Review - The Artist's Masquerade by Antonia Aquilante

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t read the first book of this series, this review of the second book may contain some spoilers.

As the eldest son and cousin to the Crown Prince, Cathal has always known it was his responsibility to one day make a good marriage and produce heirs to continue the line of his noble family. When his father arranges a marriage to the cousin of an aggressive emperor without even consulting him, Cathal is angry but resigned to his fate. When he meets the lady, Cathal admits she would make a good match, but it’s her seemingly shy companion Flavia that continually draws his attention.

Flavian is desperate to flee his homeland, where loving another man is severely punished. He’s thrilled when his best friend shares her scheme to get Flavian away by disguising him as her companion when she is sent to marry Cathal. He is less thrilled that the plan involves him dressing as a woman. It should only be a short time. He can slip away as soon as they land in Tournai. That idea is scuppered when they are met by a royal entourage and invited to stay in the palace, where Flavian is also drawn to Cathal.

It’s a plot device older than Shakespeare: A character who dresses up as a different gender to escape some peril, only to end up stuck in the disguise for longer than they expected, and attracting the wrong kind of attention from a suitor. This second book of the Chronicles of Tournai series takes that plot and mixes in palace intrigue, spies, and family drama to create a book that was hard to put down. Cathal was a secondary character in The Prince’s Consort, so it would be best if you read that book before picking up this one to get the full background on Cathal’s relationship with the Crown Prince.

If you read “The Prince’s Consort” then you know Cathal as the rather straight-laced secretary to the Crown Prince. For all his life, Cathal’s father drummed the responsibilities associated with being the head of a noble family into him. The strong feeling that Prince Phillip was ignoring his responsibilities to Tournai caused the rift between the two in the first book. In some ways, Cathal’s journey in this story has some parallels with Amory’s in the first book. Like Amory, Cathal is constantly berated by a father who is never satisfied, no matter how hard he tries.

As a character, Flavian is interesting enough, but he’s more of a catalyst. His presence seems to trigger several events around the court, not just in Cathal’s thinking. The whole conundrum of how Cathal will get out of the arranged marriage and whether he accepts his attraction of Flavian is what drives the plot. The twist, when it comes, wasn’t much of a surprise to me.

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“The Artist's Masquerade” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).