{"id":14263,"date":"2013-03-09T20:21:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-10T01:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=14263"},"modified":"2013-03-09T20:21:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-10T01:21:57","slug":"moonlight-masquerade-by-ruth-axtell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=14263","title":{"rendered":"Moonlight Masquerade by Ruth Axtell"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>MY REVIEW:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Moonlight Masquerade&#8221; is sure to appeal to fans of Regency era romance novels. Its heroine is Celine, a young French widow of an English earl. Bored with her privileged lifestyle, Celine agrees to a bit of &#8220;innocent&#8221; espionage for the French. In turn, Rees Phillips is sent into her household as a butler to spy on her just in case she is passing along sensitive information to the French. Yet another group of French men are also watching Celine to make sure she does nothing to interfere with their own plans. All these spies spying on each other result in danger for Celine and Rees finds himself torn between proving that she is a spy or finding a way to protect her.<\/p>\n<p>Overall &#8220;Moonlight Masquerade&#8221; was a good story but at times I became confused about exactly who Celine was working with and the difference in objectives between the two French groups. I really liked Rees and his integrity and would have enjoyed a bit more interaction between him and Celine. I also liked Celine and her lack of arrogance toward those who were in service to her.\u00a0 For my personal preferences, there was just a bit too much thinking going on and not enough action or real danger to keep things moving along.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10857\" title=\"divider2\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png\" width=\"317\" height=\"61\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png 317w, https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2-150x28.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 317px) 100vw, 317px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>This book was provided for review by<br \/>\nRevell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>ABOUT THE BOOK:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?attachment_id=14264\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14264\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-14264\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" alt=\"MoonlightMasquerade\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MoonlightMasquerade-150x231.jpg\" width=\"202\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MoonlightMasquerade-150x231.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MoonlightMasquerade-97x150.jpg 97w, https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/MoonlightMasquerade.jpg 338w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a>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.\u00a0 Axtell\u2019s expert storytelling and attention to historical detail bring the Regency era alive with \u00a0intrigue and romance.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8211;or to spy for the notorious Napoleon Bonaparte. When Rees Phillips of the British Foreign Office is sent to pose as the countess&#8217;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&#8217;s West End, the more his staunch loyalty to the Crown begins to waver as he falls under Lady Wexham&#8217;s spell.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"center\"><b>Endorsements for <i>Moonlight Masquerade<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIntrigue, romance, a clandestine kiss . . . all cast in a Regency setting so magnificently detailed I could see the fabrics and feel the glow of another era. Secrets and past disappointments keep C\u00e9line and Rees apart, not to mention the largest chasm of all\u2014class. A wonderfully romantic and memorable read!\u201d\u2014Maureen Lang, author of <i>Bees in the Butterfly Garden<\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first paragraph drew me into the story, and the next twist held me there to the end.\u201d\u2014Laurie Alice Eakes, author of <i>A Flight of Fancy<\/i><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<i>Moonlight Masquerade<\/i> is a wonderful romance, graced with expert detail of the Regency period, as well as with Ruth Axtell\u2019s usual flair for intensely romantic situations between characters so real I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about them. <i>Moonlight Masquerade<\/i> is an exciting romantic adventure of spies, forbidden love, and happily-ever-after that I thoroughly enjoyed.\u201d\u2014<b>Melanie Dickerson<\/b>, two-time Christy Award finalist and author of <i>The Healer\u2019s Apprentice <\/i>and <i>The Merchant\u2019s Daughter<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nABOUT THE AUTHOR:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?attachment_id=14265\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14265\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-14265\" alt=\"Ruth-Axtell\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ruth-Axtell.jpg\" width=\"155\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ruth-Axtell.jpg 221w, https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ruth-Axtell-110x150.jpg 110w, https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ruth-Axtell-150x203.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 155px) 100vw, 155px\" \/><\/a>Ruth Axtell<\/b> is the author of thirteen novels, including <i>Wild Rose<\/i>, one of <i>Booklist<\/i>&#8216;s Top Ten in Christian Fiction. Currently a resident of Downeast Maine, Axtell has lived in the Canary Islands, Miami, and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MY REVIEW: &#8220;Moonlight Masquerade&#8221; is sure to appeal to fans of Regency era romance novels. Its heroine is Celine, a young French widow of an English earl. Bored with her privileged lifestyle, Celine agrees to a bit of &#8220;innocent&#8221; espionage for the French. In turn, Rees Phillips is sent into her household as a butler [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,52,68,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-england","category-regency","category-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14263"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14271,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263\/revisions\/14271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}