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Dangerous Charade

by Elizabeth Means (Goodreads Author)

3.3 of 5 stars 3.30 · rating details · 10 ratings · 5 reviews

Undercover Ladies

To escape an arranged marriage Gabrielle Broussard flees her home and becomes an undercover investigator with an elite, all-female investigative agency. Her first assignment, as governess at Westford castle to investigate the suspicious death of the Countess of Westford, quickly becomes complicated when she finds herself attracted to her number one suspect...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Romancing the Book rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, mystery

Posted on Romancing the Book's blog
Reviewed by Danielle
Review Copy Provided by the Publisher

Dangerous Charade is a thoroughly enjoyable historical romance with an element of mystery expertly woven in the page-turning plot.

The characters of Dangerous Charade are written to be both likable and potential suspects of the crime that Gabrielle is investigating. This makes the characters extremely intriguing to read about, as this constantly leaves readers with the impression that seemingly nice charac...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Judy & Marianne from Long and Short Reviews rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-adventure, historical, non-erotic, suspense-mystery

Originally posted at: http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.c...

Gabrielle was not going to let her uncle marry her to a despicable man just so they could share her fortune and use it to pay his debt. She was not!

This is a historical novel set in the era of English Regency. Women had no power; they were considered chattel. Any money or property they owned became the husband’s after marriage. The correct demeanor for a woman was quiet and shy, with a bit of simpering. She was to look pretty, dress n...more Originally posted at: http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.c...

Gabrielle was not going to let her uncle marry her to a despicable man just so they could share her fortune and use it to pay his debt. She was not!

This is a historical novel set in the era of English Regency. Women had no power; they were considered chattel. Any money or property they owned became the husband’s after marriage. The correct demeanor for a woman was quiet and shy, with a bit of simpering. She was to look pretty, dress nicely, and bear his children. No talking back, no opinions of her own, and all her activities had to be approved by the husband.

The author immediately shows you that Gabrielle was not cast from that mold. She’s feisty, opinionated, has studied various subjects, and will take guff from no man. If that doesn’t get her in enough trouble, she escapes the man who wishes to marry her and moves to the city where she joins a women’s detective agency where she will work “undercover” as nanny in a big house and her uncle and unwanted suitor won’t be able to find her. Ms. Means makes Gabrielle strong, smart and daring.

Julian is her hero and he has hired Gabrielle as a governess. He doesn’t realize she’s also a detective and is here to investigate his wife’s death. He’s an attractive strong man who finds himself drawn to Gabrielle. Her problem is that she can’t have a relationship with him and do her job.

One of my favorite parts of this story is the banter between the two. They are both determined people with strong personalities. Each time they start to get close to each other, they find the other person has lied or told a partial truth in answer to a question and they draw away.

The author turns the action fast and furious when someone tries to kill Gabrielle. By that point, you’re already on her side and anxious to find the killer yourself. I was very impressed when the killer was revealed and it was someone I had never suspected. It’s not often an author can fool me because I read a lot of murder mysteries, but Ms. Means did that. Kudos to her for a story well written!

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Nov 08, 2011 Ni_kii rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: funny, dreamy-men, crime, historical

* 4 1/2 stars done at http://scorchingbookreviews.blogspot....

Gabrielle Broussard runs away from her family home after her Uncle tries to marry her off to a sadistic man to repay a gambling debt. She finds herself working for a private investigative firm and, after only weeks of intensive training, finds herself on her first case. Posing as a Governess to a 2 year old child, Gabrielle infiltrates the home of Lord Blackwell to find out if he really has killed his wife. Upon arrival at the Castle,...more
* 4 1/2 stars done at http://scorchingbookreviews.blogspot....

Gabrielle Broussard runs away from her family home after her Uncle tries to marry her off to a sadistic man to repay a gambling debt. She finds herself working for a private investigative firm and, after only weeks of intensive training, finds herself on her first case. Posing as a Governess to a 2 year old child, Gabrielle infiltrates the home of Lord Blackwell to find out if he really has killed his wife. Upon arrival at the Castle, Gabrielle finds herself unfortunately attracted to her number one suspect and, even more unfortunately, finds that he is as equally attracted to her. Whilst trying to fight her feelings towards Julian, trying to fend off his amorous advances and trying to find the murderer, Gabrielle realises that her first case is more trying than first expected. Whilst suspects start pouring out of the woodwork, someone seems intent on making sure that Gabrielle doesn’t uncover the real truth. Will she make it out of her first case alive?

This is a fun, silly tale that kept me so engrossed I missed my bus stop on my way home from work. It reminded me of a cross between a Jane Austin novel and a pink panther movie; it was escapism at its best. The crime (and I say crime rather than suspense because it is just so daft) is the sub-plot, but its twists and turns kept the Romance plot moving forward. Gabrielle is forced to run after her odious Uncle tries to marry her off to the man who basically says he is going to marry her, force himself upon her and then leave her broken. To be honest, I applauded her decision because that man is a dick. When she first arrives at the Castle, she’s about as subtle as a brick through a window whilst questioning the staff about the death of the mysterious Lady Blackwell. Honestly, the woman is supposed to be undercover, but she blundered around and it was no great surprise when she aroused the suspicion of the actual killer. I often wondered how the other characters didn’t question her behaviour however she was left unchecked by everyone for the majority of the book. Her behaviour towards Julian is a little clumsy too, but it was understandable and sweet. She couldn’t fight her feelings towards him but was torn between the strength of them and her determination to do her job right. I don’t think that she ever truly believes that he is the murderer, but the job is all that stands between her and marriage to a dreadful man; she cannot afford to let her feelings influence her judgements. The burgeoning relationship between the two of them is actually quite entertaining to watch; she really is quite a head-strong, snarky character and she struggled with his dominant personality. The age difference was quite apparent at several points in the story in her constant change of feelings towards him (which was quite tiring). I did like her; she reminded me a little of Alexia from the Parasol Protectorate novels with her desire for fashion and weapons disguised as accessories. She was a pretty useless PI and I’m sure she wouldn’t have solved the case effectively if the killer hadn’t basically confessed all!

