Die Schöne Schwindlerin

Liar's Club #2

by Celeste Bradley

Dalton Montmorency hat eine heikle Aufgabe. Er soll im Dienste Ihrer Majestät die wahre Identität des respektlosen Cartoonisten »Sir Thorogood« entschlüsseln. Also veranstaltet Dalton einen Ball und gibt sich dort als dieser aus. Als Clara Simpson bei dem Fest eintrifft, ist sie entsetzt, als ihr Pseudonym leibhaftig durch den Ballsaal tanzt. Wie kann sie den attraktiven Hochstapler enttarnen, ohne ihre eigene Identität preiszugeben?

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Regency, Espionage, Regency Romance, Historical Fiction

Paperback

First published October 19, 2003

About the author

Visit me at www.CelesteBradley.com or facebook.com/CelesteBradleyAuthor :)
Go to CelesteBradley.com/newsletter for my Voice of Society newsletter.

Hi, my name is Celeste Bradley and I write "brain chocolate." That is, I write fun and sexy escapism is for hardworking women everywhere. We deserve a little man-candy, too!

Reviewers like to say I write about misfit heroines getting the man of their dreams. Maybe that's true, but don't we all feel like misfits sometimes? Even if the rest of the world thinks we have all our balls in the air, aren't we juggling like mad on the inside, desperately trying not to drop one?

I love this manic, scattered life I lead. I love to write, craft, garden, bake and mother, even if I don't always do it all perfectly. I love living in the Southwest, with its big sky and vast desert views. I love venturing out of my quiet life to meet readers and other writers, and then I love to come back to my haven, full of ideas and renewed passion and creativity.

Maybe one of those times I'll meet you!

Hugs,
and thanks for reading!

Reviews

[kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dalton Montmorecy, Lord Etheridge, poses as political cartoonist Sir Thorogood in order to try and get the real Sir Thorogood to please stand up. Except all he gets are murder attempts and the attention of the horrific window Clara Simpson. Clara, obviously being the heroine, is actually not at all horrific and instead has a secret! Namely: SHE is the elusive Thorogood! So she harasses Dalton in the daytime and in the nighttime flirts with...the safe cracker...that breaks into her neighbor's house...while dressed as a maid...?

1. THIS WAS RIDICULOUS.

2. THIS WAS NOT AS ENTERTAINING AS THE PRETENDER.

3. IN FACT THE QUALITY DROPPED PRETTY DRAMATICALLY?

4. BUT I AM STILL GOING TO READ THE NEXT BOOK?

5. Unrelated to the quality of the the writing, the scan-to-text software failed MISERABLY on this particular novel. It took some deciphering to figure out what was going on sometimes.

6. Clara was interesting but sadly underdeveloped: she goes from being the invisible Clara Simpson to splitting herself into the saucy maid Rose and the outrageous Widow Simpson without too much clarification as to how she managed that, how believable her personality swapping was, or any true motivation beyond "the text needs me!"—it just felt simplified to the point of foolishness.

7. Dalton was: pretty ridiculous. He goes "undercover" by introducing himself as Sir Thorogood and doesn't consider any of the longterm ramifications of presenting himself as someone he clearly is not. After The Pretender where the impact of public spectacle is pretty clearly examined in relation to everyone's position as a spy, it doesn't weigh in at all here.

8. No one feels like a convincing spy in this at all, actually, and the plot was VERY RIDICULOUS but not in a fun way. In a "skimming it to get to something better" way.

9. Bradley still has a unique, slightly irreverent tone that does appeal to me: the poorly plotted spy-games nonsense and ridiculous hero angsting are, however, very much flaws. 2.5 stars, rounding up for the lols.

[Gamze · Rating 4 out of 5]

yazarı ilk defa okuyorum.
zaman zaman sıkılsam da genel olarak akıcıydı.
ilk kitabı okumadan seriye ikinciden giriş yaptım ama çok bir şey kaybetmedim sanki. :)

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really more like 3.5. Definitely can't go 4 stars on this one. I really enjoyed the first in the series.

I don't know what it was but the whole time reading this I just couldn't get what was going on. I found myself saying "huh?" and "wait.."

One scene in particular finds the H/h at an inn and they're kinda quiet like and then BAM!! some dude comes flying through the window and lands right where he wants to! It was ninja type stealth but not. I was like "what the…." Then I started looking at my window, back at the book, back to the window trying to figure out how the hell someone could gracefully and powerfully fling themselves through a window and land EXACTLY where they wanted. *shakes head* But yes, this is romance and weird stuff happens but...

