A Beautiful Disguise

A Beautiful Disguise is the newest book of Roseanna M. White, one of my favorite Christian authors. I’ve read almost everything from her oeuvre and especially loved The Codebreakers series and The Secret of the Isles. For me, this book ranks just below these series.

The setting is very unique, the main character Marigold runs both a circus and a secret investigation bureau with her brother, to try to stay afloat financially. Their acrobatics background come quite in handy, to be honest, and I absolutely love this setting. I mean, there is pet lion, how epic do you want it to be? I really loved it all, especially how Marigold struggles to keep her different identities secret, and how she has created this persona for society to try to get the most secrets.

The plot is very well done and it’ll keep you on your toes as the mystery slowly unfolds (because it involves Marigold’s bestie, you get quite invested actually), and the introduction of Sir Merrit Livingstone as another spy who hires the private investigation firm yet does research on his own and keeps bumping into Marigold… that’s.. well… gold! I love their growing relationship, there’s a lot of depth and a slow burn attraction. There was an amazing plot twist and I loved how action packed and nerve wrecking the end was, I was on the tip on my seat the whole time.

There’s a lot of backstory in this book, and sometimes it was a bit too much, especially in the beginning, there were a lot of names. Once you get the hang of it the story flows. I feel this is more a character based book despite the intruiging plot, the characters are very well done and complex, their inner conflicts and doubts shine on the page. There is a place for faith too, Catholic to be precise, but it doesn’t feel too preachy.

All in all, we’ve got an amazing first book in a series that I can’t wait to read more of! There are two other investigators with a hidden past and a brother with a crush, so I expect lots of awesome books to come.

I received a free e-arc from the publisher through Netgalley but it hasn’t influenced my opinions.