Love in Disguise

This is the first in a wonderful trilogy. Susannah is beautiful enough to make any lord proud to call her his lady, but she is not part of the aristocracy. Her brother manages to arrange a visit for her with Warwick Jones, one of her brother's business contacts. This will allow her to meet and greet the cream of the crop as Warwick is accepted in every drawing room. But she finds her love very close by, in a friend of her hosts' - the beautiful Julian. Warwick watches them grow close with happiness at first, then pain as he realizes that he loves Susannah. Now Susannah must decide who she belongs with - and how to do so at the expense of someone else.Edith Layton writes a fabulous story full of romance, intruige and fun. If you love a great historical romance - this is a great one to read!!

Layton did not set out to write a trilogy (according to her own website), but this book ended up the first book in a trilogy. The other two books are #2 THE GAME OF LOVE (featuring Arden Lyons, a secondary character in this book), and #3 SURRENDER TO LOVE (featuring the [person] of this book).Layton sets up the book a bit like THE DUKE'S WAGER, in that there is a triangle, with two men, both friends, competing for the love of a single woman. Except that this is not THE DUKE'S WAGER, where both men are titled, wealthy, and out to seduce the girl. This is actually a far more complicated story. One of the men - Mr Warwick Jones - is a wealthy untitled gentleman, with considerable social clout but he prefers to be a recluse. He is very good with women (in bed), but believes that he is unlovable (reference is made to his unhappy childhood but it is not beaten into the read). Warwick is a tortured hero in that his feelings of inadequacy do not warp him but they leave him feeling that he is undesirable to women and ultimately not loveable. The other is a Viscount, but a Viscount who is virtually bankrupt, except for one entailed estate. At the start of the novel, we meet an unusual coachman who turns out to be a viscount - Julian, Viscount Hazelton. Lord Hazelton is down on his luck, and earning money with the few skills he has left. At a country inn, he runs into an old friend - Warwick Jones. Warwick persuades Julian to mortgage his entailed estate and to invest that money with him. When some thugs attacks Julian in the street,he ends up recovering at Warwick's home. It is at this point that Susannah moves in complete with chaperone (taking up a prior invitation from Warwick to her brother). This is when the relationship between the three actually develops.Warwick seeks revenge for the cowardly attack on Julian, and his search carries him into the heart of London's underwold, presided over by a leonine giant, called naturally Lion. Who he is, remains a mystery in this book. [Find out who he is from Bk 2 - THE GAME OF LOVE]. The criminal element forms an important part of the story, tied as it is with Warwick's family history and Julian's occupation.At the same inn where Warwick and Julian met, they run into one of Warwick's Cit partnersm (the son of a fishmonger made good) and his only sister Susannah Logan who has been well-education. She is too well-educated for Cit men, and she is too under-bred for society, except for those lords seeking to repair their fortunes through marriage, and she won't have them. Susannah is however interested in this particular lord - both for his golden looks and for the fact that he is trying honest work. This is a lord she could marry. Julian Hazelton (Lord Hazelton), the other "hero", is however in love with a lady far above his reach. She is the Incomparable Lady Marianna Moredon [sometimes called Lady Moredon, an error like a few other errors with titles]. His lady is however under the guardianship of he

Layton takes the usual regency stereotypes (a blond god of a hero; a dark, mysterious, cynical hero; a gorgeous, fiesty blonde) and turns them into people you care about. There is a love triangle, and I usually LOATHE love triangles, but you care enough about the people involved and the circumstances are so well laid-out that it doesn't feel contrived. It is more than a piece of fluffy writing (though, thank goodness, it is that too.)in that you do see how the main characters mature -- and realize they've grown up, or have become vulnerable. The secondary characters (Lion, an underworld kingpin, a countess/chaperone who fades in and out of the scene, a barmaid, even the dreadful beauty that one of the hero yearns for) are great too. They are interesting but don't steal the stage from the main characters. The repressed villian was over-the-top, but, after all, we are talking regency here. And actually he wasn't entirely unbelievable or even unsympathetic. . . (when he started raving about the golden god's beauty, for some reason I was reminded of a Monty Python routine . . . maybe the crazed, obsessed barber?)I'm a new reader, but now I have to hunt down every book this woman has written. She is AMAZING.Thank you, Ms. Layton, for adding class and good writing to the romance novel!