Free Playing The Jack Developed By Mary Brown Accessible As Mobi

runaway orphan is picked up by a group of travelling players led by the mysterious Jack, With Fat Annie, largest woman on earth, and a troupe of dwarf acrobats, Sprat soon learns the tricks of the trade.
. .
Later, snatched from the streets of London, a new arrival at a notorious brother is taught some very different tricks.
. .
But even Sprat cannot play charades for ever, . .
Colourful, fastmoving, original and above all readable, I'm deleting my review and pasting this perfect description from amazon reader, Lisa Jensen:

Mary Brown's vivid and ripping romantic adventure has justifiably become a cult favorite among thinking women everywhere.
In rural England of the early Napoleonic era, teenage runaway Zoe, disguised as a boy, is discovered in a ditch by a ragged troupe of traveling performers.
Taken in and educated in stagecraft, cunning, and the school of life, eager young Zoe is spellbound by the troupe's leaderwily, enigmatic, flamboyant Jack, a complex, and conflicted man at war with himself who harbors as many secrets as Zoe herself.
From the rollicking start of their relationship sitelinkon the road, Zoe evolves through a few more incarnations including boudoir seductress, while the ohsofallible, yet noblehearted Jack drops a few masks of his own, on their way to a climax full of skullduggery and redemption.
Lively dialogue, deeply faceted characters who never stop growing, and a riveting pas de deux between wellmatched romantic partners make this an unforgettable classic.


Link: sitelink amazon. com/gp/richpub/sylt I first read this book in, got it out of the library in Moundsville WV, I loved the book and have thought about it many times over the years but never found another copy to borrow once we moved from that area.
It never occurred to me until last week to search for the book on Amazon but lo and behold, I was able to get a copy for one cent plusshipping.
I was happy to pay it! It is a discarded library book from Little Valley NY,

I am currently rereading the book and I like it just as much now as I did then.
I remember back in, my family visited Busch Gardens in VA soon after I finished this book and I was terrified to go to the area that was based on the Middle Ages! The happenings in the book were that real to me.


If you can locate a copy, I would recommend giving it a try, I first read this book when I was inth grade, have reread it periodically and it's probably time for another read.
No great literature here, but a good story, The first time I read this book it was a soft back edition, The cover illustration was of a dusty road and a caravan I'm the distance, As such, I had no idea Sprat was Zoe and the revelation shook me to my very core and since then the book has remained my favourite.
The first romance book i ever read, overyears ago! I found it for,at a second hand book store, It was the best.i ever spent! Very good, Set in lateth century England, Great story, plenty of twists, Kind of like the Quincunx in that lots of the awful things of that period of time happened to the protagonist, but at least it had a happy ending and made the reader seem smart, as we figured out what was going on much sooner than the protagonist, for the most part.
Highly recommended read, but better if read in a short time frame, I had to start over after months had passed, as I needed some of the pieces that Id lost of the plot.
I really wanted to love this book, and at the beginning,I did! However, I honestly feel this book just needed some more old fashioned editing.
Thepages after Sprat leaves the road could have been cut with no real change to the story, It was an enjoyable read, but I don't think I'll be rushing to reread this one, Great story, very well told, and I enjoyed every minute of it, staying up late for three nights because it was so engrossing.
Ms Brown described the air, the terrain, and the particularities ofEngland so that I could see and feel myself in the scenes with Sprat and Jack.


I was never at a loss for who was doing what, and where, as I was in the book I had just read, Plaint for Provence, by Jean Gill, which I could hardly force myself to finish.
Ms Brown constructs, with terrific character development, plot, and atmosphere, a delightful read, DNF
I found this book to be horrifically boring and dated, On top of that, the writing style didn't appeal to me, Characterization is poor, and the plot is predictable in the extreme, Maybe if I'd read ityears ago it would have seemed more interesting, What a stunning novel. Why hadn't I picked it up sooner Because of the horrid cover! I stayed up til:am today reading it.
I loved Jack and Zoe's dynamic, but the second half wasn't nearly as good as the first, Basically from the time she ran off and got forced into the brothel to the time she stayed with Ms.
Jestyn was rather lackluster. I missed Jack amp Jill scenes! And it was kind of predictable in the second half, But such a unique story and the most memorable historical romance I have read! I love, love, LOVE this book and have read it numerous times.
I recommend it to everyone I meet, and even some people I don't meet, causing many of them to consider taking out restraining orders so I will leave them alone.
My favorite book, ever, and one I return to every few years to reread, My personal copy was a library edition shipped abroad from London almostyears ago, I'm glad to see this book is more widely available,

I don't want to give much of the plot away, as I came to this narrative intentionally blind I'm a big fan of the author, but I will say this: if you are up for a whirlwind adventure with sweeping romance and a protagonist you can root for who grows across the pages, this is the book for you! Sorry, I did not like this one.
I couldn't even finish it,

When I could continually guess what was going to happen next, I couldn't read any farther, The main character frustrated me to no end, Can anyone be that dumb Yes, I guess so, since we consider Wrestlemania and the Kardashians entertainment,

The only reason this didn't get a one was that the narrator was coherent, I found this book over a decade ago at a library sale a paperback buried in a bin, I picked it up and started reading and literally couldn't put it down,

Twelve years later it remains on my shelf and comes out every year or two to be read and enjoyed again.


