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Agents for the Crown #2
Artifice
David Alexander Cole, the Earl of Whitborne, is tired of his life as an agent but when he meets an enchanting young miss with an unusual request, he cannot help but be intrigued. Miss Joanna Deville enters his life like a whirlwind and he finds himself hard pressed to not help her in her quest for love, but he soon finds himself entangled in a love triangle. The game is one of deception, make a certain gentleman jealous, and catch a jewel thief in the process - but it goes awry when he finds himself falling in love with Joanna's devastatingly beautiful best friend, Miss Arianna Channing. What's a spy to do when confronted with such Artifice...
Arianna Channing has always been the bell of the ball. Her entourage includes all of the most eligible gentlemen and she enjoys the power her beauty has over them, but there is one... One delectable rake with the power to make her feel something more, something real and true, but he's embroiled in a charade of love with her best friend. How can she ever convince the rakishly handsome Lord to quit his deception and join her in a true romance?
Arianna Channing has always been the bell of the ball. Her entourage includes all of the most eligible gentlemen and she enjoys the power her beauty has over them, but there is one... One delectable rake with the power to make her feel something more, something real and true, but he's embroiled in a charade of love with her best friend. How can she ever convince the rakishly handsome Lord to quit his deception and join her in a true romance?
- GenresRomance
302 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2012
2 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 28, 2020
ONE ENCHANTING CHARADE!!!
Phenomenal! Elizabeth unleashes this prize winning wonder with all the steam, magic, charades, a little humor, toss in spiraling suspense with this action packed gem and you have one mind-blowing masterpiece. Satisfaction is an understatement, this baby comes packing a punch that'll bring you to your knees, keeping you riveted on a razors edge and frozen to your seat. Securing the ups and downs, weaving a cocoon so intricately and tight, drawing you deeper into this tangled web, blasting this baby to life spectacularly. Crushing the boundaries and pushing the limits, displaying the strong suits and short straws, slamming this baby into overdrive, launching it into a frenzy with astonishing impacts, drawing our characters closer than they could have ever anticipated. Satisfaction rocks this little treasure, bringing it home with such intensity and precision, displaying triumph and imparting one block busting dynamo, fusing this baby together piece by piece. The characters are complex and genuine with traits and qualities that add depth and diversity, adding enough flaws to relate, transforming into amazing personalities. The scenes are strikingly sharp with abundant details and depictions creating an elaborate backdrop that's so vividly descriptive it's like your transported to ground zero with them. Incredible job Elizabeth, thanks for sharing this little guy with us.
Phenomenal! Elizabeth unleashes this prize winning wonder with all the steam, magic, charades, a little humor, toss in spiraling suspense with this action packed gem and you have one mind-blowing masterpiece. Satisfaction is an understatement, this baby comes packing a punch that'll bring you to your knees, keeping you riveted on a razors edge and frozen to your seat. Securing the ups and downs, weaving a cocoon so intricately and tight, drawing you deeper into this tangled web, blasting this baby to life spectacularly. Crushing the boundaries and pushing the limits, displaying the strong suits and short straws, slamming this baby into overdrive, launching it into a frenzy with astonishing impacts, drawing our characters closer than they could have ever anticipated. Satisfaction rocks this little treasure, bringing it home with such intensity and precision, displaying triumph and imparting one block busting dynamo, fusing this baby together piece by piece. The characters are complex and genuine with traits and qualities that add depth and diversity, adding enough flaws to relate, transforming into amazing personalities. The scenes are strikingly sharp with abundant details and depictions creating an elaborate backdrop that's so vividly descriptive it's like your transported to ground zero with them. Incredible job Elizabeth, thanks for sharing this little guy with us.
