Deception is a regency romance from critically acclaimed author Joan Aiken, who has been compared to Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen.

Deception will delight readers with its lively lucidity and inventive wit. When two identical schoolgirls decide to swap identities, the adventures resulting from this are described in an Austenesque style which equals that other doyenne of the genre, Georgette Heyer -- Amanda Craig * Sunday Express * A winner. The narrative is crisp, the characterization revealing, the ending quite modern in its ambiguity * The Lady * Joan Aiken's Deception is charming and convincing . . . the detail of daily life and the interweaving of characters are fascinating and the whole as witty as befits a master pasticheur of Jane Austen -- Marina Vaizey * Country Life * Joan Aiken has produced in Deception a very good historical romance with a strong and sympathetic period feel * Oxford Times *

Joan Aiken was born in Rye, Sussex in 1924, daughter of the American poet Conrad Aiken, and started writing herself at the age of five. From the 1960s she wrote full time and published over 100 books. Best known for her children's books such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place, she also wrote extensively for adults and published many contemporary and historical novels, including sequels to novels by Jane Austen. In 1969 she won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Whispering Mountain, followed by an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Night Fall in 1972, and was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature in 1999. Joan Aiken died in 2004.