Customer Reviews

Fool's Masquerade

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Valentine's father dies, rather than go to her estranged grandparents she prefers to hit the open road (in disguise as a boy, naturally, thus the title) relying on her talent with horses to get by. She winds up working for Diccon Leyburn, an extremely charismatic and feudal-type lord and it is there that our story really begins. While this is the usual girl-disguised-as-boy type romance that we have seen since Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (which is quoted as chapter openers throughout the book), Joan Wolf does a great job re-telling this type of tale. Valentine doesn't lose her sense of humour or, more importantly, her backbone although she has come down with a serious case of hero-worship. Diccon, despite the feudal tendencies and some idiosyncrasies regarding Richard III, can also display quite a sense of humour himself and is more than adequate as our hero. One of my favorite Joan Wolf regencies, I highly recommend this one.

I've read the other reviews and have to agree with them both, more or less.

What makes this book and story stand out as one of the better Regencies to me is the characters. I like them both very much. I like their innate honesty when dealing with each other (the disguise aside) and I like that Valentine is the first to be aware of her feelings and not the other way around. It's very refreshing to have a hero that is not enthralled with the heroine in a Regency. It's like a breath of fresh air since, to my mind, that is the way that life is as well.

The fact that her grandparents actually doted on her was a bit of a stretch to the storyline for me, but didn't detract much.

I highly recommend this story because of it's freshness and overall happy tone. No major mysteries here, but a good solid romance nonetheless.

While I enjoyed the old hoary premise (girl pretends to be boy), I found myself irritated by many of the premises and plot gaps. For example, Valentine's naivete about the dangers facing even a youth travelling with an expensive horse. The failure of the staff or the castle steward to question her need for a private room, or her refusal to obtain a new wardrobe. The apparently sudden discovery by the Earl of Valentine's sex (no build up there). The almost equally sudden decision that they must marry for the sake of propriety. [Come on!].

Not to mention the constant harping on Richard III - the name of the Earl "Diccon", his pro-Richard sympathies, the historical sympathies of his family. It was hard to believe that the Tudors and the Stuarts would have let such a family survive, after destroying the Nevilles and the Staffords. The long separation between the hero and heroine (when she decamps to her parents and then goes to London) irritates, as much as the Earl's apparently sudden realization that Valentine is the woman for him. Here maybe it is Valentine's perception (the story is told in the first person) that is at stake.

I have been listing some of the things that irritated me to explain why I gave this book only three stars. I thought the beginning very promising, and the idea of a cross-dressing heroine (borrowed from Shakespeare and Heyer) very interesting. However, the rest of the book did not quite live up to this beginning - and Valentine's decisions and motivations seemed rather erratic, not to say, immature. Yes, there is some humor, and both the hero and heroine are quite attractive. But frankly I saw Valentine as being way too young and immature for Diccon, Earl of Leyburne.

I just re-read this last night because I am desperate for the old-style Joan Wolf regencies. This is the only one I have never re-read because I was not impressed with it the first time. It seemed like an early effort before Joan really got her groove going.

The best part of this for me were the characters. I liked Valentine and Diccon, as well as the supporting cast: Fitzvallen (sp?), the cousin, and all of Valentine's suitors. The first time I read it, I quickly lost interest once Valentine went to London. The plot seems to be just marking time until the hero re-appears.

And even before that, there were some plot holes, as is pointed out by other reviewers. I find it hard to believe that a nobleman would agree to house a stable lad in the house, and furthermore, that the rest of the stable lads would be permitted to visit him there. There should have been some build up to the unmasking of Valentine's gender, some discomfort on Diccon's part as he began to have a strange reaction to his "page". Even though the book is in the first person, Valentine could have perceived Diccon's discomfort without knowing the reason.

All that being said, it was not nearly as bad as I recalled. Perhaps that is because I have since read some truly awful books by Joan Wolf (High Meadow, His Lordships Desire, White Horses) that this seems better in comparison.