MASKS by Sydney Ashcroft-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 21, 2024

Maria Grayson has sworn off relationships and love, focusing instead on her double life. During the day she works in the family business and lives as a socialite. At night she dons a mask and assumes the identity of Balestra to fight crime on the streets of New York. She balances her two lives as best as she can, but that balance is threatened when a new drug floods the streets of New York…and Tomas Dorrance walks into her life.

Tomas Dorrance arrives in New York on a business trip with his father and twin sister and finds that he’s immediately captivated by Maria. After spending one passionate night with her, Tomas is obsessed and wants more time with her. The more he sees her, the more he wants something more than casual sex.

As Balestra, Maria must stop the spread of a new drug and find and destroy the source. As Maria, she must resist falling for Tomas, who is doing his best to change her mind about love and relationships. Her two lives are on a head-on collision course and Maria doesn’t know if she’ll come out alive or with her heart intact.

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REVIEW: MASKS by Sydney Ashcroft is a stand alone, contemporary, adult, slightly paranormal romance story line focusing on twenty-five year old business woman Maria Grayson, and Brazilian security specialist Tomas Dorrance.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise including violence, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Tomas and Maria) MASKS focuses on the double lives of our story line couple. Maria Grayson is a business woman by day but a supernatural crime fighter by night named Balestra, a crime fighter whose ‘costume’ and ‘mask’ hides her true identity but with the uptick in a new designer street drug, comes a stranger, another crime fighter who is determined to help ‘Balestra’ in her nightly take downs, help Balestra does not want. Meanwhile, as Maria Grayson, our heroine doesn’t do relationships but the arrival of a security specialist Tomas Dorrance pulls Maria into a relationship from which she may never recover when her nightly excursions begin to point the finger at someone she knows. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Maria and Tomas, and the potential fall-out as Maria is willing to walk away when the truth, identities and reality are revealed.

The world building is limited in such a way that it is never revealed as to the nature of the heroine’s enhanced abilities yet the crime fighting ‘costumed’ hero is a familial legacy passed on from generation to generation. Very little is known to the reader; the inherent gifts and traditions are just there but never revealed, and in this I was somewhat confused and lost as to the precipitating factors of the who, what and why.

The relationship between Maria and Tomas begins as a ‘friends with benefits’ as Maria doesn’t do relationships, and refuses to accept more than one-night together. Tomas is persistent in his desire for our story line heroine but secrets revealed threaten the growing love between our story line couple. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

We are introduced to Maria’s PA and friend Gayle, as well as Maria’s extended family: grandfather Wayne Grayson; her father Rickard Grayson, and mother Helen Martinelli, as well as Tomas’ sister Caroline, and their father Antonio Dorrance. The requisite evil has many faces.

MASKS is a story of betrayal and vengeance, power and control, secrets and lies, family, forgiveness, acceptance and love. The premise is intriguing but left too many questions; the romance is intense but I didn’t feel any palpable attraction; the characters are energetic and dynamic. The story is left open-ended, perhaps the author has plans for something more.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy