Other reviews at The Book Babe's Reads.
I am not Mack; I am only Meg.
Honestly, I'm not at all sure of what I want to say about Love Disguised. I wish I could tell you that it was brilliant, or that the characters blew me away... but that would be a lie. While I liked this one, I didn't find it particularly or interesting or ground-breaking.
I really liked it in the beginning; it had a certain charm about it, what with all the characters referring to themselves in third person, and the alternating points of view. But the more I read, the more I started to notice things. Like the fact that the writing style itself was a bit odd. I couldn't really get into it, and I never figured out why!
The alternating points of view (though a plus in the beginning) soon became a hindrance. They sort of bled together, and I couldn't differentiate Will's voice or Meg's in all the ruckus; which I felt was a shame. As characters, they were okay, maybe even good; but as narrators they lacked a certain wit. I mixed them up more times that I could count!
Will had a wonderful sense of humor, and I enjoyed his jokes... but how could someone so happy write such tragic literature? I never quite understood that, though I did like this "lighter" Will Shakespeare. There is, however, something that happens towards the end that I assume makes him the "tortured" man that we see in his work. (Something that I respect his decision about.)
Meg was also a good character. She had spunk, and I found her to be very brave. She wasn't whiny at all, but her friend Violetta was terrible! I couldn't stand her constant whining and bossing. And her man? Don't even get me started on how lovesick and annoying he was!
While I found several parts of this book to be rather entertaining, I didn't believe the story. *gasp* The idea that a woman could be friends with a man as a man? No. Several times throughout the book Mack was recognized to be Meg, and yet Will never saw it? That doesn't make sense to me, but it was a minor issue.
Another minor issue that I had was the dialect. I felt like it wasn't exactly authentic for that time frame. People from poorer areas would speak in a less polished tongue than those from richer areas, but that "tongue change" wasn't shown. It was easy to read, though.
All in all, I just didn't love this one. I liked it, and that's all you'll be getting from me on the subject.
