After her mother's death, an impoverished young woman with no prospects for the future receives an irresistible offer from her father, whom she has never met. He offers to pay her to impersonate her long-lost twin sister, who has mysteriously disappeared in Scotland. But she never counted on falling for her sister's rakish fiancee, the handsome Earl of Linley. And what would happen if he found out that the spirited, passionate object of his love was no more than a stand-in bride?
A regency charmer. Nice writing and a plot which diverged from the usual. I love different!
It wasn’t perfect—the MMC was less than brilliant, but he and Maeve made a great pairing. Also, while I was impressed by the obvious time and thought Miller spent creating her story, there was a need to suspend disbelief regarding… 🤫 Well, I don’t want to give anything away. Then again, “Madcap,” is in the title so, who cares?
Half star bonus added to the rating for using Floccinaucinihilipilification in the story: “The action or habit of estimating something as worthless or trivial.”
Read: 3/27/26 Setting: Regency England Trope: switched identities/twin, forced marriage
This book was a joy to read!
plot: Maeve has lived in the shadow of her notorious courtesan mother her whole life. Now, her mother is dead and she's finally meeting her father. He reveals that that she has an identical twin. When her parents separated, each one took a twin. Well, Maeve got the short end of that stick!. Now, her father needs her help. Her extremely shy sister has runaway from her impending marriage and he needs Maeve to masquerade as Meg until he can find her. Maeve agrees to carrying out this deception, but only if her father pays off her mother's enormous debts. He also has only a fortnight to find her sister.
It turns out that playing a shy girl is harder than Maeve realized. She barely last an hour before her quirky personality comes through, to the dismay of her Meg's future MIL.
The Earl of Linley is marrying Meg for her money. It's a business arrangement, plain and simple! He plans to marry, but continue his liaisons. Linley can't hope for more with a fiancee who's scared of him. So, he is shocked when his shy fiancee challenges him. Who would have thought she was hiding such a witty personality underneath a timid shell? It doesn't take long for this rake to fall in love. He can't wait to make her his wife!
Maeve finds herself falling in love with her sister's fiancee. It gets harder and harder to lie to him. Another problem is the Reverend, who seems to care a lot about her sister. Maeve tries to avoid him in fear he'll recognize that she's not Meg. The man is probably the only person who truly saw her sister. Unfortunately, she can't confide her secret to him. She needs help, because her father doesn't seem to be looking for her sister. Maeve going to have to find Meg herself!
Another problem is with Meg's future MIL. She was happy when Meg was a shy girl that posed no threat. Now, she's furious with this new version of Meg and she won't stand for it! She'll get rid of that girl on way or another!
So what has happened to Meg and why isn't her father looking for her? The guilt is driving Maeve crazy! She has to tell Linley the truth! What will he do? Little does Maeve know that Linley has his own secret, one that could destroy her love for him.
liked: 1. I adored Maeve! She's intelligent and has a fabulous personality. She's no beauty, but she doesn't let that bother her. No pity party for this h! 2. Linley was a bit of a rake in the beginning, but that all changes when meets Maeve. He falls hard and quick. 3. These two were perfect for each other. Their conversations were hilarious. Though, what I loved best was that their romance was based on personality and not on looks. 4. The h is plain. I want to thank the author for not stating that fact on every page like other authors tend to do. I think her looks are only mentioned twice 5. The real Meg was pretty brave to run away instead of obeying her manipulative father. I was happy when she got her HEA with a certain character. 5. Well written with light, humorous moments.
dislike: 1. How could a father allow his daughter to be raised by a courtesan? I guess the same father who wouldn't bother to look for the daughter he raised. Still, this was a little too farfetched for me. 2. Clean book. This doesn't bother me, but I thought I'd mention it. 3. Maeve couldn't even last an hour as shy Meg. With all that money on the line, you'd think she could have tried harder than that! 4. An illegitimate son bring legitimized as the heir to a peerage was idiotic. It couldn't happen!
Conclusion: This was a charming story! I had a smile on my face the whole time reading this book. It was far from perfect, but I enjoyed it!
The Madcap Masquerade was a take on the 'mistaken identity' obstacle. Maeve Barrington, alias 'Marcus Browne', aka Meg Barrington, got involved with her father's scheme to pretend she is her twin until her sister can be located and returned to England. Maeve needs the money she had been promised so she can pay off her deceased mother's debts. Oh, and lets not forget, it will help to make her future more comfortable.
Theodore Hampton, the Earl of Lynley, had his own agenda for marrying Meg Barrington. He was land-rich but money-poor; he'd also like to combine the neighboring Barrington land with his own. His father had died leaving him to solve his family's financial problems and both Squire Barrington and the Lynley name needed an heir. The marriage was to solve his problems: then he could pursue his existing lifestyle.
