Moonlight Masquerade

Moonlight Masquerade
Ruth Axtell
Revell Publishing
Romance, Fiction, Historical
Available March 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.


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?

This was a cute book. Not overly intriguing or amazing but an easy read. The spy part was not over done and was at times quite humorous. Lady Celine and Rees are interesting subjects that are enjoyable to get to know. Without much knowledge of the Regency era I found myself struggling to catch up with the historical aspects of the book. I also found the ending both long and short at the same time. When Celine and Rees are reunited there is a quite a bit of detail that I didn't feel was entirely necessary. And yet after the detail there was suddenly very little and it seemed like the book rushed to be finished. 

Axtel weaves a good tale and I did enjoy reading this one. It didn't keep me up late into the night but I looked forward to reading it when I had the time. 

My thanks to Revell Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.