Early 18th century frolic

After her uncle threw her out of his house in the last book, our spirited, well-educated but penniless orphan Peggy Fitzroy managed to become a Maid of Honor and sometime spy for Caroline, Princess of Wales, in the court of George I, the first of England’s Hanover kings. In Dangerous Deceptions Peggy is back serving princess and country in another breathlessly paced, seriously funny, multi-layered caper.

While hustling around trying to foil Jacobites scheming to put a Stuart back on the throne, Peggy is also struggling to: navigate cutthroat Maid of Honor politics, reconnoiter with her highly dramatic but beloved cousin, fend off her uncle who’s threatening to marry her to a molesting cad (her uncle has legal right on his side), and prevent her boyfriend from killing said suitor and/or breaking up with her.

It’s a buoyant and careening frolic, with generous dollops of wit, cumbersome but elegant court fashions, heart-fluttering suspense, and several surprise revelations. As we already have plenty of novels set in Regency and Victorian times, I especially enjoy that Dangerous Deceptions makes use of a historical era that’s (I think) been somewhat neglected in fiction. ( )

I never read the first book in this series. Which is fine as this book could be read as a stand alone novel. I picked up this book because I like reading period piece stories and the mystery piece intrigued me as well. In the beginning I had no problems with the book. In fact, I was kind of liking it. Then I put it down only intending for a short period to come back to the book. When I did, I read about a half a dozen more chapters and was like am I reading the same book. What happened. I could not stand anything in it and found it boring. It helped put me right to sleep. I than read from another reviewer that it takes until about page 200 before the story really picks up steam. I was already at 127, so I decided to skip until page 200. Nope, I could not do it. I only read a few more pages and promptly put this book down for good. The characters were annoying, then there was the sudden stop when Peggy would start to investigate and then she was stopped and I was let with more talking (whining). No thanks. ( )

It takes a little while to get into the setting of the book, but about 1/3 of the way through it really starts to spark your interest. Peggy is a lady of the royal court. She is betrothed to the most vile man, and is involved with scandals as well as being a spy. The book claims to target young adult and romance, however I feel it is a little above the level of young adult. It is overall well written and has thought put into the storyline and plot, and gives just the right amount of background info. ( )