{"id":2885,"date":"2013-09-25T09:45:20","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/?p=2885"},"modified":"2013-09-24T14:10:46","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T18:10:46","slug":"book-review-the-impersonator-by-mary-miley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2013\/09\/book-review-the-impersonator-by-mary-miley.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review : The Impersonator by Mary Miley"},"content":{"rendered":"

[amazon_link id=”1250028167″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]\"The[\/amazon_link]Title : The Impersonator
\nAuthor : Mary Miley
\nGenre : Adventure\/Mystery
\nPublisher : Minotaur Books
\nPublish date : September 17, 2013
\nPages : 368
\nSource : Publisher\/Netgalley
\nRating : 4\/5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leah Randall is a stage actress in vaudeville in the early 1900s. When she is mistaken for a heiress by \u201cUncle Oliver\u201d she brushes off the incident and the related unsavory job offer. When her finances get strained though, she contacts Oliver Beckett. In short order she finds herself impersonating wealthy heiress Jessamyn Carr, who\u2019s been missing for 7 years. Jessie would now be turning 21, the time when she comes into a large inheritance, and Uncle Oliver has his eye on siphoning off the monies with Leah\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

Leah, well-coached, must stand up to hostile scrutiny from the trust-holders of Jessie\u2019s estate as well as Jessie\u2019s cousins \u2013 the very same cousins who would stand to inherit in Jessie\u2019s absence. Using her wit and resourcefulness she seems to be doing well enough, but when she finds herself subject to more than one \u201caccident\u201d, she realizes that there might more to the real Jessie\u2019s disappearance than meets the eye.<\/p>\n

This book features a very likeable plucky protagonist. Leah Randall has had a hard life, always living life by the skin of her teeth, yet she doesn\u2019t hold any grudges. She is a willing partner in Uncle Oliver\u2019s elaborate deceptive scheme, but her inherent good nature turns her into an underdog worth rooting for. Leah faces many unpredictable challenges as she plays out a role every single day, but has her wits about her, and succeeds in making some friends even in such a situation. The other characters in the book are also well-etched, from the nervous aunt and her large brood, to the nasty cousin who seems to know that she is not Jessie.<\/p>\n

This is a fast-paced book, with a lot happening. Yes, the plot is a tad jaded; the doppelganger theme has been much used in films. But Miley manages to make it fresh again, and I have to commend her on making an essentially predictable plot work so well. There were some implausible coincidences in Leah\u2019s favor (and they reminded me of Nancy Drew\u2019s sleuthing adventures) but they were minor irritants, so vested was I in Leah\u2019s well-being. The story is told in simple words, no elaborate flourishes here, but even so works very well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Impersonator\u201d is a good mix of \u201cpleasant reading\u201d and \u201csuspense novel\u201d. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[amazon_link id=”1250028167″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][\/amazon_link]Title : The Impersonator Author : Mary Miley Genre : Adventure\/Mystery Publisher : Minotaur Books Publish date : September 17, 2013 Pages : 368 Source : Publisher\/Netgalley Rating : 4\/5 Leah Randall is a stage actress in vaudeville in the early 1900s. When she is mistaken for a heiress by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85,71,53,3,58,105,45,52,4,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-85","category-4_star_rating","category-arc","category-books","category-crime","category-macmillan","category-mystery","category-netgalley","category-review","category-women"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"[amazon_link id=”1250028167″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][\/amazon_link]Title : The Impersonator Author : Mary Miley Genre : Adventure\/Mystery Publisher : Minotaur Books Publish date : September 17, 2013 Pages : 368 Source : Publisher\/Netgalley Rating : 4\/5 Leah Randall is a stage actress in vaudeville in the early 1900s. When she is mistaken for a heiress by…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2911,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/2911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}