While I don't usually read this genre, I love the voice, the protagonist, the unique world these characters live in.
And Jack! Oh, my lovely, lovely man Jack,

Mary Brown who are you And did you ever write anything else Such a fun book! I read this on holiday years ago and and really enjoyed it.
I reread it a couple of years later and didn't like it half as much, but it's not bad if you enjoy historical novels.
I discovered this book in the library when I was very young and I must have taken it out a dozen times.
Over the years I forgot the title and the author, but parts of the story always stayed with me and I finally tried to look it up again.
I got excited when I finally found it and paid a disgusting, foolish amount to get my hands on a tattered, mustysmelling library copy, but rereading it made me happy so life is good.


The story is divided intoparts and it's the first halfamp: Sprat and Zoe that I fell in love with.
Zoe is a nice young orphan who gets swept up into a traveling circus, At first she's pretending to be a boy named Sprat and she's bossed around by the leader of the motley troupe, Jack.
This must be the book that kickstarted my lifelong fondness for crossdressing heroines and traveling caravans there has never been another that did it all so well, so perfectly.
They have fun adventures: playacting, fortunetelling, being on the road, Jack amp Sprat's relationship is full of crazy antics and intense conflicts, like when Sprat rescues an abused dog or later on when Jack gets mad that Sprat's flirting with girls.
The side characters were great too! I adored Annie, the world's fattest lady, and her big rivalry with another fat lady for the title of world's heaviest was all kinds of awesome.


Jack was something special, He wasn't your generic hero at all he wasn't handsome or rich and powerful, As the leader of a traveling troupe, he had to be crafty and manipulative a consummate showman, He was thrifty and sneaky and practical, He was quite physical with Sprat when he thought she was boy, and even afterwards he was still pretty heavyhanded whenever he thought she needed a lesson.
I loved the way the book handled their sexual interactions it wasn't magical or overblown so much as it was realistic and pretty hot for when I read it as a preteen, heh.
I liked that Jack is about as unromantic as you can get, and he only tries to keep from taking advantage of Sprat to a certain point and then shrugs and says to hell with it.
Their first time in bed together, although they didn't actually have sex and Jack left her "mostly" still a virgin, may or may not have been an awakening for young me.


Frankly, I wish the first part went longer, Everything changes too soon, just as Jack and Sprat start getting into a deeper relationship, The next part Gemini of this book was so strange, . . It was like an entirely different book, I didn't understand it as a kid so I skipped it, Upon rereading it as an adult, I still find no pleasure in the this section at all it's like some weird blur that doesn't quite fit with the first part.
Zoe leaves Jack and the circus, joins some depraved brothel specializing in child prostitution, and ends up being framed for murder by an incestuous bitch.
Throughout her whole time here, Zoe acts like a very slowminded, innocent, gullible idiot, which is disappointing because you'd think she'd have learned to be a bit sharper after living with Jack.


So if you're like me, I'd advise you to skim over the whole Gemini section, The last part Esther gets much better, It doesn't recapture the magic of the first half, but it does become interesting in a very Bronte way.
Actually it is very strongly reminiscent of Jane Eyre, with Zoe going to live as a paid companion in a large, dark estate with a lockedup madwoman.
There's a fire, attempted murder, tragedy, gothic secrets revealed, etc, Personally, I loved Jane Eyre so I found this melodramatic section to be quite enjoyable, although again an unexpected departure from the lighter, adventurous tone of the first half.


Jack amp Zoe's reunion was both satisfying and unsatisfying, I can't complain because the way they finally came together was charming, except I wanted to see more of them together.
It was in keeping with Jack's character, the way he tried to get her to come back to him but lost his temper and stormed away.
I adored his imperfections, and the fact that he's not a romantic person so he doesn't say sweet things or sweep her off her feet.
Instead he just acts like his pragmatic, sarcastic self and ends up fighting with her, His next attempt was perfect, but too short! Mary Brown pls, Why no epilogue! I wanted more Jack amp Sprat, A few hundred more pages wouldn't have been awful,

So I saw there was a second book in this "Historical Duo" thing and got hyped, but further investigation showed that Jack and Sprat aren't really featured in it.
Apparently getting some good deets on that book is a quest on par with searching for the Holy Grail.
Maybe one day I'll get my hands on it, but I don't really need it because I have my own copy of Playing the Jack now and can just reread the first and last parts as many times as I want.
Great book despite that weird middle section it's on my treasures shelf, .