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Loading... Mask of Duplicityby Julia Brannan
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) Tess_W | Jun 9, 2023 |  Beth Cunningham has grown up in the country outside Manchester. Her father was a wealthy gentleman who married a beautiful Scottish woman for his second wife, though her status was below his. Now her half-brother Richard has returned finally from the army to take over the estate. Richard is a villain in the Captain Jack Randall style, cruel for the sake of being cruel. He needs money to buy a commission, and Beth's dowry is the only real money left in the estate. Richard comes up with a scheme to find Beth a husband who will also help him, much to Beth's distaste. She doesn't have much choice but to go along if she doesn't want her brother to dismiss the servants, her only friends. Once in London Beth makes the acquaintance of Sir Anthony Peters, a foppish gentleman and gossip. She doesn't really like him, but he helps her on several occasions. Beth is a secret Catholic and Jacobite, which would make her an outcast (and maybe traitor) in this time period right before Culloden. Beth is a feisty heroine, beautiful but courageous and sometimes naive. Sir Anthony is not what he seems, one of my favorite types of heroes. I have a fondness for patched Georgian gentlemen concerned about their snuff boxes and clothes going back to reading Georgette Heyer in my youth. The writing is good, and the history is woven into the story in a believable manner. It's also well researched and accurate. The book is a bit like Galbadon's Outlander series without the time travel element which is a compliment because I love those books. Even knowing that Culloden is looming in one of the future books, I'm anxious to see what happens to Beth and Anthony next. (  ) N.W.Moors | Jun 17, 2019 | no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Series
Following the death of their father, Beth's brother Richard returns from the army to claim his share of the family estate. However, Beth's hopes of a quiet life are dashed when Richard, dissatisfied with his meagre inheritance and desperate for promotion, decides to force her into a marriage for his military gain. And he will stop at nothing to get his way. Beth is coerced into a reconciliation with her noble cousins in order to marry well and escape her brutal brother. She is then thrown into the glittering social whirl of Georgian high society and struggles to conform. The effeminate but witty socialite Sir Anthony Peters offers to ease her passage into society and she is soon besieged by suitors eager to get their hands on her considerable dowry. Beth, however, wants love and passion for herself, and to break free from the artificial life she is growing to hate. She finds herself plunged into a world where nothing is as it seems and everyone hides behind a mask. Can she trust the people professing to care for her? The first in the series about the fascinating lives of beautiful Beth Cunningham, her family and friends during the tempestuous days leading up to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which attempted to overthrow the Hanoverian King George II and restore the Stuarts to the British throne. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing AuthorJulia Brannan is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing. is also the author Julia Brannan. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
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