Sir Thorogood has the London society in an uproar. With his cartoons he's apparently ruffled a feather too many. The Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, entrusts the new "leader" of the Liar's Club, Dalton Montmorency, Lord Etheridge, to find the scoundrel and bring his drawing days to a halt.Desperate to gain the respect of the Liars after Simon Raines' retirement, Dalton takes on the task by himself. Posing as Thorogood, a dandified fop, he has all intentions of exposing the real cartoonist and bring him to justice.The problem is, Sir Thorogood is no dandy. He is in fact a she.Widowed Clara Simpson (yes, the one from The Pretender is justifiably outraged at the impostor pretending to be Sir Thorogood. She started drawing the cartoons in order to expose the corruption in the powerful of the ton and the impostor is stealing all the fame and glory. Now, she is determined to unmask him. So, she sheds her "widow-y disguise", acts like a ninny, shrieks and laughs at idiocies like a fishwife, and follows him everywhere, getting mightily on his nerves.All the while, the two live another secret life, she as Rose, the neighbor's maid, he as Monty, a midnight burglar. And while Rose and Monty fall in love, Sir Thorogood and Crazy-Widow Simpson dislike each other with a passion.But what happens when Dalton and Clara meet at last? Without pretenses, masks, and secrets?While I quite enjoyed the prequel, The Impostor failed to rise to the occasion. While the premise was excellent and intriguing, I soon grew bored of the intricacies Ms. Bradley concocted to "heighten the suspense", and soon the appeal of the dual triple identity wore off.The leads frankly left me cold, their characters were bland and there was no real depth to them. Why was it necessary for Sir Thorogood to be a parrot-color-wearing fop? Why was Clara acting like a loon when she was with him?The romantic sub-plot suddenly took center stage and the mystery seemed to be forgotten. The lines between identities blurred, the two suddenly didn't know who they loved, who they despised, sometimes they loved who they despised and sometimes despised who they loved. It took forever to bring this sub-plot to its arc, then it got complicated again, and after twenty or so pages all was good and well. Instant HEA.Also, for two such observant creatures, a spy and an artist who made a living by observing people, Dalton and Clara were incredibly dense. Their inability to see beyond their disguise was jarring.To top this off, there are quite a few point that just didn't make sense. Clara's reasoning after she discovers who Monty is, for example. Plenty of loose ends, too, mostly revolving around Lord Reardon (I probably ruined it all by reading To Wed A Scandalous Spy first and knew the deal) and the whole spy/mystery plot.Not a great read, but still worth a try, at least to keep up with the series. The supporting cast makes up for quite a lot.
Dalton Montmorency is the new leader of the Liar's Club, the other Liars aren't keen to take his orders. They don't know that he was one of the Royal Four (that's a group of super-secret intelligence operatives ABOVE the secret Liar's Club)Plus he's down several men. So when Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister, orders that the Liars unearth the identity of the political cartoonist Sir Thorogood, whose cartoons are touching on very sensitive topics, it's on Dalton to handle it. Oh, and there's another commission—to look into the activities of Lord Wadsworth, who seems a bit suspicious.Dalton decides to pose as Sir Thorogood, on the assumption that the actual ST will object to someone else taking the credit for the popular cartoons. Unfortunately, Dalton managed to piss off his costumer/valet and so he finds himself in shiny crimson breeches, mustard-yellow waistcoat, and plum tailcoat with matching plumed tricorne.Widowed Clara Simpson is blending into the wallpaper at a ball when Sir Thorogood is announced as a guest. That makes her sit up and take notice. When she sees the pretender in all his clashing splendor, she's determined to expose him for the fraud he is. Because SHE is the TRUE Sir Thorogood. She seeks her sister-in-law's help and, with the help of cosmetics and an excruciatingly tight corset, she approaches the impostor.The first time they meet, Clara's powdered, rouged and corseted until her boobs are propped up around her chin. The second time, she's standing in for Lord Wadsworth's overworked and sickly maid, using the opportunity to gather more material for her cartoons, and Dalton is posing as a masked minion of the law, who wants to have a look at the papers in Lord W's safe.So now he's met the obnoxiously tittering Clara Simpson and the comely and not so loyal maid Rose, and she's met the fake Sir Thorogood and the edgy and secretive Monty-the-thief. If you're wondering why either of them are confused, I wondered, too. He' s got silvery eyes—hard to imagine a lot of men who match that description, and he has seen her actual face—and he's a trained spy—even with all the cosmetics and boob propping, how does he fail to identify her? It's sort of explained at the end and I was caught up enough in the espionage that I believed it even tho it was a bit stretchy.The reveals are satisfying and infuriating (setting up a hero for a future book—a man who sacrifices dearly) and I had another couple reasons to detest Lord Liverpool (who really needs a humiliating comeuppance). But I also had another couple reasons to like this author. 4 stars.
What do You think about The Impostor (2003)?
Ah!! Querida toyaca Que sería de mi vida sin una como tu!Brillante, fantástica, genial, única!!Esta novela lo tiene todo, si la historia de Simon me había complacido. Esta, me djo sin palabras. me la he leido de un tirón, y esta perfecta, una intriga bien llevada y con dos protagonistas que se graban en la memoria. Dalton, oh! Dalton es perfecto,cada palabra escrita dicha por él es digna de doblegar el corazón de cualquiera. Clara es una mujer con la que todos podemos formar un vinculo y sentirnos identificada.Brillante Celeste Bradley, lo hizo de nuevo. :)
—Celestita Giron
Quelle déception !J'avais adoré le tome 1 de cette série et j'attendais avec impatience de lire la suite.Celle-ci n'est malheureusement pas à la hauteur de mes attentes.Le début était pourtant très prometteur : Dalton et Clara étaient drôles, les premières scènes étaient vraiment réussies, couinantes et drôles. Malheureusement, l'auteur n'a pas su exploiter la situation créée.Le quiproquo initial est trop long, il aurait en outre fallu continuer à jouer sur leur rivalité.Au lieu de ça, les scènes tournent au ridicule et les personnages deviennent niais (Dalton appelle Clara : ma rose, mon bouton de rose, etc.).J'espère que celeste bradley a redressé la barre pour les tomes suivants.
—Julia
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 Clar
—Katie Blackman
