Unmasking Miss Appleby

Baleful Godmother Historical Romance Series, Book 1

By: Emily Larkin

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

"Sexy, unusual, and vastly entertaining. The best historical romance I've read this year." (Anna Campbell, author of the Dashing Widows series)

On her 25th birthday, Charlotte Appleby receives an unusual gift: the ability to change shape.

Penniless and orphaned, she sets off for London to make her fortune as a man. But a position as secretary to Lord Cosgrove proves unexpectedly challenging. Someone is trying to destroy Cosgrove and his life is increasingly in jeopardy.

As Charlotte plunges into London’s backstreets at Cosgrove’s side, hunting his persecutor, she finds herself fighting for her life - and falling in love…

"The best historical romance I have read all year." (Rachel, Heroes & Heartbreakers)

Length: Full-length novel of 94,000 words

Sensuality level: A hot Regency romance with steamy love scenes

Q&A with the author:

How would you describe this series?

It's Regency England with a dash of magic. I hope to take readers on a journey from the glittering ballrooms of the aristocracy to the dark underbelly of Regency England - with passion, danger, adventure, romance, and a little magic thrown into the mix.

Why did you write this series?

I wanted to get my well-bred heroines out of the drawing rooms and put them in the way of adventure and romance. But I didn’t want to write a series where magic is common; I wanted to write a series where only a few characters have magic, and it’s a deep, dark secret, and no one else knows.

How would you describe your writing?

Several reviewers have likened my writing to Georgette Heyer, which is the hugest compliment ever. I adore Georgette Heyer! She’s why I write historical romance, and I reread her books over and over. (If you’ve not read The Grand Sophy, please do so!) I’ve also had readers compare my writing to Courtney Milan and Mary Balogh, which are also massive compliments.

Who would like this series?

This series will appeal to readers who enjoy the historical backdrop of Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen, the emotion of Mary Balogh and Courtney Milan, and the magic of Patricia Rice and Mary Robinette Kowal. Quite a broad range, really!

The ideal reading order would be:

• The Fey Quartet (series prequel)
• Maythorn’s Wish
• Hazel’s Promise
• Ivy’s Choice
• Larkspur’s Quest

The Baleful Godmother series

• Unmasking Miss Appleby
• Resisting Miss Merryweather
• Trusting Miss Trentham
• Claiming Mister Kemp
• Ruining Miss Wrotham
• Discovering Miss Dalrymple

Plus three more interlinked Baleful Godmother series to come.

Happy listening!

©2016 Emily Larkin (P)2018 Emily Larkin

A Delightful Romp

This was an oddest of comedies - requiring a willing suspension of disbelief. I did and was rewarded.

Fun. Entertaining

Fun and engaging. Easy to listen to. Good plot. Not too scary but good mystery. I will read the next.

I loved this book

I loved the story and the narration. The characters are distinct from one another. There is language and sex, both in context and both appropriate. The characters are believable and well differentiated from each other by the narrator. I recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy, romance and erotica.

Loved the story!

When Charlotte/Albin first changed from woman to a man, and was learning about a man's life, the story was hilarious! I loved the naievetty shown, and the straight forward answers given to her by her employer, Marcus, who was also a very troubled Earl! His life has become disastrous, and, with her powers, Charlotte wanted to help him - especially after she'd fallen in love with him.
This was a very adventurous, thrilling story, with scary overtones! I would highly recommend it!!!

Love this

Loved the story but Rosalyn Landor really brings the story and characters to life. I especially liked that magic that wove the plot together. Very sweet ending.

loved it

Very enjoyable. Excellent plot, Strange, funny and exciting. Rosalind Landor the very best as always.

This should be a movie

Hollywood has lose something. O that is to make good movies!! But this one is a grate book that should be a movie it has it all intrigue romance murder grate who done it.this is the second I suggested for a movie.

sweet magic

Sweet story with a touch of magic. Good, flawed people with baggage fell in love under transformative circumstances.

What a great find!!

Rosyln Landor was awesome as usual. 

Really enjoyed this story. I really enjoyed the fresh twist on this as I love historical romance but gets a bit tedious after awhile with same plots/tropes.  This was awesome and will be continuing with series. My only complaint is the ridiculousness of love after 1st orgasm. Otherwise,  everything was epic! I giggled at every "pego" mentioned!! I'll now forever have that in my brain lol.

This is my first from the author and will be reading more.

Okay book, but way too long..

This didn’t even get interesting until Marcus found out about Charlotte, at about 50%. Then they really got busy on finding out who was trying to ruin and then kill Marcus. And when they found out who it was and why he was doing it I was totally disgusted.
And there was a little too much about sex, too much sex talk from Marcus to Charlotte/Christopher, and Charlotte/Christopher’s thoughts about her “pego.” Thirty times it was mentioned. Really, 393 pages was just too much of this book. Halfway through the book all the feelings were one-sided because of Marcus not knowing about her/his shapeshifting.

I will not be reading the next book to see if they get any better because it’s 3 hours and 49 minutes and it costs $7.49. So over $10 for the book, it has 159 pages, and audible. The same price as the 393 as this book. Totally out of line. AND since Audible told me the authors and publishers set the price it makes it twice as bad.

I think they had sex 4 or 5 times and each time it was pretty graphic, so that took up a lot of pages in the book. And the
F-bomb was used 11 times.

As to the narration: Rosalyn Landor did a very good job on all the voices and her emotions were great.