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A Perfect Deception*

Darker than Your Typical Historical Romantic Mystery

I read a fair amount of historical romantic suspense and mystery, but this story is definitely a cut different from most. Most of the romantic historical mysteries I have read have been ones in which the suspense or mystery is rather light. Yes, it adds interest to the story and keeps the pages turning, but the main thrust is the romance and how the suspense affects that. This book is completely different, as the evil in this book is overarching in nature, not just a side interest. I could tell this right off the bat with the way the prologue started with such a graphic, violent scene. I’ll admit that I had a hard time following parts of this book, but that is probably because I haven’t read either of the previous books in the series. I didn’t realize when I signed up for this book at my favorite book review site that it was an installment of an episodic series. I still was able to figure things out, but it would have been easier if I had read the other books. The author is able to keep the tension and conflict ramped up through the entire book. There are some surprisingly graphically violent scenes in this book; I wasn’t expecting that, and so I am saying so in this review so others may see it and steer clear if they don’t like to read that. The book is well written, both the violence/mystery aspect and the romance. I found the heroine, Daphne, a particular delight as she provided a spot of levity in what can sometimes be a pretty dark book.

BTW, I am not a fan of the covers in this series. Too reminiscent of the old “bodice-ripper” style romance covers. And they don’t really give an idea of the suspense, which is so crucial.

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