A Gilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden is the second in the Hope and Glory series, a sequel to The Spice King.
Caroline Delacroix is the younger sister of Gray Delacroix, owner of the Delacroix Spice Company in the early 1900s. Caroline and her twin brother, Luke, had been frivolous and undisciplined growing up. Gray, twelve years older, was more like a father figure, especially after their father died.
But now Caroline is the secretary to the First Lady, Ida McKinley. Ida has epilepsy and other ailments and has been grieving the loss of her two children. She is excessively dependent on her husband. Plus she is notoriously difficult (the author says in her notes that the medication Ida was given to calm her nerves and help her epilepsy may have actually caused irritation).
Caroline has been blessed with common sense, political savvy, and a charming manner. She can usually talk Ida down, smooth over her moods, or intervene to avoid political embarrassment, such as when Ida wants to wear a hat with egret feathers to a function, when the papers had just carried news of a shortage of the egret population due to their feathers being used in women’s fashion.
Nathaniel Trask has been hired as the new head of the Secret Service, tasked with beefing up security at the White House. Nathaniel is by the book, no-nonsense–just the opposite of Caroline’s free spirit. So they clash repeatedly.
Furthermore, Caroline must keep her family secret under even tighter reigns. Her brother, Luke, has been arrested in Cuba, charged with helping insurgents there. Luke says he is guilty and has fired every lawyer Gray has hired. But Caroline knows her twin: she knows Luke is not guilty. She hopes that President McKinley will eventually grant Luke a pardon. But if Nathanial Trask ever finds out about Luke, Caroline will likely lose her job as well as Luke’s chance for a pardon.
I had known next to nothing about the McKinleys, so their history as well as behind-the-scenes looks at living in the White House in that era were interesting. The second half of the plot went in a little different direction, which I can’t reveal without spoiling the story. It was good to finally learn what was going on with Luke.
I didn’t like that this story overlapped with the previous book by about four months instead of picking up where the last one had left off. And I didn’t like that Caroline was given a vice in this book–smoking–that was not mentioned at all in the previous book. I think that took away from rather than added to the story.
But, overall, I liked the story and the characters. I listened to the audiobook, which had a much better narrator than the first book.
Stray Thoughts 
I would find the McKinley stuff interesting as well; I know hardly anything about them. And hmmmm I wonder why the author would backtrack to overlap with the first book? Good review!
The first book was from the older brother, Gray’s, point of view, and the second from Caroline’s. McKinley’s reelection was at the end of the first book and beginning of the second, so I guess the overlap was to show how that affected both Gray and Caroline in different ways.
I didn’t know that Mrs. McKinley was epileptic. Interesting. The fact that her husband was later assassinated must have been horrible for her.
Interesting premise. Thanks for the review.
As I read the story, I tried not to look up anything about McKinley so as not to encounter spoilers. But I began to think that he had been assassinated, so I looked that up. I was glad I did, so I could see it coming in the book. This had ramifications all around, but especially for Nathaniel Trask in the story, who saw it as his biggest failure and has to wrestle with that.
Addendum – I forgot that McKinley died of gangrene from his wounds – possibly from not great doctor’s care.