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TERRY ANN TAYLOR
"...Lara Croft with petticoats and outrageous hats...rushing to rescue the day and save the weakest..."
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"...the plot was well schemed, complicated and crafted with talent, with many ups and downs, betrayals, high-speed chases and close combats."
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A Perilous Liaison
Book Two
An Olivia Featherstone Adventure
The devilishly talented and wickedly irresistible Miss Olivia Featherstone
returns for another rousing escapade in her latest Regency adventure
After foiling a treacherous plan in Leicestershire, Olivia has succumbed to the strictures of her family and is hosting a society ball. However, when the enigmatic and alluring Delavel Chêne-Craven arrives bleeding in the entry of her Half Moon residence before the company has even gone in to supper, she is once again catapulted into the perilous world of international intrigue. This time the hopeful emergence of an independent Greece out of the still-powerful Ottoman Empire is testing alliances, and widening fractures in England’s ruling classes.
With Craven injured, Olivia enthusiastically seizes the reins of the investigation into a nefarious conspiracy around her beau, and to hunt the enemies that threaten the very heart of the British establishment.
From the rustic countryside of Middlesex to the elegance of Berkeley Square, Olivia in her infallible manner pursues her malevolent foes, rushing against time to unravel why and who is behind the villainous scheme.
And finally … how can she convince Craven that merging their skills is not only prudent but ingenious. And what will she do if he cannot be swayed?
An Intriguing Deception
Book One
An Olivia Featherstone Adventure
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Miss Olivia Featherstone, residing in late Regency 1820s London, is not your usual dutiful debutante. She much prefers adventure to balls and morning visits: riding at death-defying speeds, throwing daggers at villains and pitting her intelligence and careful training against scoundrels who seek to harm her family.
Enter society’s darling, Delavel Chêne-Craven, a mysterious aristocrat with unknowable ties to governments foreign and domestic: suave, rakish, skilled in dissimulation and manipulation.
Craven sees Olivia as a gorgeous but irritating amateur about to upset his carefully calibrated long con, while she considers herself his perfect working companion. They form an uneasy alliance, but the more she pushes her family’s agenda the more his mission — and their very lives — are endangered.
How can they each stay the course of their own scheme when they’re both so distracted by the growing companionship, mutual respect, and irresistible spark between them?
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An Intriguing Deception is a racy Regency romp, a dash through 1820s London and into the countryside beyond where one particular smug, scripted Regency house party is not as it seems. Dastardly deeds are planned and must be stopped, lest the French monarchy be placed in terrible peril. Enter the least predictable Regency heroine I have ever encountered, Miss Olivia Featherstone. Miss Featherstone is the first genteel Regency miss I have met who can capably defend herself, account for several hefty villains and a careering coach, all while remaining modestly attired (well, mostly). She is so far removed from the traditional blushing, bosomy Regency maidens I have come across that I had to stifle my astonishment. In my previous Regency readings, I had become accustomed to a raised eyebrow and a rapid flapping of a fan as a visible demonstration of displeasure. Elizabeth Bennett was wont to sigh heavily and glare across rooms, but that was the extent of her public outrage. Miss Featherstone, however, is the type of heroine who yells ‘yar boo sucks!’ to Regency rules and refuses to be defined by the rigid social norms of the time. Readers are truly in for a treat!It may have struck you by now that this is not your average, common-garden Regency adventure. For a start, there is plenty that is tongue in cheek, poking fun at the strictures and patterned behaviours that predominated in the upper classes. Yet this is also a story with a well-paced plot, compelling characters and beautifully lavish backdrop. I enjoyed the layers, the fact that Miss Featherstone was demonstrably capable of defending herself, but spent the first part of the story working hard to persuade her male companions that she could do so. I was glad of that, it rings true of the period. At the same time, she is capable of conducting herself with dignity and decorum in the drawing room and this is also very necessary if the story is to retain credibility. Her background, the whys and wherefores of her acquisition of such unladylike skills are deftly explained, even as a quiet invitation is extended to the reader to willingly suspend disbelief. But, believe me, this story is far more credible than anything you will see in a certain popular Regency series currently dominating our screens.Olivia Featherstone is just one of a number of engaging characters in this story, both major and minor, and some of the incidental personalities are particularly delightful, including Miss Featherstone’s long-suffering maid, Shaw. I took some time to warm to the romantic lead, he of the golden cupid curls and forget-me-not eyes — as did Miss Featherstone, I might add — and by the end of the story I still did not completely trust him. This is a very useful device to convey an enigmatic, ambiguous personality — I use it all the time in my books and love it dearly. It also keeps the reader guessing and rules out any predictability in the story line. Bravo, Terry Ann Taylor, this character succeeds admirably, flaws and all.The setting of this novel also demands comment, primarily because the author’s descriptions are so richly detailed and lavish, an absolute pleasure to read. This is entirely appropriate as the upper circles of Regency society had money, generally in large quantities, and loved fine objects, fabrics and particularly furniture, French if they could acquire it. This novel is replete with extraordinary descriptions of houses and their contents, elegant escritoires, tables, chests, fine pieces and the furnishings that surround them. The elaborate portrayal of clothing is also a common feature, and Terry Ann Taylor describes in loving detail the luxurious fabrics, glittering jewellery and finely wrought embellishments that dominated the dress of both men and women. The reader becomes immersed in the sensual luxury of the time — and its bedraggled, pungent state when Miss Featherston’s adventures suffer some form of reversal.This is a delightful book that engages the reader from start to finish, the extraordinary denouement sounding a particularly striking note which will have every reader reaching for the next volume in the series. An Intriguing Deception is excellent historical fiction. It takes the Regency period, gives it a good shake, and then creates a marvellous story from what falls out. The backdrop and historical reference points are meticulously researched, as are the other essential elements in which the plot is clad. This is a story to enjoy, characters to befriend or berate as the reader’s fancy dictates, and a lively play on history that will entertain and inform. As for the feisty Miss Featherstone, who can tell whether she has not been modelled on a real person? After all, fact is undoubtedly stranger than fiction …Highly recommended
An in depth Review July 2024
"...An Intriguing Deception is a racy Regency romp, a dash through 1820s London and into the countryside beyond where one particular smug, scripted Regency house party is not as it seems. Dastardly deeds are planned and must be stopped, lest the French monarchy be placed in terrible peril. Enter the least predictable Regency heroine I have ever encountered, Miss Olivia Featherstone. Miss Featherstone is the first genteel Regency miss I have met who can capably defend herself, account for several hefty villains and a careering coach, all while remaining modestly attired (well, mostly). She is so far removed from the traditional blushing, bosomy Regency maidens I have come across that I had to stifle my astonishment.
In my previous Regency readings, I had become accustomed to a raised eyebrow and a rapid flapping of a fan as a visible demonstration of displeasure. Elizabeth Bennett was wont to sigh heavily and glare across rooms, but that was the extent of her public outrage. Miss Featherstone, however, is the type of heroine who yells ‘yar boo sucks!’ to Regency rules and refuses to be defined by the rigid social norms of the time. Readers are truly in for a treat!It may have struck you by now that this is not your average, common-garden Regency adventure. For a start, there is plenty that is tongue in cheek, poking fun at the strictures and patterned behaviours that predominated in the upper classes. Yet this is also a story with a well-paced plot, compelling characters and beautifully lavish backdrop. I enjoyed the layers, the fact that Miss Featherstone was demonstrably capable of defending herself, but spent the first part of the story working hard to persuade her male companions that she could do so. I was glad of that, it rings true of the period. At the same time, she is capable of conducting herself with dignity and decorum in the drawing room and this is also very necessary if the story is to retain credibility. Her background, the whys and wherefores of her acquisition of such unladylike skills are deftly explained, even as a quiet invitation is extended to the reader to willingly suspend disbelief. But, believe me, this story is far more credible than anything you will see in a certain popular Regency series currently dominating our screens.Olivia Featherstone is just one of a number of engaging characters in this story, both major and minor, and some of the incidental personalities are particularly delightful, including Miss Featherstone’s long-suffering maid, Shaw. I took some time to warm to the romantic lead, he of the golden cupid curls and forget-me-not eyes — as did Miss Featherstone, I might add — and by the end of the story I still did not completely trust him. This is a very useful device to convey an enigmatic, ambiguous personality — I use it all the time in my books and love it dearly. It also keeps the reader guessing and rules out any predictability in the story line. Bravo, Terry Ann Taylor, this character succeeds admirably, flaws and all.The setting of this novel also demands comment, primarily because the author’s descriptions are so richly detailed and lavish, an absolute pleasure to read. This is entirely appropriate as the upper circles of Regency society had money, generally in large quantities, and loved fine objects, fabrics and particularly furniture, French if they could acquire it. This novel is replete with extraordinary descriptions of houses and their contents, elegant escritoires, tables, chests, fine pieces and the furnishings that surround them. The elaborate portrayal of clothing is also a common feature, and Terry Ann Taylor describes in loving detail the luxurious fabrics, glittering jewellery and finely wrought embellishments that dominated the dress of both men and women. The reader becomes immersed in the sensual luxury of the time — and its bedraggled, pungent state when Miss Featherston’s adventures suffer some form of reversal.This is a delightful book that engages the reader from start to finish, the extraordinary denouement sounding a particularly striking note which will have every reader reaching for the next volume in the series. An Intriguing Deception is excellent historical fiction. It takes the Regency period, gives it a good shake, and then creates a marvellous story from what falls out. The backdrop and historical reference points are meticulously researched, as are the other essential elements in which the plot is clad. This is a story to enjoy, characters to befriend or berate as the reader’s fancy dictates, and a lively play on history that will entertain and inform. As for the feisty Miss Featherstone, who can tell whether she has not been modelled on a real person? After all, fact is undoubtedly stranger than fiction." Highly recommended. Catherine McCullagh