Ahem. Well, enough said. The book totally confused me to the point I was thinking I had an ailment.

[Sombra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 estrellas.

Cuando descubrí esta serie por casualidad, y al ver que se trataba de espías regenciles que actuaban a las órdenes de Inglaterra en contra de Napoleón, a pesar de ser de mis tramas favoritas tuve un poco de miedo porque para mí ha llegado un punto en el que las veo a todas iguales y es muy difícil que me mantengan enganchada. A no ser que la autora haya incluido algún detallito o subtrama que no haya visto mucho en historias de este tipo.

Estos dos libros la verdad es que han tenido ese "puntillo" que no me esperaba a pesar de todos los clichés que sí que hay.

En esta ocasión, y hablando ya de este segundo libro, me ha gustado que la protagonista tuviera casi todo el peso de la trama y fuera una mujer que se sabe sacar las castañas del fuego por sí misma sin necesidad de necesitar a su espía azul para que venga a su rescate.
¿Qué ha tenido momentos en los que dices; es en serio que vas a hacer eso cuando te han dicho lo contrario?¿Dónde ha ido a parar tu sentido práctico?...Pues sí, pero incluso, como ya he dicho, con esos clichés, la historia ha sido amena, entretenida y sobre todo muy divertida, lo que hace que gane muchos puntos.

Los personajes principales me han gustado tanto juntos como separados, sobre todo a medida que ambos se iban dando cuenta de sus situaciones y por ende, de sus verdaderos sentimientos. Los personajes secundarios han sido como la cuarta pata de una mesa. Un engranaje necesario para que la historia fluyera y a la vez tuviera esos toques de misterio e hilaridad que le daban otro ambiente a determinadas situaciones.
Y por último la trama. Bien llevada pero que me ha sabido muy precipitada. Sobre todo cuando al principio es muy pausada y es bien entrada en la segunda mitad de la historia cuando la cosa avanza y se empieza a descubrir todo el pastel

Es una lástima que no hayan traducido más libros de esta serie, porque la verdad es que, aunque no es de las más inolvidables, sí que son entretenidas y divertidas, Ideales para cuando quieres una lectura no muy pesada y que te haga echar alguna que otra sonrisa.

[Deborah Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first time in ages I didn't skip the sex scenes in a romance because these were well-written and organic to the story. There was real relationship building through them and they weren't just thrown in out of some misguided idea that over-the-top mindblowing sex is the virgin's stock in trade. It helped that the heroine isn't a virgin. But it helped more that there were thoughts about feelings and situations informing the scenes. Very much enjoyed this and hope the following books in the series show continued development for the author.

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tenía ganas de la historia de Dalton que en el anterior me gustó mucho y no me ha defraudado. Dalton es responsable, justo y con una gran sentido del honor, pero con Clara es cariñoso y muy intenso. Con Clara he tenido mis más y mis menos, pero en su afán de no querer que nadie la controle algunas veces me parece que se equivoca en sus decisiones. La historia me ha gustado pero ya he encontrado la razón por la que algunas veces me atasco y es la traducción, parece que es antigua, no sé si tendrá algo que ver, hay algunas frases traducidas literalmente y eso hace que pierda el sentido de la frase o el contexto. También me pasó en el anterior, aún así me gusta y es una serie muy buena. El siguiente es James que esta vez sí me ha gustado más 😄😄

[Funda41 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acımasız bir casusun sosyeteye kibirli biri olarak girmesi hiç de kolay değildir. Fakat Yalancılar Kulübü’nün yeni lideri Dalton Montmorency bu görevi üzerine alır ve Londra’da yankı uyandıran politik çizimlerin yaratıcısı münzevi karikatürist Sör Thorogood kılığına girer. Sör Thorogood’un gerçek kimliği tam bir gizemdir, bu yüzden Dalton karikatürleri hükümdarlığa daha fazla zarar vermeden önce onu ortaya çıkaracağını umar. Tabii tuhaf bir cazibesi olan Clara Simpson’la tanışana dek…

Clara meşhur karikatürist Sör Thorogood’la bir baloda tanıştığında onun bir sahtekâr olduğundan emindir, çünkü gerçek Sör Thorogood bizzat kendisidir. Karikatürlerini satarak, ölen kocasının akrabalarının evinden ayrılıp kendi evinde yaşayabilecek kadar para biriktirmeyi ummaktadır. İşte bu yüzden sahtekârın maskesini düşürmeye karar verir, fakat başka biriymiş gibi davranırken bambaşka bir gizeme kapılıverir…

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Once again a nice read led by a super strong heroine who pretends to be a meek widow but in reality her caricatures have taken London by storm and shook even the spies. It was nice seeing how the h/H didn't really see each other behind their disguises for so long. Enjoyable.