Julian is a dreamy character. Lord of the Manor with roguish good looks and a pretty good seduction technique; there wasn’t any way she was resisting his charms for long. He marries his former wife when she falls pregnant with his child. The marriage is loveless and broken which leaves him wary of women in general. At one point he questioned whether he was so un-loveable that women will only marry him for his money….I wanted to jump into the pages and give him a hug! When he meets Gabrielle he doesn’t realise that she is his new Governess, he thinks she is only another woman out for his money. In trying to prove what a gold digging tart she really is, he unwittingly falls under her spell, a spell that grows in strength when he realises that she isn’t interested in him. He really was cunning in his plan to woo her; first he changes the details of her employment so she becomes his escort rather than his Governess, then he ply’s her with romantic picnics and dinners in the guise of “planning” their behaviour at the next ball. He had all the hallmarks of a fantastic hero; I would love to see him in future books.

An enjoyable romp with some sizzling romance and a who-done-it that kept me guessing until the end. With a hero that I know I could grow to adore and a hero whose antics made me giggle, this is a wonderful romance that I read through in one sitting.
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Dec 05, 2011 Stella rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, for-review, historical, romance, crime, suspense

When I read the above blurb I was hooked. I mean Dangerous Charade is a combination of historical romance and Victorian detective story, featuring a female detective, what’s not to like? Sadly I wasn’t enchanted as I thought I would be.

I quite liked the initial premise, that a ladies’ detective agency exists in Victorian England and the key to its success is that its agents are respectable ladies noone would suspect. The female agents investigate mysteries with unusual tools and methodes (I real...more When I read the above blurb I was hooked. I mean Dangerous Charade is a combination of historical romance and Victorian detective story, featuring a female detective, what’s not to like? Sadly I wasn’t enchanted as I thought I would be.

I quite liked the initial premise, that a ladies’ detective agency exists in Victorian England and the key to its success is that its agents are respectable ladies noone would suspect. The female agents investigate mysteries with unusual tools and methodes (I really enjoyed reading about the new discoveries and scientific methodes Gabrielle was using, it was like a Victorian CSI ) and have quite steampunk like accessories (pistols hidden in parasols, little daggers in gloves, etc.).

My problem with the story stemmed from the glaring historical inaccuracies Dangerous Charade was full with. When I’m reading a story set back in time, I’m not looking for reading documentary-like accuracy, but in Dangerous Charade the untruthful details were such that they jarred me out of the story. I could go on but here are just a few:

- first of all servants tended to be, or at least tended to appear loyal towards their masters and would never have dreamed of discussing their master’s private business with a freshly arrived newcomer, the next day of her arrival;

- the servants would never refer to the master and his family by their Christian name, this would show complete lack of respect, it simply wasn’t done (and yet the housekeeper and the nanny refer to the deceased mistress of the house as “Isabel” and never “Lady Isabel”);

- Julian gives an additional task to Gabrielle (whom he employs as his daughter’s governess), namely to act as his escort at social events:

“You will accompany me to all social functions I am obligated to attend for business reasons, and stay by my side throughout the entire event. This will give the impression I am off the market.”

But back then this would do much more than raise a few eyebrows (which was the reaction some of the characters had in the novel), in reality this would have made it clear to society that Gabrielle was his mistress, and even if that were the case a gentleman never displayed his “indiscretions” and his mistress in such a blatantly insulting way. And of course no gentlewoman of good breeding (which Gabrielle is) would accept such a proposition…

- besides the complete lack of correct form of address, the language of the novel was also full of modern (and American) vocabulary:

“But I’ve noticed you seem to be particularly interested in him. You wouldn’t have a little crush on Julian, now, would you?”

The main characters Gabrielle and Julian were nice and could have been more interesting if they were more developed. The attraction and love between them happened quite suddenly without much development. Unfortunately the secondary characters remained one dimensional and lukewarm.

Verdict: I was very much looking forward to the unique combination and great story the premise of Dangerous Charade led me to expect, but the jarring modern behaviour and words of the characters discredited Dangerous Charade as a historical story. The initial idea was great but the execution could have been better developed.
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Jan 17, 2012 Jamie Stanley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, first-reads-giveaway, goodreads-winner, did-not-finish

This book ws very disappointing. It is a poory written trashy romance novel. I would not reccommend this book to anyone.

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May 17, 2013 Nancy Hawk marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 13, 2013 Jenn M marked it as f-romantic-suspense · review of another edition

Feb 11, 2013 Linda Carroll-Bradd marked it as to-read

Feb 10, 2013 Barbara Edwards marked it as to-read

Jan 27, 2013 Tina rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, steampunk

Sep 11, 2012 Brook marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Sep 19, 2012 Asya marked it as to-read

Jun 05, 2012 Jennifer marked it as to-read

May 07, 2012 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jan 04, 2012 Jolana rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dec 25, 2011 Toni marked it as to-read

Dec 12, 2011 Emilie marked it as to-read

Dec 06, 2011 Ashley Perez marked it as to-read

Dec 01, 2011 Roxy marked it as to-read

Shelves: giveaway-losses

Nov 30, 2011 Emily Walz marked it as to-read

Nov 30, 2011 Jules marked it as to-read

Nov 30, 2011 Lori Wolf marked it as to-read

Nov 30, 2011 Nicki marked it as to-read

Nov 30, 2011 Karen French marked it as to-read

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Nov 30, 2011 Jerri Giammarino marked it as to-read

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