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MY TAKE:
After reading Moonlight Masquerade, I've decided I need a butler. A tall, strapping, pious, manly, good looking butler. *sigh* Okay I'd rather he not be a butler or a spy necessarily, but goodness does Ruth Axtell know how to write a good character! Before you all pass this off as a fluff book though, let me get past my heart palpitations and tell you what else was great about this book.
Um. Everything? :) The connection between Celine and Rees is just the beginning, the tension that pulls you in and makes you want jump into the pages and shove the two together is palpable. Then there is the intrigue. Shadowy meetings. Spies following spies. Who do you trust and who has the right side of things? The politics were intriguing but never dry in my opinion and I enjoyed getting a closer look at the different factions that made up the rebellion in France. Napoleon wasn't the only one struggling for control. The glimpses between the royalists and their emigre court, and those that would see them left out of the government, was enlightening.
The book does end on a happy note, but I'll admit not in the way I expected. It was, however, just as satisfying and I love it when I don't always have things figured out from the very beginning. I like to enjoy the ride and Moonlight Masquerade was a VERY good ride... er, read. I look forward to it's sequel.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Lady Celine Wexham seems the model British subject. French by birth but enjoying life in 1813 as a widowed English countess, she is in the unique position of being able to help those in need–or to spy for the notorious Napoleon Bonaparte. When Rees Phillips of the British Foreign Office is sent to pose as the countess’s butler and discover where her true loyalties lie, he is confident he will uncover the truth. But the longer he is in her fashionable townhouse in London’s West End, the more his staunch loyalty to the Crown begins to waver as he falls under Lady Wexham’s spell. Will he find the proof he needs? And if she is a spy after all, will he do the right thing?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ruth Axtell is the author of thirteen novels, including Wild Rose, one of
Booklist's Top Ten in Christian Fiction. Currently a resident of Downeast
Maine, Axtell has lived in the Canary Islands, Miami, and the Netherlands.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.
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