120. A Time Traveler's Masquerade. (McQuivey's Costume Shop Romance). Sian Ann Bessey. 2025. 296 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, historical romance, time travel]
First sentence: Isla Crawford stared at the email on her screen and frowned.
Premise/plot: Isla was supposed to dress up as Wendy (from Peter Pan) for the costume party. However, the owner of the costume shop, Miss McQuivey, insists she tries on another costume first. She is quite insistent not taking no for an answer. As soon as the costume is on and she steps out of the dressing room, Isla finds herself in 1605 just in time to "save" England from Guy Fawkes' deadly plan. She also obviously has to fall in love. Part of saving England is pretending to be engaged to Simon Hartworth (Lord Bancroft). So obviously they have to fall in love for real.
My thoughts: I was disappointed. I will try to explain why. Time travel is one of my favorite sub-genres. Whether it is intentional or unintentional, I tend to enjoy the genre. SO my expectations were high. This is not like any time travel novel I've read. She is ALL about telling anyone/everyone that she is a time traveler from the future. She not only tells about the future in great detail, she tells about the present time (1605) in detail as well. She not only tells about the present she interferes with the present. Almost every 'rule' that accompanies time travel is broken intentionally in this one. The time travel didn't feel fleshed out as such, it seemed like a flimsy plot device. I also didn't care for how the point of view would switch to Guy Fawkes and co-conspirators randomly. I thought those were unnecessary. I did appreciate that it was clean romance. And the romance was enjoyable enough. But I didn't "need" it to be about Guy Fawkes for it to work as a romance.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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