April 9, 2012
Hea y'all Anne here to talk about Artifice book 2 in the Agents For The Crown series, which I love!!! Elizabeth has such an amazing ability to transport the reader back in time to an era when women were treasures and men were gentlemen. In this book we get to follow another agent as he follows a thief and is on top of his game until he comes face to face with Arianna, a smart little whip of a girl who loves to have all the attention and leave the men pining after her. Arianna and her friend Joanna are all a flutter with the beginning of the season in London and the prospect of finding their own love. This book is beautiful to read and so easy to fall into and feel taken back to a time of balls and operas. I can't express the way I adore Elizabeth and her writing style. I just get carried away and I can read her books in like 2 days because I can't put them down!! Love stories on top of mystery and intrigue all the while describing the places, dresses, and actions it's like Elizabeth was there and taking notes. I just can't get over the dresses and the scenes at the balls where the characters court one another and fall in love.
The characters are so full and well written, they feel like friends and family. The girls are reserved and polite but behind closed doors they are fun and vivacious, looking for love and gossiping about all the latest scandals. They dress for all occasions, a detail not overlooked by the author and they are treated as jewels that men seek out and treasure once obtained. The men, well where to start. They are dashing and proper filling dance cards and kissing hands. Alex first comes into play while searching for a thief and is then brought into a master plot by Joanna to obtain her crushes eye. Joanna is hopelessly in love with her child hood friend Johnathon but how far will she have to go to make him see her as the woman she has become not the girl she was. Alex carries on his reputation of being a "rake" to help Joanna while she in turn becomes bait for his thief. Alex can't lie to everyone though, the beautiful and sassy Arianna catches his eye and he must have her. But how to juggle his job, the game, and his new love interest? Well with grace that's how. I adore these books and am anxious for the next book to come out so I can keep up with all my favorite characters and meet some new ones. 5 out of 5 stars for Artifice book 2 in the Agents For The Crown series. I so love these books in case I hadn't said that already.
The characters are so full and well written, they feel like friends and family. The girls are reserved and polite but behind closed doors they are fun and vivacious, looking for love and gossiping about all the latest scandals. They dress for all occasions, a detail not overlooked by the author and they are treated as jewels that men seek out and treasure once obtained. The men, well where to start. They are dashing and proper filling dance cards and kissing hands. Alex first comes into play while searching for a thief and is then brought into a master plot by Joanna to obtain her crushes eye. Joanna is hopelessly in love with her child hood friend Johnathon but how far will she have to go to make him see her as the woman she has become not the girl she was. Alex carries on his reputation of being a "rake" to help Joanna while she in turn becomes bait for his thief. Alex can't lie to everyone though, the beautiful and sassy Arianna catches his eye and he must have her. But how to juggle his job, the game, and his new love interest? Well with grace that's how. I adore these books and am anxious for the next book to come out so I can keep up with all my favorite characters and meet some new ones. 5 out of 5 stars for Artifice book 2 in the Agents For The Crown series. I so love these books in case I hadn't said that already.
October 2, 2014
this was awesome! I loved how everything went down in this one!...lol...although disappointed in Jonathan he sure can't take a hint that one! I loved the mystery and adventure in this one the characters were so sneaky and the plots so wily!
Elizabeth Lance is a amazing author and never fails to amaze my with her incredible talent again and again. her plots are perfect and her characters so dashing. The villain in this one is a jewel thief setting their sights on the riches débutantes at all the London season balls. The villain is so dashing and clever that they never even notice the jewels missing! imagine that! I think that if I was wearing a huge rock around my neck one minute and not the next I believe I would notice...lol...but then I have never been robbed by he best of pickpockets.
I love the characters in the story and the more I get to know about them the more I don't want to leave them! Joanna is a fav of mine I love her spunk and the way she handles herself in this one. Arianna is another fav she likes to get herself in the craziest of situations that one!...lol
I can't wait to read the next one! as I am sure it will just as brilliant as the first two!
Elizabeth Lance is a amazing author and never fails to amaze my with her incredible talent again and again. her plots are perfect and her characters so dashing. The villain in this one is a jewel thief setting their sights on the riches débutantes at all the London season balls. The villain is so dashing and clever that they never even notice the jewels missing! imagine that! I think that if I was wearing a huge rock around my neck one minute and not the next I believe I would notice...lol...but then I have never been robbed by he best of pickpockets.
