Customer Reviews

Desire in Disguise

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I have become a huge Rebecca Brandewyne fan and find many of her well woven, complex love stories absolutely captivating...they are so different than the fast past but shallow stuff we so often get today in romance. It's worth shopping for a good used copy of Brandewyne's historical novels on Amazon and curling up for a great read. Desire in Disguise is such a romance.

Like many of Brandewyne's romances (see my other reviews), it is divided into "books"--in this case 5 of them. In the front of the book is a "list of players" that is very helpful and a poem. I highly recommend NOT reading the poem until you've read the book as it gives away the ending. In 1746, long before the revolution, a young French noblewoman gives birth to female twins, Dominique and Lis-Marie, but she is not wed to their father because her strict father will not allow her to marry an actor, albeit a good one with noble linage. The young mother flees from her home and takes the babies to her lover; afterward she dies of a fever. The father of the twin girls raises them in Paris, where they become beautiful, celebrated actresses. He vows they will have noble marriages and so his two daughters are wed, one to a comte in France and one to an earl in England. This is the story of them and their children set against the background of the French Revolution.

Dominique has one son, Justin. Lis-Marie has twins, a boy (Vachel) and a girl (Genevieve). When the revolution comes, Genevieve becomes a smuggler and savior of the French noblemen and women, saving many lives. In the process, she becomes the Crimson Witch who sails the waters between England and France. She meets a pirate-spy, Capitaine Diabolique, commander of the Black Mephisto ship. Genevieve calls him "Noir"; he calls her "Rouge." Though wed to her cousin Justin, who is indifferent to her, Genevieve falls in love with Noir, and he with her. And the game is afoot.

Genevieve is a heroine to love. While only 16, she is intelligent and has been raised with her twin brother to sail a ship and fight with a saber better than most men. She is also beautiful with long red hair. Noir is a fearless swashbuckling spy, a very mysterious man. Is it any wonder their chemistry is explosive? Brandewyne's writing is excellent, her dialog natural and her research impeccable. This story, like many of her tales, is very detailed as she creates unique, believable characters and weaves a story set against a very troubled time in France's history. Her love scenes will curl your toes, too. I highly recommend this one.