[Kait Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

After searching high and low for this book because I couldn't remember the title or the author I've finally found it and reread it. And it was better the second time! I must say I love this book. My two favorite scenes have to be when Dalton gets attacked on the bridge and he nestles his head in Clara's lap and the scene between Clara and Dalton in Wadworth's study. Also I loved the fact that Clara was such an animal lover and that Dalton in the end was one as well. I was also very proud of Clara for her artistic flair and her creativity. It felt good to have a heroine who could bring down a government with her talent.

[Shellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I started out thinking I was liking this one better than the first. That changed around the last 100 pages or so. This was a good book, but I think the first one was a little better when it was all said and done. I liked the main characters and their banter, but towards the end I wasn’t feeling their romance. To be fair I don’t know what happened maybe I wasn’t in the mood? There was a good little plot and some action, which I like. Now on to book 3 ‘The Spy’ I hope it will be even better.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

I think I liked this one better than the first one.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 2nd in the Liar's Club series, of which I loved the first book, The Pretender.

This one wasn't quite as good, mostly because I recognized several of the plot devices from the first one so it didn't seem as new and fresh to me. Book 2 picks up with Dalton Montmorency who is now the Spymaster of the Liar's Club. He is unsure of his place with them and takes on the assigment of becoming Sir Thorogood, the pseudonym of the cartoonist that has exposed many an important man in London. One thing leads to another, and Claire (the real cartoonist) goes out of her way to expose the man that is posing as her - or rather, Sir Thorogood. The whole thing is a bit outlandish and convoluted. To make matters more complicated, Claire poses as the maid next door, Rose, and winds up meeting another persona of Dalton's, Monty, a thief who has come to steal documents of her nextdoor neighbor. They wind up attracted to one another, having no idea the other is an imposter and that they've really met before. It was fun, but not very realistic.

Before you know it, the secret's out, they've had some wild attic sex and I found the book a bit tedious with the crazy plotline and all the disguises and other personas and not enough relationship building and romance. I like Dalton as a hero, but again (as in The Pretender) he's always dwelling on should he choose his love for the girl, or his duty to his country. One good point is, this book keeps you guessing about who the real bad guy is. Just when you think you've got it nailed, it surprises you, and you're wrong, and have a great big "Ooooh! So that's who he is!"

Anyway, if you like Spymaster Regency romances, you'll like this one, but as I said before, the plot was too crazy with all the disguises, I like something a bit more straighforward and funnier - although this one had it's moments, but more of them were just kind of stupid and unbelievable (if that's possible in a romance!)

3.5/5

[Kristal Kitap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eğlenceli&sıkıcı diye bir kavram var mıdır acaba? Yada bir kitap hem sizi gülümsetip hemde aynı zamanda nasıl sıkabilir? Bir yandan kitabın akıntısına kapılıp giderken bir yandan da nasıl durgun sularda yüzermiş gibi hissedebilirsiniz? Ben 'Hayallerime Kapılma'yı okurken iki duyguyu aynı anda hissettim. Hem okumak istiyor hem istemiyordum. Kitabı kapatıp kaldırdığım zaman aklım kitapta kalıyordu fakat elime aldığım zamanda okumasam mı acaba yaaa diye kitaplığa geri kaldırma duygumu bastırmaya çalışıyordum.

Bir sayfayı okurken hem yeter artık çok uzattın diye düşünürken, hemde büyük bir merakla bir sonraki cümle de olayın seyri nasıl değişecek diye bekliyordum. Çelişkilerle dolu bir kitaptı benim için. Öyle sahneleri vardı ki içimden offff nasıl bu kadar aptal olabiliyorsunuz? Nasıl tanımıyorsunuz birbirinizi diye çemkirdiğim yerler oldu. Ama yazarın tarzı bu sanırım. Çünkü ilk kitabında da karakterlerini sürekli kılıktan kılığa sokarken kimse hiç bir şey anlamıyordu. Birde bazı olaylar bir anda sonuca kavuştu. Ben daha noluyoz yaaa diyemeden karakter sayfalardır çözmeye çalıştığı işi çözmüş hatta kaçmaya bile başlamıştı.

