Dangerous Masquerade

Americana #1

by Janet Dailey

SEEING THE NEWSPAPER PICTURE WAS A SHOCK. Numbly, Laurie read the caption. "Hotel owner and entrepreneur Rian Montgomery seen escorting the rising young newcomer LaRaine Evans at a recent Hollywood party." Laurie tried to be glad that Rian and LaRaine were together again, but she couldn't forget how his dark eyes had looked at her, sparking the flame of desire that punctuated the time they had spent together. It might as well have been yesterday that she had left him so sharp and fresh was the pain of her love...

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Janet Anne Haradon Dailey was an American author of numerous romance novels as Janet Dailey (her married name). Her novels have been translated into nineteen languages and have sold over 300 million copies worldwide.

Born in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa, she attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they "retired" to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances, where she set a novel in every state of the Union. In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin. Her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED.

She had since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List. She won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.

Janet Dailey passed away peacefully in her home in Branson on Saturday, December 14, 2013. She was 69.

Reviews

[*CJ* · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dangerous Masquerade" is the story of Laurie and Rian.

Our h is an orphan, with lives with a selfish cousin and has a set of uncaring uncle and aunt. Cousin is a gold-digger and engaged to the brooding hero, who wants her to fly to visit his aunt. When her cousin gets a chance to be in a movie, she coerces the heroine to replace her in the trip, by guilt shaming her. The heroine reluctantly agrees.
She soon starts loving the hero's aunt, and finds her heart in tender for the hero's cousin. That is until the hero shows up, discovering the charade..

I really like this author's style of writing- however, in no way did I see any endearing quality in the hero, or should I call him anti hero. The heroine somehow fell in love with him, which is insane, as all he did was blackmail her while bruising her with his kisses. The cousin/OW got her own book in the "Cord & Stacy" series, and was equally unlikable. I almost wish the heroine ended up with the cousin.

All stars for the writing. None for the hero.

SWE
2.5/5

[Tabi34 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second Americana book I've read by Janet Dailey. I was going to read them for fun, something different than my usualy true crime/mystery or more techinical books, but after reading this one, I'm not sure I want to continue.
I know the book was originally written in 1977, but have times changed that much? Were women looking for ruthless, dominating men who bordered on crazed 35 years ago? I hope not, because I read my share of popular romance novels while in high school and if this is what I was digesting it's a wonder I didn't end up in a physically abusive relationship. Maybe someone should research what girls are reading in high school and then track how their relationships end.
Laurie is an orphan raised by her father's brother and his wife who dotes on their daugther LaRaine, never paying much attention to Laurie except to tell her what a burden she is. She moves out when she's 18, but when the bratty LaRaine wants to move out, the aunt guilts Laurie into moving in with her to help her out. LaRaine is a gold digger and wants to land a rich husband and be a movie star. She gets the opportunity to do both, but she is obligated to fly to Alabama to meet her fiance's old aunt. She convinced Laurie to pretend she is her and sends her off. The fiance is in South America on business. Of course, he returns and finds out the truth. Laurie offers him the explanation but he wants nothing to do with it and forces Laurie to continue the charade. At times, he grabs her painfully - leaving marks on her wrists and arms. One time he even grabs her by the throat. He threatens her physically and emotionally, but all Laurie can see is a strong man. The kind who will take care of her and ravish her in bed. Heaven help her if she is ever out of line in his opinion. While the writing is consistent, the themes of abuse hiding as love left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Grrrrace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read Janet Dailey in years and years, so it was interesting to get into the way-back machine and see how her books have weathered over time. Overall for this one, I have to say NOT WELL, since wrist-gripping, bruising, bullying heroes like Rian in DM just seem like walking red flags for abusive relationships now. But I have always remembered JD's anti-heroine LaRaine, and it was a ballsy move to take the shallow, selfish OW from not one but two (that I recall at least) books and turn her into the heroine of her own book. So I wanted to revisit LaRaine's story, A Land Called Deseret, which also features OM Travis from one of my fave JD books, Fiesta San Antonio as the hero--but before I do that, I wanted to revisit LaRaine in her role as OW.

So I started with the first book in which she appears, DM. Heroine Laurie is LaRaine's Mary Sue cousin, an orphan raised by her uncle's family (but supported with money her father left, so her sense of obligation is a little OTT). Frankly, fiery LaRaine, even though she's only in a few scenes, is way more interesting than "quietly beautiful" Laurie, but the good girl always gets the guy, so LaRaine just gets about as many lines in the book as she does in her "big break" movie role that takes her offstage for most of the book, and we're stuck with the basic heroine.

LaRaine becomes engaged to dark and dangerous Rian (total girl name that should be dotted with a heart and not a good alpha hero name, so pfffttt), but when LaRaine is supposed to go visit Rian's aunt for a few weeks while he's off doing tycoony things in So. American, she gets offered a role in a movie and convinces her cousin Laurie to go visit the aunt instead and masquerade as LaRaine. Talk about a bad plan, but JD needed the plot device, so we'll start bailing this holey plot with our little buckets. Big-blue-eyed Laurie inexplicably agrees and she's off to charm auntie, the neighboring judge, and the cute, nice OM next door with her innocent beauty. Of course Rian comes back and decides that he's done with LaRaine, whom he was only marrying for a hostess and some heirs anyway, and Laurie can damn well take her place since she deserves to be punished, one assumes, and she's hot and convenient. We get lots of spats (in which Laurie sees herself as a kitten attacking a panther), punishing kisses, bruising grips, treacherous body syndrome, and true "love" forever more because what Mary Sue can resist a brute in vintage romance? None, I tell you.

Along the way, we learn a few things about the forts and attractions of Alabama from the tour-guide-level characters, heee. Did you know that Mobile, Alabama is the true original home of Mardi Gras and has a large but less touristy and tacky celebration? Me neither!

Our heroine wears blue eyeshadow, dresses in halter tops, and probably uses a curling iron on her raven locks. Our hero is soon smitten and is determined to force her into marriage (which she seems incapable of preventing for some unknown reason), and finally our pretty innocent runs away, where she is taken in by a kindly couple who do not sell her into sexual slavery or kill her in Los Angeles but instead rent her a room at a reasonable rate while she gets a secretarial job. Rian finds her, thinner and paler, a few months later, and we have a dubious HEA with a potential abuser.

The hero was really dated in a cringey way (at least he doesn't have a mustache though), the heroine was boring, and the secondary characters were trite, but it was pretty entertaining overall--definitely had a Dallas/Dynasty kind of vibe. Next stop on my visit with LaRaine: Sonora Sundown (which I remember pretty well, so it must have been a favorite back in the day), where she again provides some much needed hard edges in comparison to a marshmallowy innocent heroine. She wasn't all that bad in DM, actually--just a little self centered and materialistic--and she did kind of get screwed over by the hero, so maybe JD had plans for her from the start and didn't want to make her tooo unlikeable in this one.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to have to review this book in the light of the time period in which this was written.

I first read this entire series back when Harlequin re-released them with the pretty flower covers back in 1988. I loved them then, and reading them now, can get a sense for why. Back then I travelled considerably with my family - and the idea of a book from each state that talks a little about that state and its history AND gave a romance story to match that, excited me. By the time 1988 rolled around, I'd done considerable exploring of 32 different states, so these books were a lot of fun.

Reading them now, I get a little cringy about the heavy-handed male brute of a hero. As is pointed out by the other readers, some of this (grabbing hard enough to leave a mark, hand on throat) really pushes what your typical romance readers are comfortable with. Given this is Harlequin, this seems a little over the top, and even for the crowd accustomed to Christian Grey this might seem a little bit much.

Given the book was written in the 70s, I'll have to say from reading other romances of this era that this was in fact the popular trope of the time. Men needed to be strong brutes who let a woman know he was in charge. And yes, women of the day LIKED this, so before we judge with the lens of what we feel is write and proper today, keep in mind that Harlequin ruled the world in romance novels at this time - (NO KINDLE back then!) and gave the readers EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED. Given these books were reprints from earlier series, repackaged, tells me that these novels were frequently requested, and bestsellers, so the rough tough man here that we would scream about and denounce as abusive now, was not seen so then.

So maybe we need to put trigger warnings on these books? Or at least this one? I need to re-read the rest to be able to speak better about the series as a whole.

In this particular book you have a girl pretending to be her cousin so that her cousin doesn't have to do the mundane task of meeting all her fiance's family. Again, view the plot in the time period. In the world of social media, Skype, and cell phones, this would never possibly work today. The deception seems innocent, but when its discovered, we have a fiance who doesn't seem to mind switching out who he's engaged to. I find myself wondering just why he wants to get married in the first place?

What makes this particular book even more odd, is that our hero, Rian, is barely seen at all. The entire story is told, for the most part, with him absent. I noticed this in another Harlequin written in the 70s so I'm starting to form this opinion that maybe in the 70s we wanted strong, forceful men in very small doses. He was best if he traveled a lot, and only showed up for sex and the occasional romantic dinner out, while all that forceful power is put toward garnering great financial success in the business world.

Wait, we might be on to something here....

[Chantal ❤️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story no sex all light loving but it was nice to see the characters develop And I like that he put the blame on the cousin for the deceit. She was one spoiled little girl And she is in another novel as an actress. The hero saw the jewel that the heroine was and he wanted to keep her. Sweet.

[Julia Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars. This was...something. Beginning started with me thinking that it would have a similar premise to 27 Dresses. Which it kinda did--until it went the opposite direction. I started out loving the scariness of one of the love interests, finding him more interesting than the other guy and vacillating between "I can fix him" and "No, I can't." In the end, I was here for the dumpster fire of toxicity. It was interesting. But I don't think I'd recommend it.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading this years ago and most of the plot stuck in my memory... impressive writing.

But as other reviewers have noted, rereading it today, I’m shocked at some of the manhandling and descriptions like violent kissing, bruising her wrists, etc. Now, some scenes read like abuse. I guess it’s good we’re more aware now...

[Gary Branson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good example of why Dailey was the best of this format at one time. Plot, character development, conflict.... it’s all here.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Totally vile hero (35) is engaged to the cousin of the heroine (21), and acts nonchalant when he returns from a business trip to find the heroine acting as his fiancée. He has met her before and barely noticed her, because the cousin is a beauty and he’s she’s some serious cash on her. He supposedly falls for the dripping second best fiancée, but still acts like a bastard.
The “HEA” is achieved after he finds her 3 months after she ran away, even though he’s been in the papers taking the cousin on a date. He’s a cold hearted, manipulative and possessive monster who will no doubt break the heroine within a couple of years.
I like non-PC heroes, but this one has no redeeming features at all. The heroine is lacklustre, but I liked the potential OM.

[RomLibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurie read the caption beneath the newspaper picture. "Hotel owner and entrepreneur Rian Montgomery seen escorting the rising young newcomer LaRaine Evans at a recent Hollywood party."

Laurie tried to be glad that Rian and LaRaine were together again, but she couldn't forget how his dark eyes had looked at her, sparking the flame of desire 'hat punctuated the time they spent together.

It might as well have been yesterday that she had left him, so sharp and fresh was the pain of her love.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to reread this one. But I do remember that the OW here is the heroine of one of my favorite JDs, A Land Called Deseret.

[Amie Doughty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have given it a 3 if the editing in the Kindle edition weren't so poor. The number of proofreading errors is unbelievable. The story itself is typical of Harlequin Presents from this era and paced pretty well.

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an oldie from 1976.

The H forces the h to pretend being engaged to him and I don’t understand why she agrees to that. She is quite a push-over until nearly the end of the book.

He loves to manhandle her and interrupt her when she tries to speak.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

All I can say is what a boring effkwit Rian is. Excuse my language. Usually "farcical" premises are pretty awesome, but this just left me feeling "meh".

[ANGELIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good, but too flawed. The h lets herself be talked into a charade by her selfish cousin, hates lying to the H's aunt (who she grew to care about in a short time) yet ends up lying to her again, as well as planning to disappear from her life when the woman's looking forward to her becoming a member of her family and planning a party for her. No matter that she felt the need to get away from the H, that was still crummy of her to treat his aunt that way.

And speaking of crummy: while I have no trouble believing her crappy aunt could turn her back on the h for her supposed betrayal of her cousin (the aunt's spoiled, selfish daughter) for her uncle to do the same was unbelievable! While he never makes an appearance in the story, it's mentioned that he cared about her and didn't consider her a "charity case" like his wife did, so for him to agree that she should be cut out of their lives didn't ring true, unless he's such a wimp he can't stand up to his wife.

As for the H: did he really think the h would stick around and agree to make their sham engagement a real one? He kept saying he didn't believe in love, most marriages were a disaster, just his money and the fun they'd have in bed should be enough for her, and then he was apparently indifferent to her attending the Mardi Gras ball with the OM. Meanwhile, he like to taunt her with how attracted she was to him, despite how the OM seemed to represent her ideal of the kind of man she said she wanted. He'd show the good side to his nature a few times, but then the cynic would come back in full force and while it was too late for her not to fall in love, it wasn't too late to prevent him knowing it and she ran, like so many h's do, but at least she had a good reason.

I had to laugh when he found her and asked why she left him???? Well, DUH!!!

I thought the ending was a bit abrupt, but having read more than one of Ms. Dailey's books, I think she likes writing them that way.

I would have liked to know more of the love story between the H's aunt and the judge (the OM's father) and since I liked the OM (he wasn't either a simp or a jerk like a lot of them are), I was hoping he'd meet someone else and forget the h ASAP.

It's not a bad book, but not one of the author's best.

[Live2Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janet Dailey’s books are always a quick read for me, like are they shorter than other harlequins or what? Idk? They seem so…if they are not exactly lacking pages count then it has to be the content itself? I didn’t realized I was already more or less than 2/3 in, yet the MC had barely met. Nothing happened so far, slow pace as the plot was too focused on several other things. The aunt’s romance for one. The actual blurb scene didn’t occurred til the end. It was literally 1/12 of the whole——a very short lived thing, a brief mentioned really. And that was all there was to that angst. Cousin LaRaine was never really an OW. All she really was, was a selfish & spoiled girl who barely existed in the plot.

