The storyline of These Vicious Masks follows Evelyn Wyndham, a young woman who apparently spends most of her time attending fancy parties and complaining about them. Then her sister gets kidnapped, but apparently her family thinks their reputation is too important to do anything about it, so she (1) continues to attend fancy parties and complain about them, and (2) goes looking for her sister only to get rescued from slightest hint of danger by one of her two suitors, and complaining about them too. Evelyn, I get it, fancy parties are overrated and it sucks when the men in your life won't let you search for your sister, but this does not make me want to read about it.

Needless to say, I found this book pretty annoying. (I dunno, maybe it's a young adult thing, but I've read other YA books that were much more interesting or at least inoffensive.)

...until the climactic scene of the book. Post-climax Evelyn (yes I am talking about the story's climax and not any other kind) is practically a different character, and an entirely more interesting one. It took about 80% of the book to get there, but now she has motivation and a plan to do something worth reading about. So in a weird way, I think this book actually kind of sets up the rest of the series reasonably well. I mean, I did not particularly enjoy reading this book, but I am a little interested in seeing what Evelyn gets up to in the next one. So in a way it was kind of okay after all.