Lady Marigold Fairfax and her brother, Yates, had an unusual upbringing in Edwardian England. Their father loved amusements and supported a band of circus performers at their extensive estate. His extravagant tastes in entertainment left Marigold and Yates financially bankrupt at his death, so used the acrobatic and performance skills they learned growing up to become secretive private investigators for the wealthy. Sir Merritt Livingstone works for the War Office and is investigating a leak in their organization that is giving Germany sensitive information. When a prolonged battle with pneumonia makes it hard for him to continue his investigation he hires "The Imposters"--the Fairfax's agency-- to help him. The investigation leads Livingston to Marigold's village, but Livingston doesn't know that the Fairfax siblings are "The Imposters". Can Marigold protect her identity, and her heart, while helping Livingston catch the spy?
The premise for this book, English aristocrats who are trained as circus performers, was a bit of a stretch. It was an interesting premise, but I kept feeling like I had to suspend disbelief to make it work in my mind. Still, I enjoyed the book. I don't think there has been a single Roseanna White book I haven't liked. I like that her characters rarely act stupidly. I appreciate that she can come up with conflicts in a relationship that need to be resolved that don't result from repeated miscommunication. I think to many of these clean romance writers depend on miscommunication too much to add the conflict in the relationship, and it is kind of the easy way out. Coming up with a plot that involves real conflict that has to be resolved is trickier and White usually pulls it off brilliantly. (2023, 368 p)
No comments:
Post a Comment