"Moonlight Masquerade" (a Regency Romancd) by Ruth Axtell

ISBN: 978-0-8007-2089-6

Review:  Rees Phillips of the British Foreign Office is sent to pose as Lady Celine's Wexham's butler.  Lady Wexham is French by birth, and rumors have spread that she is a spy for Napoleon Bonaparte.  Rees has several narrow escapes from detection as he endeavors to uncover the truth about Celine. Then while working together to give several parties and a masquerade ball, Rees begins to fall for the beautiful Celine.  Will his loyalties lie with his country or with the spying Lady Wexham?

The intrigue and mysterious characters in the book keep the reader's attention.  In my opinion, however, the two main characters'  relationship does not seem to have enough interaction to truly know one another and warrant a decision to marry each other. The characters were not realistic to me.  It was strange to have the hero in a subordinate position to the heroine, and then suddenly for him to be promoted to the British Legation to the Congress of Vienna.

The plot was intriguing. It had several spiritual lessons interspersed, and those who enjoy the regency romances will have difficulty putting down the Moonlight Masquerade. (rev. S. Fuqua)

About the book: In this new Regency Romance, Ruth Axtell deftly creates a world where black and white burst into a confusion of colors and no one is who they seem.  Axtell’s expert storytelling and attention to historical detail bring the Regency era alive with  intrigue and romance.

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.

 About the author:  Moonlight Masquerade by Ruth AxtellRuth Axtell  is the author of 13 novels, including Wild Rose, one of Booklist's Top Ten in Christian Fiction.

DISCLOSURE:  A complimentary copy of Moonlight Masquerade was provided to us by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group in exchange for our honest review. Opinions expressed are solely those of the reviewer.