The problem was the 'new' Meg was nothing like the 'old' Meg he first met and yet they looked the same. As far as Theo was concerned, the new Meg was just what he wanted in a wife if only he can convince her. And Maeve/Meg started to develop some feelings for Theo after he shows how serious he is towards wanting a faithful relationship.
Initially I didn't find either Maeve or Theo very likable but then they 'grow' on you. Maeve had her crude, loud father reminding her of her responsibilities and Theo was hounded by both his mother and his mistress. The author had to overcome these hurdles along with Maeve's continuing deception once Theo admitted his love for her. After some confusion, they both earned their HEA.
Very enjoyable. I look forward to reading more books by Nadine Miller in the future. I love it when authors use more obscure words like namby-pamby, looby, termagant, hoyton, etc. Good stuff :) :) :)
Huge potential but what a let down! It feels like the author was confused and didn’t fully have the characters and plot down. Everything appears to be inconsistent and so storytelling felt off every page. Instantly, I hated her father! Did he improve as the story go? Between the heroine’s late mother and her father also the hero’s mother none of the parents of these ladies and gents seemed worthy. With the sudden lost of her mother and the unexpected meeting of her father, it was was glossed over to the point of poor storytelling. And, seriously, why was everyone so inconsistent?! The hero called her a green eyed cat over his original thought that she was a plain, mousy thing. But then following that moment he then referred her back to a rather plain looking girl. As for Maeve, one moment she was super aware of the hero in terms of his fortune hunting proposal and his rakish rep, as she really meant to dislike him and help her poor twin escape such unflattering matrimony but at their first official meet (and engagement ball) Maeve was perfectly obsessing over the hero for a good minute. Until she came face to face with his famous mistress, then Maeve was back to loathing the man and she even took it upon herself to grant a hissing and cussing fit at the hero publicly. It was so, so unlike Meg! Remember, the oh, so shy and timid Meg? Firecracker Twin over here was just going at the hero about his rude treatment of his mistress. A mistress that the author had already made clear, I thought, that was perfectly understanding of hero upcoming engagement as it wouldn’t alter their ‘arrangement.’ It will only bring plenty of new means to his and her[mistress] benefits. But unexpectedly, the kept woman showed up and started looking all hurt and otherwise clingy. It just doesn’t followed up at all! What we got was not what we were told! And somehow at a mere girl’s lecture it didn’t anger the hero at all but it turned the hero with a conscious mind? For he thought this: Like it not, Miss Barrington had forced him to take a good look at what he done to Sophie when he’d made her his mistress—-something he had never before considered. The picture was not a pretty one. Nor did it helped that he could see the object of his betrothed’s concern standing alone in a far corner of the ballroom—-a plump, purple pariah shunned by the proper folks of the village.
Oh, come on! It’s not as if Sophie didn’t choose to come to the party herself knowing that she will be shunned, as if she didn’t choose that life for herself when she had accepted his proposition of the shunning kind! How bizarre is it! Are we to be grateful that the heroine is so compassionate towards mistresses and that the hero is so considerate of his new betrothed and mistress? I think they are both foolish! And to end it on a humorous note, according to the hero he had never intended to invite the mistress but a case of miscommunication with his chalet turned Sophie with an invitation, thus he was forced to introduced the mistress to Maeve and the squire. And as loony as Maeve’s father was, he had a perfect snub for the hero. “Already met the silly chit a hundred times in the village, ye looby. This ain’t London, ye know.”
Also, Maeve then tried extending an invitation to hero’s mistress for tea at her father’s house. Naturally, the snobby squire snubbed her, too. “Invite the jade to tea? In a pig’s eyes!”
(According to Maeve, the mistress will have common interests with their housekeeper who is evidently “kept” by her father. A poor joke, Maeve! A poor joke, indeed!)
This was a decent book but I didn't enjoy it that much, I could tell within the first 20 pages I wasn't going to love it, I usually can with most books and mostly I am right, sometimes I am pleasantly suprised but this was not one of them, there is nothing actually wrong with it or the story, many probably will enjoy the book, but the only characters worthwhile were the hero and heroine and while both of them had good points, I probably prefered the hero but I didn't connect to either of them so I couldn't connect much to the book either, so decent but forgettable for me, and there was some things in it that annoyed me, which these things often pop up from time to time in regencys and I can't stand it, I am sick of the whole "independent woman" thing, it's bad enough it's shoved into everything today, I don't need it in regencys as well, the heroine was very modern, she seemed like a modern girl rather than an 19th century girl, not because she was fiesty, they are many regency heroines who were "fiesty" but still remained faithful to the setting but I felt she was not of the 19th century, I felt she could have been a 21st century woman so I didn't like that. Also had issues with some of the messages in it such as Theo getting all the blame for his mistress as if the widowed Sophie had no say in it, the heroine ignored the fact that Sophie choose to be his mistress, she was not forced, it was her choice so whatever came of that choice was just as much her responsibility. Also the fact that the heroine kept referring to the hero as a fortune hunter got old, which technically speaking you could say he was but we're not being technical because it wasn't a secret that he needed marriage for money, it was a marriage of convienience, men often married for money and women often married for titles and status, it was a mutual exchangement and this was painting it one sided. There was a few other things too that annoyed me but I shall not mention them all, I just get tired of seeing these type of things, it's one of the many reasons why i don't read 21st century books, they all inject 21st century thinking into past times as if people in the past walked around behaving like today, women did not walk around thinking they were "victims" in the 19th century, this is modern ideology that is put onto them. While this novel per say was not very bad in that way, it only had snippets of this but I'm just kind of letting my frustration out of whatever regencys I have read that do have it as well, I've read 2 more regencys recently like this and I'm tired of it, i try to avoid any books that have any bit of modernity to them but can't win them all.
