Review: Sophisticated Regency with complex characters and plot.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 4, 2013
Don't skim or speed-read this book.  You'll miss some really witty, funny lines if you do.  This was a big, pleasant surprise and it was free!  How lucky can an old Regency reader like me get?  I liked this so much I've also downloadedThe Tyburn Waltz (The Tyburn Trilogy), which is the first book of MacKeever's Tyburn trilogy.  And where in the world is the third?  Not written yet?The two Tyburn books have some characters in common but each is a standalone, so it hasn't mattered that I read the second before the first.  And what's so great about these books?  Well, they have really sophisticated plots and complex characters.  There's romance and mystery and both aspects are equally well done.  And the writing is so enjoyable to read.  Very intelligent and smart.The heroine of this is a delight, a widow with two adolescent boys (whose tutor adds some really funny moments to the read).  She's unsophisticated, genuine, and sweet with a tad of tartness underneath the sweetness that comes out little by little.  She goes to a masquerade ball, gets mixed up in murder and intrigue, and, in addition, gets thoroughly kissed by a masked Adonis.  The best kiss of her life, especially considering the cold jerk she had been married to (may he rest in peace).Now her life may be in danger. Although not able to identify the man disguised as a pharaoh, whose act of murdering someone else disguised as Henry VIII she is accidentally witness to, he doesn't know this and seems to want to get rid of her just to be on the safe side.  And there's something gone missing which the murderer thinks she must have.  (And no, it's not a purloined heart.)Then there's the hero, a very jaded rake whose estranged wife is as jaded and rakish as he is.  He finds himself drawn to the innocence and charm of the heroine and she finds herself drawn to his magnetism of both looks and personality, but...he is married, after all.  That's why I say "sophisticated" romance.  You have to be able to read about infidelity without having your sensibilities upset.I truly enjoyed this.  There are many and varied characters and subplots, a really nasty villain, some very amusing incidents involving the heroine's pretend suitor Tony and his mother, the heroine's children, their tutor, a rescued dog. etc.  And the romance is excellent.  Lots of great chemistry between the H and h.MacKeever wrote many Faucett and Zebra Regencies back in the day.  This one, however, is from 2013 and the first book in this trilogy is from 2010.  And I venture to say she's gotten better at writing romances since her early days.  That's something I don't find true of many romance writers.