I haven’t (yet) got around to reading Alyssa Alexander’s début novel, The Smuggler Wore Silk, but having heard good things about it from friends whose opinions I trust, I was keen to read her latest book, In Bed With a Spy. I was very impressed with the author’s ability to create a fast-paced story and…
What could be better than a historical romance with a good dose of spying thrown in? If the book in question is written by Joanna Bourne, the answer is a resounding “nothing at all”! I’ve fallen in love with many of Bourne’s characters, and was beyond pleased to see that this fifth installment of the…
To say I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Rogue Spy is an understatement of immense proportions. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each of the books in Ms. Bourne’s Spymaster series, and given the revelations about Pax made in The Black Hawk I’ve been on the edge of my seat waiting for his story. Naturally, my expectations were…
This is the third book in the Lord and Lady Spy series using classic (or at least popular) spy stories revamped as romance novels, the first being Lord and Lady Spy (pulling from Mr. and Mrs. Smith), followed by True Spies (from True Lies), and with a short novella or two to round out the…
In All About Romance’s review of The Black Hawk in November 2011, Jean Wan wrote, “Once in a while, during every reader’s literary life, you encounter a book that reminds you why you are a reader. It renews your faith, if faith was lost; it rekindles your interest, if interest waned; and every word, every page,…
When one reads a lot and in a specific genre, after a while, there is seems to be a sameness about books that makes one almost indistinguishable from another. So when I picked up Sherry Thomas’ My Beautiful Enemy, I immediately knew this book was out of the ordinary. Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets…
There has been a long delay between the release of the audio version of Ms. Bourne’s début novel, The Spymaster’s Lady, and audios of the other books in the series, but at last, we’re now able to enjoy this, the prequel to that book and can look forward to listening to the remaining books in…
Romantic suspense is one of the most “difficult to do well” sub genres in romance. If the romance works the suspense is often weak. If the suspense is fabulous, the romance is often unbelievable. But those of us who like romantic suspense got lucky in 2013. Carolyn Crane published two books in her The Associates…
Have you ever been scared to start a sequel? Sometimes the first book in a series just works so well, with all the pieces fitting together, that it’s hard to think of topping it – sometimes it seems hard to even match it! I recently read Assassin’s Gambit, the first of the Hearts and Thrones…
I’ve read and enjoyed the other books in this series, so came to this one with reasonably high expectations of enjoyment, and I’m pleased to report that I wasn’t disappointed. I liked the story and the way the author built the romance between two people for whom life hasn’t been particularly easy, despite the fact…