The writing was well-done—meaning it seems written of that time and is not overly modern, and is also lightly descriptive without getting bogged down in details—but the “madcap” storyline was just too crazy for me. FMC is a child of an elegant courtesan whose death at the beginning of the novel leaves FMC needing to find some way to support herself. But wait… a long-lost father comes into the picture. And, oh, wait again…there is a secret twin sister that has run away from an arranged marriage set up by this father. And wait again! Can our FMC stand in for this twin so the elopement continues? Oh, and wait again! Our FMC also secretly publishes political cartoons in the paper under a male name as a means of revenue!? Really there were too many “madcap” ideas in this one novel and they were all dealt with lightly as if this kind of thing happens often. Not much character depth. I like that the FMC was an ordinary-looking girl and not some beauty. But where authors always mess this up is by having the MC almost immediately attracted to the FMC as if she was a beautiful woman. What’s the point? When it’s done well, the attraction usually builds between the two in a more Meaningful way because there is no instant attraction. Anyway, suffice it to say I’ll keep away from Miller’s books for a while.
Historical English romance with a (secret) twin to replace the other in an engagement to a Lord. Earl of Linley's engagement to Meg is easily replaced by Maeve because Meg is super shy (social anxiety after the childhood loss of her twin sister?) and no one really knows her except the Vicar Richard who figures out the switch quickly although the Earl is clueless. Maeve and Meg have opposite personalities, one is sarcastic and open while the other is super shy and docile. The usual romance occurs with the Earl for the replacement, Maeve and Meg for the vicar best friend, Richard. 96 pages, but felt more like 150 and a kindle freebie 2 stars
I stumbled on this author by chance, but it was such luck. These books are well written and edited. Traditional Recency romances, quick reads that will leave you with a smile on your face. I've read two so far, the heroine in both is a plain but unusual woman, the hero a Lord who needs to learn to unbend. The path to romance is resolved to a happily ever after that is wrapped up tickly and competently. Well worth reading.
This is the first book I’ve read that was made by the author Nadine Miller and I must say I love it, even though the story is your typical twin identity plot!
I noticed that the author place them both in the same ground, with Theo being a bastard while Maeve is a daughter of a courtesan and being the infamous cartoonist before they accepted their love for each other.
There are some characters that I liked and disliked at first but as the story progresses the book showed me that there are two sides of each character and that two or three shortcomings isn’t really what defines them as a whole. Example is Theodore Hampton, he was first introduced as a rake, fortune hunter and heartless and I wasn’t fond of him at all but I soon found out that he’s also kind, passionate on something he loves, thoughtful and a forgiving person. Another example is Richard Forsythe, he was gentle, kind and thoughtful but sadly he’s very judgmental too which lowered my fondness of him. As for the Maeve Barrington, I like her from the minute she was introduced to me until the last; even though her deception was reproachful I admired her more for being guilty and confessing it to Theo in the end.
The book’s has a good message which is “You should love a person despite his or her flaws”. The only reason why I’m giving it 4 stars is because I felt the ending was abrupt and I needed an epilogue badly.
A quick easy read, loved the characters and good amount of supporting characters without divulging too much into them. The main characters storyline was cute and romantic and a good amount amount character development for Theo and Meave for how short the story is.
Here you have twins separated at birth never knowing the other other exists. Until one sister runs for the hills, then her twin is to be her stand in until her return...what could go wrong? Normally one would say nothing...that's not true here and probably not true at all.
Maeve and Meg are two completely different girls. Where Meg is shy and timid, Maeve is outspoken and brave. Here's the key to telling the difference, it's their eyes.
The Earl of Linley is in a very tight bind...he needs money badly since dear old daddy left him with nothing. As desperate as he is, the Squire makes a marriage contract with the Earl. The Squire is desperate too, you see there's a land issue clause that has to be honored with every generation otherwise the land goes back to the crown.
Everything goes according to plan right??? Everyone gets what they want right????
I gave this book a five for it's humorous storyline. It kept me entertained all the way to the end! Never a dull moment with maeve! What a character! I would highly recommend this book to read. Very well written.