Book Blurb:
Jack and Annalisa are married only five months when, enroute to France, a shipwreck separates them. On different shores, each believes the other dead. But when Annalisa learns Jack is alive, she returns to America and discovers much has changed. After a betrayal, she flees town as her alter ego, Benjamin Cavendish, and joins the Continental Army.
Unbeknownst to Annalisa, Jack has also joined the Continentals, harboring shameful secrets from his days in mourning. Against the backdrop of war with Britain, façades mount between Jack and Annalisa, and the merry minuet of their adolescence dissolves into a masquerade of deceit, one which threatens to part them forever.
Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/dFUxeA
Author Bio:
LINDSEY S. FERA is a born and bred New Englander, hailing from the North Shore of Boston. As a member of the Topsfield Historical Society and the Historical Novel Society, she forged her love for writing with her intrigue for colonial America by writing her debut novel, Muskets & Minuets, a planned trilogy. When she’s not attending historical reenactments or spouting off facts about Boston, she’s nursing patients back to health. Muskets & Masquerades is her sophomore novel.
Editorial Review:
Muskets and Masquerades takes readers on a turbulent journey through the American Revolutionary War. Readers are transported through bloody battles brimming with the violence caused by bayonets and musket fire. They are then hauled into the world of fancy ballrooms where dazzling masquerades take place, filled with matchmaking and gossip.
Readers find themselves on the side of the Patriot cause, sympathizing with the main characters, Annalisa and Jack. The plot revolves around the trials and tribulations Annalisa and Jack go through as they fight for their country and for their relationship, both of which are under fire from outside forces. They find their lives devolve into utter mayhem when the boat they are sailing on to reach France is shipwrecked. Jack was meant to be journeying there to join the Committee of Secret Correspondence to aid the Continental Army and the cause. However, the captain of the ship is discovered to be a turncoat who never intended to reach France. Divine Providence also wreaks havoc as a storm destroys the ship, leaving Jack to be captured by a British boat while Annalisa finds herself in Calais with no memory of how she came to be there.
As Annalisa is trying to piece her life back together, Jack is being tortured by the British to reveal who he is, where he was going and why he was going there. Readers feel Annalisa’s suffering as she desperately tries to remember who she is through the author’s writing, “Each attempt to uncover her memories appeared as black voids; no faces, names, or places. Not even her own. Just the vacancy of a life once lived, now unknown.”
While Annalisa and Jack are both undergoing their own hardships, the war blusters on. Freedom is a theme which is interwoven throughout the entire novel. It is the crux around which the novel revolves. Not only is Muskets and Masquerades about American freedom from the British, but it is also about individual freedom. It is about being a sovereign human with the abilities and rights to make one’s own choices and not be forced into decisions based on Society and expectations of the time. This is evident through Annalisa’s thoughts about why she wants to join the Continental Army, “The war I should be fighting with them. Freedom is worth fighting for— it is the only thing worth fighting for. And I’ve truly nothing left for me here…”
Loss of freedom is thus marked as one of the worst potentialities that could befall a human being. This is made clear through the horrendous torture Jack suffers when held captive. Moreover, it is reflected in Annalisa’s thoughts about the wickedness of the slave trade, “It mattered little that Addy had been free for decades, working for Mamma and Papa as long as Annalisa could remember; or that Sarah had been free, and well-educated while in the service of the Duchess of Devonshire. At one point, they weren’t free, and knowing that was the cruellest truth of all.”
Another significant theme is that of the roles of men and women at the time and the heavy expectations of society. In the late 1700’s the gender roles and expectations were strict and unwavering. Women were expected to bear children and remain at home, whilst men were expected to go to war and fight. Annalisa, however, falls in between both categories. She wants to marry, have children and raise a family whilst also fighting for the country that she loves. Despite the restrictions she faces, she pursues both dreams. Her bitterness towards the expectations of women is revealed through her thoughts after she has a miscarriage, “Annalisa eyed her musket hanging over the hearth. She always supposed womanhood would be too much, and here she was, a young woman, husbandless and childless, having survived miscarriage most certainly at the hands of her own sister. As a man, she would never have endured such hardships in the militia. Only different ones, I suppose.”
In order to contain both dreams, Annalisa has a secret. For her to join the war efforts, Annalisa sports men’s attire and disguises herself as a man. Her alias, Benjamin Cavendish is eulogized in the margins of her poetry book, “Benjamin Cavendish knows me Better than Anyone in this Worlde. He is my Muse, my sence for living, my Sun in daytime and my Moon at night. He shall be Me, as I shall be him. One day, we shall live as One.” The author captures her deep desire to integrate both sides of herself into this one identity.
While there is so much death and destruction in the lives of the characters, there are moments of solace and reprieve. Annalisa and Jack’s good friend, Quinnapin is a native American and believes in the Great Spirit who watches over and cares for those who have passed on. His words to Annalisa are those of comfort after her miscarriage, “Death is a reminder of the cycle of life, Miss Anna. As it is destructive, it is also a renewal…like planting seeds in winter for them to grow come spring.” Hope is something they all cling onto in their own ways, whether that is hope for a better world, hope to survive battle, or hope to start a family, it remains steadfast despite the obstacles they face.
Overall, Muskets and Masquerades is about the tearing apart of countries, relationships and even individual souls and then stitching them back together again. There is no character in the novel who does not remain unchanged after all they have been through. They are all touched and transformed in their own ways by the events that come to pass in their lives. I loved how the themes were able to stretch on a global scale but also be brought down on an individual level. The writing was evocative and truly transported the reader into a different world. I would like to extend my gratitude to the author for crafting such a fantastic piece of historical fiction.
*****
“Muskets and Masquerades” receives 4.5 stars from The Historical Fiction Company
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