Benim tarzım da giderek değişiyor artık bunun farkına bir kez daha vardım. Eskiden yazarlara neden çiftin arasında ki aşkı -aşk yapmayı :D- bu kadar kısa tutuyorlar diye düşünürken şimdi kendim atlar oldum o sahneleri. Eh bu düşünceye lisedeyken sahiptim. Artık üniversite son senede olmanın getirdiği bir olgunluk olsa gerek. :D

Kitabın konusuna değinsem mi? Hımm... Bence gerek yok yaa. Arka kapak yeterli. Kadın karakterin yine sevdiğim bir tarzı vardı. Sessiz sakin bir tip değil. Maceraya atılmaktan korkmayan, lafını sakınmayan ve zeki bir karakter. Erkek karakterimiz ise Dalton Montmorency. Gönlünü Kimseye Kaptırma da ki erkek karakter gibi kendine acıya bir tip değil.

Güzel bir seri. Yazarı takibime aldım. Asla Pişman Olma kitabını da okuduktan sonra eğer beğenirsem, çıkan kitaplarını gözüm kapalı almaya karar verebilirim. 4 ve 3 arasında çok gidip geldim hemde çoook fazla. Sonunda 4'te karar kıldım.

[BJ Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

The books in the Liar's Club series are enjoyable reads with humor and light intrigue. They have strong heroes who are intelligent and patriotic, and strong heroines who are intelligent and resourceful, but the men seem to bungle their jobs until the women set them on the right track. There are some really great secondary characters, such as Feebles the pickpocket, Button the very sartorial valet, and Robbie the chimneysweep. The books had only a few 'suspend-disbelief' moments, (such as when the very proper Dalton dresses as a very colorful dandy and minces around in society!). They're quick, fun reads, but not keepers for me.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

I'm not usually a huge fan of spies in historical romance because they feel so overdone at times. But, Bradley's Liars Club series is definitely an exception to that rule especially The Impostor. The mission that Dalton (the hero) has to accomplish reminds me of The Scarlet Pimpernel (one of my favorites!). And I'm always sold on a book that has a heroine with a secret life like Clara does. Both Dalton and Clara are so well-written and their banter was extremely entertaining. I also loved the concept of political cartoons and how they were used even in this time period.

[ѕєяєηιтι · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

Serinin ilk kitabı çok güzel,eğlenceliydi romantikti aksiyonluydu bayılmıştım 5 yıldız vermiştim. Bu kitaptan da beklentim haliyle bir hayli yüksekti fakat bu beklentim hafif hayalkırıklığıyla sonuçlandı.. Kitabın ismine hitaben kitabı okurken çok fazla hayallere kapılmayın derim..

Tek başına bağımsız düşünsem kitabı o zaman daha farklı daha çoşkulu bir yorum yapardım ama ilk kitap var ortada kıyaslamamak mümkün değil ilk kitaptaki eğlence yok bu kitapta konuda o kadar aman aman değildi yazarın kötü bi zamanına gelmiş diyeyim bir sonraki kitapta ilk kitaptaki başarıyı yakalayacağını umalım...

[Ilze · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get past the first appearance of the hero. He's a Lord something or other, i.e. a member of high society and listed in Debrett's Peerage. But he dresses up in clownish clothes as a disguise and arrives at a society ball in London, gets announced under a false name, and he (or the author) thinks no one will recognize him? Just preposterous. Evidently the author has never thought through the implications of being a part of high society, although it is not that hard - think of celebrities today, or New York high society.

[Kusanagi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pas toujours plus crédible que le premier... Mais j'aime beaucoup les héros, que ce soit Clara et ses dessins que Dalton et sa gestion des ses multiples personnages là... Un tome aussi où la résolution de l'enquête on va dire laisse un peu un goût amer... Pas pour les personnages principaux mais surtout pour un personnage secondaire qu'on fini par apprécier. Ceci dit ouf, c'est le héros du tome 1 de son autre série The Royal Four ^^ En tout cas des tomes pas forcément réalistes niveaux péripéties mais plutôt sérieux niveau "raison d'état contre individu"

[Yumru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Güzel bir seri, biraz entrika, biraz gizem seviyorsanız iyibir okuma süreci sizi bekliyor.Ama dolu dolu bir aşk okumak istiyorsanız size yeterli gelmeyecek diyebilirim. Karakterleri sevdim eğlenceliydiler ve bu sayede kitap daha hoşuma gitti.Ama ilk kitap daha iyiydi demedende edemeyeceğim umarım 3.kitap çevrilirde biran önce okuruz.

