Archive for the ‘Stephanie Burgis’ Category
Masks and Shadows, by Stephanie Burgis
published April 2016
where I got it: received review copy from the publisher
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I’ve been reading a lot of “thinky” books lately, books that whether or not they were meant to drill into my brain and set the neurons a light all over the place, that is exactly what they did. I was looking for something lighter, an easy read.
Stephanie Burgis’s Masks and Shadows has been sitting in my ARC pile for over a year. It received a lot of attention when it came out last year, and garnered many positive reviews. The cover art is super pretty! The concept of the book sounds right up my alley – historical fiction with lots of romance, intrigue, and magic! But it never quite got my attention enough to pick it up. I like political intrigue, and I usually enjoy historical fiction / historical fantasy. I’ve been known to enjoy stories with some romantic subplots. And I was in the market for a lighter read. So I picked it up. If the author’s name rings a bell, it’s because she is famous for the mid-grade fantasy series Kat, Incorrigible.
The year is 1779, the location is the opulent Esterhaza Palace in Hungary. As you do when you’re a royal who just built your own version of Versailles, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy hosts nobles and royals for months at a time, including a famous castrato singer, Carlo Morelli. The Prince’s mistress, Sophia, has invited her recently widowed sister Charlotte von Steinbeck to stay at the palace as well. In the first handful of chapters, we are very quickly introduced to a very large cast of characters – Charlotte and her spoiled sister Sophie; Charlotte’s young and naive maid Anna; Carlo Morelli the famous singer; Herr Hadyn the famous composer; Franz, a singer in the Prince’s opera troupe; the rest of the singers in the troupe, van Born the alchemist; Mr. Guersney, who claims to be an English writer; and Friedrich von Hollner, Sophie’s long suffering husband. It was a lot to keep track of, to the point of distraction.
The plot settles into and handful of intertwined plots including the widowed Charlotte and Carlo having immediate romantic chemistry between each other, Franz and Friedrich getting involved in some kind of mysterious political maneuvering, Sophie being needy and petty to the point of ridiculousness, Charlotte’s maid Anna becoming a singer with the Prince’s opera company, demonstrations of the paranormal at the palace, and Morelli’s inward depression and being a plaything of the nobles.
the Little Red Reviewer 
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