I love the characters in the story and the more I get to know about them the more I don't want to leave them! Joanna is a fav of mine I love her spunk and the way she handles herself in this one. Arianna is another fav she likes to get herself in the craziest of situations that one!...lol
I can't wait to read the next one! as I am sure it will just as brilliant as the first two!
April 9, 2012
A continuation of the Agents for the Crown series, Artifice, takes you on a journey that will carry you along as if you are a part of the story. Chase a jewel thief, trifle in the love affairs of others, and fall hopelessly love with the wrong man as you turn the pages long into the night. Suspense and love flow out of the pages of Mrs. Lance’s well written novel.
May 13, 2013
David Alexander Cole is tired of his life as an agent until he meets a young miss name Miss Joanna Deville soon he falls in love with her. But soon he starts to fall in love with her best friend, Her best friend Arianna Channing can't refuse David. Once I started this book I could not put it down. If you haven't read this book you need too.
December 16, 2012
Enchanting! I normally don't get into this genre but just the fact that her details and story line is simply breathtaking is enough to make me a fan for life. Wonderful Elizabeth A. Lance!
July 3, 2020
I love a good Regency, but unfortunately, this is not one of them. I was put off right away by strange capitalization and incorrect statements and forms of address (among other errors)--and even a mistaken word or two (fainting is not the same as feigning!). There is so much random capitalization in the story that I won't even attempt to describe it. Flip through the Look Inside at Amazon, and you will see what I mean. The author incorrectly has an agent of the Crown call the Prince Regent “My Liege.” Ummm, sure, if the man is a vassal (and the Prince Regent his liege lord) in the long-discarded feudal system! The proper address would have been “Your Royal Highness.” The author also describes the Prince Regent as short. While he might have been prone to being overweight, he was not a short man by the standards of the day. Almack’s is spelled with the apostrophe; the author spelled it as Almacks. Little things like these just drive me a little crazy and distract me from what could be a good story. I think if an author is going to write for a given time in history, they need to know that time backward and forward, having done adequate research so readers don't just want to throw their Kindles when seeing error after error. If these kinds of mistakes and sloppy writing don't bother you, you might like this story.
I also have an issue with the way the author works with her large cast of characters. First, I thought it was a good idea that she had a list of them and their relationships in the beginning, but she seemed to think that having that list meant it was okay to not discuss these connections and other details throughout the book. With such a large group of characters, it made it sometimes confusing to know who precisely was who, how they related to each other, and what their role was. All in all, I do not feel like I can recommend this book.
I also have an issue with the way the author works with her large cast of characters. First, I thought it was a good idea that she had a list of them and their relationships in the beginning, but she seemed to think that having that list meant it was okay to not discuss these connections and other details throughout the book. With such a large group of characters, it made it sometimes confusing to know who precisely was who, how they related to each other, and what their role was. All in all, I do not feel like I can recommend this book.
June 27, 2020
This story is absolutely charming! David Alexander Cole, the Earl of Whitborne, meets Miss Joanna Deville who has an intriguing request to make! She wants his help in pretending to be interested in her so that her real target will become jealous and fall in love with her. It also an opportunity, as part of his work for the Crown, for him to catch a jewel thief in the process! Apparently, he knows who the thief is and has a plan to catch him with Joanna’s cooperation. However, in order for the plan to work, he needs to ignore Arianna to keep everyone safe.
But the situation begins to flounder quickly when he begins to fall in love for real with Joanna Deville’s best friend, Miss Arianna Channing. He can’t keep his eyes off her and it may endanger his plan to catch the thief. What he might not realize is that she wants him too! She just has to figure out how to convince him to give up the charade and pursue a real relationship with her! Will she try even harder to get his attention? Will she compromise his attempt to catch the jewel thief and inadvertently put all of them in danger?