Simply, I found the book very low on angst. This kind of plot called for more emotions, angst, heartache... Have JD pushed their separation a bit earlier on, let’s say right about 3/4 of the way, it would do MC some proper conclusion——pages to developed them emotionally as well as picking up on the angst & withdrawals before writing them off to their happily ever after.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Love Janet Dailey Books

I love Janet Dailey's Books. I think she knew how to weave a tale. If I recall correctly, these Ameicana books were written and published in the mid eighties. So they are a little on the old-fashioned side. They are written, as men at the time were sometines thought of as the "boss," in my opinion. Today, they would not be considered politically correct. They do have a charm to them. I think if they were written today, they would have been written with the male character more enlightened and politically correct than during that period of time. So you do.have to remember that when reading the novel. I think Harlequin or Harlequin type books had that kind of flavor or formula to

them. I did enjoy this book - even with the formula style novel of its time. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Janet Dailey books or Harlequin romances.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dailey is usually known for her cozy mystery books she writes. There are several book groups out there as well as readers that do a challenge to read a book set in every state. While browsing the suggestions in one of those groups, this series was mentioned. Janet Dailey has written an entire series where each book is set in a different state, you can read a book set in every state by reading just this collection of stories. The books are on the shorter side, which is nice, makes it more doable to most people trying to do that type of challenge. I haven't looked into the rest of the series, this one is based on a forced proximity romance. The MFC travels to an event in place of someone else, and pretends to be them, meeting a man that the other one was supposed to meet and get married to. It isn't plausible to me in my life, but there were some entertaining parts. I will continue the series, I am curious now about the other books that are in the same series.

[Annarose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laurie is a 21 years old woman who lived with her uncle and his wife and has tolerated being always the family orphan and the shadow of her cousin LaRaine. Greedy LaRaine becomes engaged to Rian Mongomry, but she wants to start an acting career which she knows will not meet Rian approval. When Rian arranges for LaRaine to visit his aunt, she is called to have a party in a movie. Because she can't be in the movie set and in Rian's aunt house in the same time, she asks Laurie to go instead of her and act as if she's Rian's Fiance!

Laurie agrees in the assumption that, since Rian is away in a business trip, noone would ever know. Ofcourse, that do not go as Laurie wish!

[The Book Worm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dangerous Masquerade is a pretty pleasant romance novel. It is clearly outdated, as I'm pretty sure that at this day and age the plot devised between Laurie and LaRaine would work - at the time the novel was originally written there were no smart phones and no social media, so it was easier to keep the ruse.
But if you can ignore the above, I still enjoyed very much the way Laurie and Rian fall in love. So if you're looking for a quick, no strings attached romance novel and don't mind the fact that it's a bit outdated, you may want to give this one a try.

[Aurelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's super crazy. I loved the concept. The heroine goes to her cousin's betrothed, Ryan's aunt's house posing as her cousin because the said cousin grabbed a movie deal and the heroine's okay with it because the hero is in another country and by the time he returned, she would be back home but trouble arises when the hero arrives to his aunt's house ending his business trip earlier to spend time with his fiancee. Damn!!!!

[Kim Sasso · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book in what became the Americana series. I read most, if not all, of the series as a young teenager when my mom, grandmother, and sisters were inhaling Harlequin romances. I have never been a huge romance fan, but these books formed my initial impressions of other states long before I ever left the deep south.

[Diedre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always such abrupt endings. Wish there were comeuppances for the evil aunt and uncle and the charmingly deceitful step sister. But hey, the angst was good. Yet the heroine was a little too abrasive to warrant a spilling of emotional compassion toward her. Her immature outbursts were a little grating. Otherwise it would have been a 5.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read some of this series a long time ago and just decided to start again and loved this book. Great character and a good story line and of course a hot sexy guy who doesn't want to fall in love but just can't help himself.

[Carolyn A · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never read a janet dailey book I did not enjoy, until this one. Rain was self centered, egotistical. Rude, verbal and physical abusive. Twisted her arm , which was painful and caused bruising, with no remorse. She found him attractive and wanted to marry him. Very sad.

[Pamela Olmstead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story

I had trouble continuing to read this book due to the possibility of Laurie having the same kind of marriage Vera had experienced. But I continued and the ending was reassuring. Thank you the happy ending. Some of us only get happy endings in the books we read.

[Gloria A Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dangerous masquerade it was!

A truly dangerous masquerade and yet intriguing with intense feeling of romance! Thoughly enjoyable with love, joy and happiness to the very end!





No

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Laurie and Rian masquerade.

[Dale Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Loved the story and the characters. I enjoy every book I have read by this author. I highly recommend this book.

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangerous Masqurade after marriage

I love this book and read it more than once. I wish there was an epilogue of few years after their life together.