Customer Reviews

Masquerading the Marquess

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

 

 

The House of Avon continues to move forward with light humorous romances. MASQUERADING THE MARQUESS is no exception. It seeks to be amusing and pleasant. However, too many characters and too much scrambled detail fill this storyline!

Calliope Minton is a motivated Regency caricature artist - incognito of course! Her target is England's upper class and culture. She loves to trouble and demean the rich and highborn. Her number one victim is James Trenton, the Marquess of Angelford. Why is Calliope so ruthless? Because she and her mother were once victims of a scheming rogue -- or so Calliope remembers!

Angelford may be a marquess, but he is also a member of an elite society. Men who serve England's foreign office; men who protect the British Empire from distress . . .

For Calliope and James, their attraction radiates and heated sparks fly. Everyone, IN the story, can feel the pull - everyone except James and Calliope. Antagonistically, the two are forced to work together to solve the disappearance of a mutual friend which only leads further into the depths of a dark mystery.

Disappointingly, a contemporary weight is felt throughout the story. And although Anne Mallory tries to convey a heated attraction between the main characters, the warmth is just not felt! Regrettably, this romance is too reserved and too congested! Grade: C

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

Ms. Mallory's debut effort demonstrates that she does have what it take to be a good author, but there are still some kinks that need to be worked out. One thing that was a problem was the over population of characters.

Calliope Minton is not your average Regencey miss. She is a Caricaturist who just so happens to also play at being a ladies companion, and later a courtesan all with the effort to get scandalous "on-dits" for her next cartoon. Her plan, take down one member of the "Ton" at a time. But, instead she gets more than she bargained for. Now she has stepped into a mystery that tied to national security and her friend Stephen has gone missing and the bain of her existance the Marquess of Angelford is now forced to work with her in order to find out what happened to Stephen. The fact that these two strong willed people set sparks to flying everytime they're in a room together escapes no one except for...Callie and James. Will these two people manage to work together before they kill each other or will they finally admit to the attraction that they can't keep ignoring?

This story had a lot of potential but what kept it from being "great" was the convoluted connections between so many of the characters with little ryhme or reason for the reader to follow. It looks as if she was laying the ground work for a series and this would have been fine except again...too much with little connection. As a result this romance between James and Callie felt forced and was not truly believeable for the reader. One can hope that her next effort will be a tad scaled down with more attention to the "romance" and less attention to building toward a series. Still this was a decent read and I will pick this author up again in the future.

Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

MASQUERADING THE MARQUESS by Anne Mallory
December 22, 2004

I read this debut novel by Anne Mallory, and loved it! MASQUERADING THE MARQUESS was a fun romp set in England's regency era. Main character Calliope Minton disguises herself to work her way into the world of the "ton", to help with her career as a successful caricaturist. Her latest caricatures are all aimed at the handsome Marquess of Angelford, and to her dismay, she finds her path crossing with his more often than she'd like (except that he's great material for her drawings!)

The book is funny but along with it there is romance and danger as the two get involved in finding their missing friend Stephen, who had been helping Calliope on the sly with infiltrating the balls and fancy parties. This is one book that could possibly be read in one sitting. I found myself enjoying MASQUERADING THE MARQUESS a lot, and gave it 4 stars. Recommended for those who love regency romances with a lot of humor mixed in with mystery and intrigue.

In 1823 caricaturist Calliope Minton, using the pseudonym Landis, hates nobles taking great fun out of ridiculing their foibles. To gain access to her subjects, she dons disguises; currently she works as Lady Simpson's companion. Her prime target of late has been Marques James Trenton, who observes her as her behavior gets her fired. She leaves with her head up high and her cane left behind.

Not long afterward, Calliope arranges through her mentor Robert Cruickshank to pretend to be a courtesan attached to Stephen Chalmers, who has just come in from the cold. James who works undercover with Stephen immediately recognizes his beautiful companion as Calliope and not Esmeralda as she claims. When someone abducts Stephen, James and Calliope try to rescue him and to uncover the identity of the traitor in the Home Office even though he ponders her masquerades and how they link to the vanishing while the duo also falls in love.

This entreating Regency romantic suspense works on several levels mostly because of the relationship that started dysfunctional between the lead couple. The support cast enhances the exhilarating story line in which the espionage elements take off much later than the romantic caricatures do, but quickly picks up speed as Calliope sees a different facet to James and he wonders if her secrets have to with Stephen's disappearance. Sub-genre readers will enjoy this delightful historical treat.

I can't believe this is a debut author.

I think the most important thing to mention would be that the heroine has the same level of intelligence as the hero. She is simply another person in the world. They are one of the most truly equal couples I can recall reading.

Calliope, as noted, is a sketch artist who becomes involved in the life of one of her subjects. Her career is the catalyst for the plot, but not the plot itself. There is very little hiding of identity or angst over discovery. The more important story involves the hero and heroine acknowleding the mistakes their parents made and coming to terms with them. Calliope has no fairy tale resolution with her parents, but a more realistic one that rings very true. Same for James. This is a solid, well written romance based in conflict between people, not contrived communication errors or frustrating silences. The side mystery is in the currently popular spy cartel theme, but with a higher body count. A great one sitting read.

I read this debut novel from Anne Mallory in one sitting. A wonderful hero, an engaging and spunky heroine, a mystery to be solved, and a large heaping of danger and action. I positive devoured this book. :-)

Looking forward to more from this author!

I gave this book a C on my grading scale.

This is the first novel for Anne Mallory and she seems to have reached a little beyond herself. In an attempt to keep things suspenseful she makes things very confusing. It isn't until about three quarters of the way through the book that you even know which way is up with the mystery. Scenes end abruptly and jump narrative randomly, leaving the reader confused as to where they are and who exactly is "talking". The reader simply needs more information to become invested in the outcome.

While Calliope is very likable there are too many other characters to keep straight, let alone get to know. This is the main problem with James; we get to know him so little that it's hard to see him as anything other than a jerk that blames her for everything.

When it does get going, and is understandable, the mystery is very good. Unfortunately it's ruined in the end by several large and unexplainable holes. Even in its high points the mystery still never made me care one iota about the outcome of the romance.

Finally I found it insulting that James offered to make Calliope his mistress. While I know that's really a personal preference of mine, she was pretending to be a mistress to his best friend, I couldn't help but feel that if he loved her he never would have felt she was beneath him.

Mallory makes a hit with her debut novel. Despite some unfortunate plotting problems--minor but irritating things like people standing and then standing again or, worse, leaving the room and then leaving again a few lines down the page--this story exhibits strong main and secondary characters, a reasonable suspense plot, and deft, interesting writing. Mallory's descriptions really set the stage, and the romance moves along at just the right pace.

I loved the hero, and liked the heroine; her acid tongue and sometimes nearly irrational hatred of the nobility occasionally went too far, but they did show her as a likeable, intelligent but imperfect person. James' friends will likely be heroes in the upcoming books, and that's a good thing; they're just as interesting, if not more so, than James. I did think the big declaration lacked punch and the epilogue was a bit weak. But overall, it was a most enjoyable read. For a first novel, it was very, very good.

I had so much fun reading this book! It was lighthearted and fun without being too fluffy. I had a lot of fun with the characters and can't wait to read the next book!

Calliope was such a great character. I swear, that girl wasn't afraid of anything. She was confident enough in her wits to boldly step into situations that had the potential to turn out badly for her. I never thought about it, but it would make sense that someone of her profession would need to be in close contact with members of the ton. How can you mock them if you don't even see them?

I had certain assumptions about this story when I read the summary. I thought that most of the book would revolve around Calliope trying to keep her true identity from James. Once again this author has turned my expectations on its ear! I was very pleased with how things ended up developing between them.

I also really liked the little bits that were devoted to acting. I felt that the author portrayed Calliope's roles very well with how things were phrased.

There were so many parts where I giggled to myself. The banter was fun, although it doesn't compare to her more recent offerings. I loved all the side characters we were introduced to! I wanted more of Stephen and more hints of Roth and a certain lady. Luckily I have their books on hand too.

One other thing that I really, really liked about the story: The situation with Salisbury. The resolution of it felt very realistic. Sometimes you don't get to tie everything up with a neat bow and make rainbows shoot through the sky. Sometimes people get shafted and there's no fix for them.

Now, on to the issues I had...

There were a lot of side characters running around. I had trouble keeping some of them straight, especially when they were only referred to by their designation. Like "Mr." or "Sir" or even a title. It was just confusing a times.

The rhythm of the events had a slightly choppy feel to it. It just felt like things needed to be tightened up here and there, and even clarified sometimes.

I thought the class difference would have a bigger significance than it did. It was brought up, and it was an issue a little, but there didn't seem to be any real depth to the very real problem it would have presented.

I felt that I didn't get to know James quite as well as I wanted to. He stayed brooding in the shadows a little bit too long for me. There was just this feel of something missing to both him and their relationship. I can't put my finger on it, but I could feel it nagging at me a bit as I read.

But those few problems I had didn't make the read unenjoyable for me. I plan to keep this book and reread it at a later date. Now, on to Stephen's book! Yeah!

Calliope Minton's greatest plesure is capturing the members of the ton at their worst. For unbeknownst to the ton, Calliope is a charicaturist for a London scandal sheet and one of her favorite subjects is James Trenton, Marquess of Angelford. Calliope has disguised herself as a dowdy companion in order to attend the ton functions to gether material. James is certain that she is hiding something and he intends to find out what that might be, but in the meantime he is occupied with trying to expose the "artist" who is humiliating him in the papers. But then, Calliope and James are thrown together when one of their mutual acquaintances vanishes and someone is trying to abduct Calliope.

I thoroughly enjoyed this debut novel and since there are three close male friends who work for the crown in this book, I assume there will be two more books in this series. I certainly hope so.