The story line on this book was great and promised plenty of amusement as the situation got more tangled up. Grab your copy and enjoy how the characters figure out what to do to make things sort out properly! Keeping secrets always seems to complicate things!
But the situation begins to flounder quickly when he begins to fall in love for real with Joanna Deville’s best friend, Miss Arianna Channing. He can’t keep his eyes off her and it may endanger his plan to catch the thief. What he might not realize is that she wants him too! She just has to figure out how to convince him to give up the charade and pursue a real relationship with her! Will she try even harder to get his attention? Will she compromise his attempt to catch the jewel thief and inadvertently put all of them in danger?
The story line on this book was great and promised plenty of amusement as the situation got more tangled up. Grab your copy and enjoy how the characters figure out what to do to make things sort out properly! Keeping secrets always seems to complicate things!
June 27, 2020
David Alexander Cole, and agent for the Crown and with a reoutation of a rake, is trying to catch a jewel thief that is praying on the wealthy ladies of society. In the course of following the thief he encounters Mis Joanna Deville and her best friend, Miss Arianna Channing. As they exhibit the abilities for clandestine work him he gets both to assist him. Joanna fakes romantic interest in the thief and plays a great part that ends in her kidnapping, while David falls in love with Arianna. Plenty of intrigue results and David protecting both women. In the end David get his man.
The characters are excellently portrayed and the reader feels that he is right there in the action observing. The interaction between the characters is well done and the plot is fantastically presented. and enjoyable. The novel is obviously part of a series and I am looking to get the others to read. This is a book not to be missed.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The characters are excellently portrayed and the reader feels that he is right there in the action observing. The interaction between the characters is well done and the plot is fantastically presented. and enjoyable. The novel is obviously part of a series and I am looking to get the others to read. This is a book not to be missed.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
June 28, 2020
I always get excited when Ms. Lance comes out with a new book. She is definitely one of my favorite authors. This is the second book in her new series, Agents for the Crown. The first book was amazing, and I loved one just as much. Ms. Lance has an amazing ability to transport you back in time and really bring the story to life with her writing. I feel like I am experiencing it all myself. The characters were all so well-developed and worked nicely together and the flow of the story was perfect. I loved the mystery and adventure and how the story always kept me on my toes wondering what would happen next. This is truly a wonderful series you do not want to miss. I can't wait for the next one!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
June 26, 2020
Danger and deception.
This was an excellent tale with danger and deception all mixed into an engaging romance. I found Arianna and David were wonderful characters and the author did such a splendid job with them. I also like how vivid the author was it was almost as if you were right there with these characters. I enjoyed the first book a great deal but this book was even better. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
This was an excellent tale with danger and deception all mixed into an engaging romance. I found Arianna and David were wonderful characters and the author did such a splendid job with them. I also like how vivid the author was it was almost as if you were right there with these characters. I enjoyed the first book a great deal but this book was even better. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
June 28, 2020
Joanne needs David to help her make a man jealous and he needs her as a cover to help him catch a jewel thief. But, he never imagined that he would fall for Joanne's best friend Arianna. Now he's torn between how he feels for Arianna and catching a thief. This was a fun read as their relationships all got twisted and complicated. The storyline is good and the characters were entertaining. I look forward to reading the next book in this series. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book.
June 28, 2020
The second book in the Agents for the Crown series a well written story that kept me turning pages. David Alexander Cole, the Earl of Whitborne and Miss Arianna Channing, and her best friend Miss Joanna Deville's story. There is kidnapping, murder, suspense, drama, danger, villains, and romance. I want to read more in this series. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
August 3, 2021
A really enjoyable second in series
This is a really enjoyable and gripping story that continues a great series. All the characters are amazingly crafted, this spicy plot has plenty of suspense to keep the interest flowing.
This is a really enjoyable and gripping story that continues a great series. All the characters are amazingly crafted, this spicy plot has plenty of suspense to keep the interest flowing.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews