Tiana Smith

I haven't read any of Janette Rallison's adult books before, so I was pleasantly surprised that this book was just as fun as her books for teens. There's still the humor and voice that I've grown to associate with her novels, but grown up just a little bit. The main female character still gets in embarrassing situations, but it's handled more maturely. I know this book was rewritten from an earlier edition, which I never read, so I can't really compare them. I know she fleshed out the ending a little bit to make it less abrupt - which I think is good, because even with the rewrite, I felt like the ending was a bit hurried. But, I attribute that more to my desire to learn more and stay with the characters a bit longer than I do to the writing itself. For example, I wanted to know what happened to Landon, Sylvia and AJ. Normally when a book depicts someone (who is single) falling in love with someone who they believe is married, I get an icky feeling in my stomach. But luckily, you still love Slade's character and don't feel like he's icky at all. That's probably because he doesn't do anything about his feelings until he knows that she is in fact, single. Plus, since he is single himself, you can't really fault him for looking at a beautiful woman. The cover of this book is beautiful! Though I was kind of hoping there'd be a huge masquerade ball where she gets to wear a feathered mask - alas, it was not to be. She does go to a masquerade party, but her outfit is ... well, I won't give any spoilers, but it is entirely different. The mask on the cover I think is just to represent the various "masks" people wear throughout the book. The two little girls in this book are adorable, and very true to real life. I could completely see the acting in the way they did (which kind of makes me scared for when my own little one reaches that age ...)