Three pages into the story and I was in love. Nah, that isn´t even true. It was more love at first page. Didn´t take more than the writing and main character´s wittiness to capture me wholly.

This time whoever is responsible for the marketing did something right. These Vicious Masks is indeed a marvelous clash of Jane Austen and X-Men. Only these gifted ones have far more charm to offer than Wolverine, Mystique and Dr. Xavier could ever muster. Said by a fan of the X-Men series. The setting suits the characters perfectly and I loved the fact that nobody stood out with their special abilities. Everyone is unique and important per se and it kind of made me gloat at Shatter Me in a See? That´s how it´s supposed to be done. way.

I was fascinated and fixated from the first word Evelyn uttered and far too often I couldn´t keep myself from giggling in the exact manner dearest Evelyn would absolutely despise.
Imagine a world where Elizabeth ran into Buffy and they modeled a girl featuring both their best traits and then some. Evelyn is one of those characters who puts every smart reply you ever were proud of having come up with to shame. Yet, she isn´t arrogant or self centered at all. Instead it´s fairly easy to love her right away, because she is caring and able to apologize for her mistakes. And OmG, we actually encounter a heroine here who isn´t preoccupied by love stricken thoughts, although she´s basically surrounded by swoon worthy guys. All the applause.

The story was delightfully entertaining and rather exciting. The authors created a vivid and intriguing atmosphere and the detailed descriptions of Evelyn´s adventures as well as the writing help to look over some plat lapses. Some scenes seemingly did nothing to move the story along, but those were mostly entertaining and hilarious. Therefore I had no problems with them.

That said let´s quickly focus on the romance. It floats in the background, always present, but never too long in the spotlight, exactly behaving as properly as it should. Another positive surprise.
I probably should declare my everlasting love for the pairing of Evelyn and Mr. Kent. I liked Mr. Sebastian Dark and Gloomy all right, but I´m afraid he actually is nothing else than the dark hero with a tragic past Evelyn judges him to be in the beginning. Usually I´m all for those guys, but this time he comes in 2nd place. Reason´s I am completely smitten by Mr. Kent and again I find myself in the embarrassing situation of wishing for a fictional character to knock at my door. Just once I´d like to meet such a witty, quick thinking and charming person who actually is able to turn serious if need be.

It´s high level lamenting, though, because I loved them all.

This story swept me off my feet. It made me laugh, hold my breath, cry and smile all the time and managed to leave room for some Oooows and Aaaahs. There was everything I expect from a good story. So thanks for that one!