[Pöfivonat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valójában 4,5 csillag és sokkal jobban tetszett, mint az első rész. Több humor, több romantika és ármány. :)

[Beth pretends to read everything (i.e. romance) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 middling mediocre stars

The premise of this is that a spy (Dalton/Monty) is rooting out a person (Clara/cartoonist et al) by impersonating them. This is top 3 tropes - I loooove a good secret identity. Did I watch too much superman/batman/spiderman and maybe sailor moon (alright, I'm slightly embarrassed of that one) in the 90s only hoping they would get with Lois lane/Catwoman (or poison ivy)/MJ or the dude in the magician's outfit? Hell yes I did!

So something went wrong here. Once again the author had a great premise and a promising first half but something just went awry in the second half. The declaration of feelings was not great and the smut felt a little bungled. Or maybe there had been something missing all along in the first half and I was too entranced too notice, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe lacking in genuine feelings for one another or the feelings are not well done?

And then we have the reveal of the secret identity. Did the H figure it out in some dreamy way, like realizing it's the same kiss or the scent or some other ridiculous but fairytale way? No. He had to be told by the woman he thought she was after finally seeing the not-really-her in the daylight. What it was not, was thrilling or satisfying in any way resembling that "I would know you anywhere" magic bullshit. I want the magic bullshit.

The smut was few and far between and ultimately . . .fine.

Where was the fire?! Where was the passion?! Where was the tension?!

[Lita · Rating 3 out of 5]

First I want to start by saying I loved this story. It was easily a 4.5 star read. However, there were so many typos that kept pulling me out of the story that I can't let it pass.

I understand this was published in 2003, so it's by no means a recent release and I've read other Celeste Bradley books that were outstanding. I also have to admit some of this could be because it's an ebook and even that I got it from my local library, so that may have something to do with it. If so, it would be nice for an updated version to be made available. Having said all of that...

I simply loved the two main characters and their love story. Of all of their disguises, I must confess a preference for Rose and Monty. Although Lord Etheridge and Clara were a fairly close second. However, as Monty and Rose they didn't have so many problems between them and their love was sigh worthy. I enjoyed this book and believe I would have loved it had it not had so many typos. There were far too many instances of the word he being used in place of other words and at times it was very confusing trying to figure out what the author was trying to say.

[Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is probably worth 4 stars, but...
The ebook version I got from my local library had serious editing issues. It took me til the very end to figure out when the book said a character was a "he", it really meant "lie". This happened far too many times to count. I thought the heroine was being esoteric and thinking the character was a generic he. Another issue that occurred several times was "mining" instead of "ruining". It is almost like the book was scanned in by very old OCR software from an ornate font and never edited.
I hope this has been corrected, but it makes me leery of buying any of the ebooks in the series.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t like this book as much as the first in this series but was still a good read. I felt the meetings between both characters while acting like other people was a little bit overkill in the many different fashions that it happened. The biggest issue I had was that Dalton as a lord still has sex with who he thinks is a maid, but never would have entertained making her his wife. I didn’t like that part of this plot that they have their first time together pretending to be other people.

[catechism · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the two leads in this one have three disguises each and all three are mixed up with their counterpart disguise in some way, and there's a lot of window-swooping and something about the Prince Regent killing the king a long time ago? This was basically stupid fun except for the plot, which was overly convoluted nonsense. Fortunately, the plot was also easily skipped!

[Tory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a decent book! I liked the characters, but the plot wasn’t very believable. In particular, each character was pretending to be at least two people, and met each other multiple times as each persona, and yet it took most of the book for them to recognize each other in each disguise. So I found that difficult to believe and a little annoying.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+ Normally I round up but I can't justify it with this series. Books 1 and 2 start off so slow it is difficult to keep reading. It is well into 50-60% read before I can really get into the book. I really have no desire to read the rest of the books in this series.

[Dania F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful in that it keeps you guessing for a good long while. Decently written and rather likeable characters. Unfortunately the love story is unbelievable and the lack of recognition between the characters as well.

[Miriamgreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read all the Liar's club series but vaguely remember this one
that is how it goes when you read one day to escape donald trump
so my review should not influence anyone, except to say the series - all- even if i cannot remember, are worth your time.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a spy, he's kind of bad at lying. Also, isn't the English nobility small enough that they can recognize him either before or after his escapade? I know he's a recluse, but they memorize DeBrett's.