The Devil's Masquerade (Royal Pains, #3) review

I haven't read part 1 or 2, although it's on my to-read-list. I might be able to catch on until release - or not. It has been pointed out to me that this book is not to be read as stand-alone.



This was my first historical erotica book and I was absolutely intrigued by the premise: England in the 17th century, politics, schemes combined with erotica! All in! But I felt as if I was left to dry. The ball doesn't start until 79%! Getting into the writing style wasn't as easy as I expected, in the beginning all I could remember was the word "betwixt" because it appeared that often. That wasn't the real issue but the fact that there wasn't any sex happening. I'm easy to please, but quickly annoyed when promising scenes are nothing but a short summary. also... breast-feeding isn't a sexual interaction for me. It's not arousing, it's close to gross. That's me and it definitely was a downer. When we finally get a more sexual scene it was too wordy, and physically descriptive than I could enjoy it.

There were several reasons why I almost quit the book and why it took me so long to finish it. Boring explanations, silly jealousy, obvious plots that make the leads appear to be TSTL, unnecessary drama, usage of historical French words, only being explained with the sex toy, but not when it comes to all other words.

[rant] The distrust between the married couple is ridiculous! Even though he was know for shoving his wand everywhere, after five years of having chances to have her husband watched and controlled, I can't believe that a Duchess would still run after him to make sure he wasn't cheating. But that's only one thing. Both leads are TSTL. A guy who is introduced by our male lead as someone who wants to fuck everyone's wife. And the very same male lead doesn't get suspicious when said lusty villain wants to see his masquerade's mask? Especially with such a stupid excuse as "to be able to stay away and keep the peace"? Of course he shows up with the same mask and tries to fuck the wife I'm sorry, but that insulted my intelligence. [/rant]



What I did enjoy was the center sexual interaction scene. It was naughty, intriguing and hot! Although I had the feeling that the author couldn't decide what kind of menage she really wanted to write. There were too many changes in their execution. That being said: this very long an satisfying scene saved the book's rating.



I had high hopes for this book but unfortunately I was disappointed. Maybe it's because I haven't read the first two parts that I didn't manage to feel any connection to our lead characters and because of that, I have adjusted my rating to a solid 3.25, but giving it more than three stars would be wrong in my eyes as there is no guarantee that the first two would really make me feel more connected. But even that wouldn't have helped to save the rating.