Over the past few years, a trio of historical fiction writers, known as Team W, have teamed up to create collaborative novels that showcase their considerable story telling skills quite nicely.

 The latest offering from authors Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White is All The Ways We Said Goodbye, set in Paris at the famed Ritz hotel where three different heroines touch base at different points in time.

 We start with Aurelie as she and her American mother witness the beginnings of WWI during their stay while a WWII Resistance member named Daisy persists in visiting her grandmother at the Ritz while shielding her from the dangers of her war work. By the early part of the 1960s, Babs journeys to Paris in hopes of finding out the true identity of a Resistance member called La Fleur, whose name she has seen on a hidden love letter and wishes to discover more about her.

I am very familiar with Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig(need to check out Karen White!) but have yet to tackle this set of Team W titles so far. With such good word on their prior works as The Forgotten Room and The Glass Ocean, this is a situation that I need to remedy before the year is out. These ladies are proof positive that team work makes the dream work indeed:

Well, I don't know if any of these books will become TV and/or film adaptations in the not too distant future but they certainly are prime material for just such treatment ,if you ask me. For now, we can take pleasure in turning these compelling pages and relaxing with the current crop of TV period drama delights.

 Outlander alone should be extra exciting and who knows, we may get a Lord Grey spin-off series some time soon! Period dramas are hearty fare that can only be improved by expanding the historical horizons and hopefully, more of us will do just that. After all, our favorite leading ladies want more than what the world is placing before them as "proper" and we the fans should follow their lead, so to speak: