The Masquerade
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
As a child, shy, bookish Elizabeth Anne Fitzgerald loses her heart to the dashing young lord Tyrell de Warenne. Although she is well aware that he is the heir to an earldom and utterly unattainable, Lizzie secretly worships him for years. So on the night of her first masquerade ball, she is stunned when he suggests that they rendezvous at midnight!
But fortune takes a maddening turn and Lizzie is thwarted from ever meeting Tyrell. Though she is certain such an opportunity will never arise again, in fact that night is just the beginning
Tyrell de Warenne is shocked when, two years later, Lizzie arrives on his doorstep with a child that she claims is his. He remembers her well–and knows that it is impossible that he is the boy's father. What is this game she is playing and why? Is Elizabeth Anne Fitzgerald a woman of vast experience, or the gentle innocent he had believed her to be?
Tyrell decides he will play her game, claiming the child as his own and determined to uncover Lizzie's lies. But neither scandal nor deception nor pride can thwart a love too grand and passionate to ever be denied
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The chunky second volume in bestseller Joyce's de Warenne Dynasty series (after The Prize) dances on slippered feet, belying its heft with spellbinding dips, spins and twists. Jane Austen aficionados will delve happily into heroine Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fitzgerald's family, with its three sisters, socially obsessed mama and indulgent father. Lizzie has long loved Tyrell de Warenne, heir of the local earl, but never suspects he knows of her existence until he arranges a rendezvous with her at a masquerade. A switch in costumes sets Lizzie's loose sister in Tyrell's arms instead, resulting in a baby boy. When Lizzie claims the child as her own to save her sister's reputation, she again puts herself in Tyrell's sights. Joyce's tale of the dangers and delights of passion fulfilled will enchant those who like their reads long and rich, though some may find the secondary characters more compelling personalities than the somewhat conventional protagonists.
