Books › Dark Masquerade:(Classic Gothics Collection#3)
Dark Masquerade:(Classic Gothics Collection#3)
First published 1976 · 192 pages
A shadowy Southern gothic romance where a desperate deception collides with dangerous accidents and a brooding, inescapable attraction.
What it feels like
Reading this vintage 1970s gothic romance feels like stepping into the humid, shadowy halls of a grand Southern plantation where every polite smile hides a threat. The atmosphere is thick with foreboding and the delicious tension of a high-stakes masquerade. It moves at a steady, suspenseful pace, carefully layering the dread of mysterious accidents with the swoony, emotionally heightened pull of a forbidden attraction. The prose leans into the classic melodramatic textures of the era, wrapping the reader in a world of widow's weeds, frosty receptions, and piercing, brooding gazes. It is a perfect match for readers who delight in old-school romantic suspense, where protective devotion and dangerous secrets entwine under the heavy canopy of a perilous estate.
- Mood
- foreboding
- shadowy
- tense
- swoony
- Tone
- melodramatic
- suspenseful
- earnest
- atmospheric
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- hidden identities · protective devotion · forbidden attraction · perilous inheritance
- The writing
- Atmospheric and emotionally heightened, leaning into the classic, melodramatic textures of 1970s gothic romance.
- The arc
- Moves from anxious isolation and desperate deception to a thrilling, perilous romantic entanglement.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave vintage Southern gothic romances filled with brooding heroes, grand estates, and heroines in disguise.
Content notes
- death of a sibling
- deception
- physical peril
About the book
For the sake of her nephew, Elizabeth has assumed the identity of her dead sister Ellen Marie. She arrives at the grand Louisiana plantation of Ellen Marie's late husband, wearing the traditional black widow's weeds and carrying her infant nephew, Joseph. She is determined that the boy will reach maturity and inherit his rightful fortune. Luckily, the family at Oak Shade does not suspect that they are harboring an imposter in their midst. However, they are less than welcoming, treating her with frosty politeness. More disturbing are the unusual accidents that seem to be following in her wake, as if planned for her. And now, the dark creole Bernard Delacroix seems to be seeing through her assumed persona, right into her soul. What he also sees is that the "widow" is desperate for his attentions.
Classic Gothics Collection Series: Stranger at Plantation Inn (Classic Gothics Collection, #1) Bride of a Stranger (Classic Gothics Collection, #2) Dark Masquerade (Classic Gothics Collection, #3) The Secret of Mirror House (Classic Gothics Collection, #4) The Court of the Thorn Tree (Classic Gothics Collection, #5) Night of the Candles (Classic Gothics Collection, #6) The Bewitching Grace (Classic Gothics Collection, #7)
Description from Open Library.
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